I know this may seem somewhat of a moot letter at this time, but let’s just think for a minute that Palm can actually survive the next six months without a radical shift in corporate policy, or a takeover. With Palm’s demise all but being written in stone across the Internet and various news markets (financial, tech, etc.), the fact of the matter is that the company, as of right now, looks more and more like a dying beast every minute that passes.

Palm has, of late, expressed an interest in staying independent from other companies, whether it be through takeover/buyout, merger, whatever. But, Palm has also stated that they would be open to licensing the powerful WebOS platform to other manufacturers. This would be a radical shift in the company’s new policy. It worked for Palm OS, but even, the company nearly collapsed just a few years ago.

In 2009, the company showed promise of surviving indefinitely. Palm unveiled a powerful and innovative operating system, one that managed multiple tasks effortlessly, amongst other things, and an all new handset for this platform to debut on, the Pre. Unfortunately, after some manufacturing defects/QA failures, the product was seen as new and “hip”, but not as structurally sound as other had hoped. While the Pixi helped this somewhat, with its smaller yet sturdy form factor, the fact is the Palm product line of 2009 barely stood up to the competition it faced last year. To top it off, here we are, more than a third of the way through 2010, and all we have had is small, minor revisions to the hardware that was demonstrated a year ago. A company, especially one as fragile as Palm, cannot survive like this.

I’m afraid that the next hardware introduction will, to be blunt, not satisfy the needs of the consumers or the critics. I’m afraid Palm designed hardware for the current generation, which, if and when a new iPhone or Android device is unveiled, will once again be a whole step behind the “latest and greatest”.

Frankly, outside of software, Palm is no longer innovative. As I have stated numerous times in this letter alone, WebOS is a powerful and capable platform, it’s just the hardware is not up to par with it. Consumers like devices that are elegant and modern, not hunks of black plastic. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure your industrial designers are competent, it’s just they haven’t exactly caught up to the new area of smartphone appeal.

But there is hope. This hope does not come in the form of a takeover, or a WebOS licensing deal (more on this later). In comes from within the company itself. It is quite sad when several executive staff members just get up and leave, and stock options are paid out to keep others around. Luckily, you still have a company left, and one that has shown it is ready to survive and take on the behemoth market they’re in.

The first thing to do is start from scratch on hardware. Forget the Pre, forget the Pixi. Yes, they had some cool features (fast processor (for 2009…), a wonderful keyboard on your lower end device, Wi-Fi), but you need to build a device that encompasses everything a consumer looks for: elegant on the outside, powerful and capable on the inside, and a wonderful platform to top it all off.

Licensing WebOS is not the solution. Why? It will all but certainly remove you from the hardware game, creating a massive deficit in your bottom line. Let’s take this scenario: you decide to license WebOS to a company like HTC, who already has a major foothold in both the Android and Windows Mobile markets. Now, imagine a device such as the HTC Incredible running WebOS. How would you expect a device like the Pre to match up against that? It would be near impossible to set yourselves up in a way that will allow you to remain profitable not just on the software end, but on the hardware one as well.
There is still time to save Palm. It is not time to give up. After all, you’ve been in this situation before. And guess what, you made it out alive and in the best shape in years. It’s time to do it again.

Thank You,

Connor M. Wilkins

First off, I must apologize for having not published anything lately. I have been quite busy, as I will outline in a later post. But, in honor of Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard nearing its release date (this Friday, the 28th), I have decided to write an article on both this OS upgrade, as well as Microsoft’s Windows 7.

There seems to be a major argument amongst the fanboys of each party (Microsoft and Apple) over their new, upcoming operating systems. Some argue that each is just a glorified ‘service pack’ for the OS, others claim that it is one of the best OS upgrades ever to come about. But, we need to set the record straight. In my eyes, from a neutral perspective (a user of both OSs), both of these upgrades are worth the wait, and their price tag. Let me explain.

You see, Windows Vista wasn’t exactly the most popular release of Windows ever. Some would even claim it was worse than Windows ME over nine years ago. But, while Vista did have issues with excessive resource usage, driver problems (which fall onto the shoulders of device manufacturers, not Microsoft), and all around dislike, it was still a stable and modern operating system. Windows Vista, in my opinion, really began the push to 64 bit computing.

With Windows XP, computers were running on abysmal amounts of RAM (128MB was the minimum, I believe). While many complained that Vista needed such a large amount of memory (forcing many to upgrade or purchase a new machine), this widespread ‘memory boost’ helped to make the case that the 64 bit computing revolution, at least for consumers, was beginning. Now that consumer-level systems were supporting RAM in excess of 4GB, OEMs shipped systems with 64 bit versions of Windows Vista.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not sure how many people actually upgraded their systems to move from XP to Vista. Most machines manufactured before 2005 (2 years prior to Vista) would most likely be unable to run Vista, at least acceptably. Following this mentality, I think it is safe to say a large number of current Vista users are on that particular Windows version because of a new computer purchase.

So, for costs purposes, the consumer (in a way), got their copy of the OS for free. Yes, a large number of Vista users didn’t even pay for the OS they are using, the OEM did, and it was calculated into the price, just like Macs.

Windows 7 fixes a lot of gripes people had with Vista. It also adds a number of new features into the mix, such as touch capabilities, Aero Peek, Device Stage, and more. But, it’s not a major OS release. In combination with Vista, Windows 7 is in many ways a single OS: Vista, you could argue, was the perpetual beta of Windows 7.

That’s not like Mac OS X Leopard. Leopard brought hundreds of new features into the mix, and was, for the most part, stable. But what it had in end-user features, it lacked in core power. There was no global 64 bit support; each application was limited to 4GB of RAM. There was also no multicore processor advancements made to the OS, so it was up to the application to support a particular processor with multiple cores.

But, with Snow Leopard, Apple has brought these particular features and enhancements to the forefront, essentially setting the platform up for major advancements in the future. In essence, the Leopard and Snow Leopard combination is strikingly similar, in a way, to the Vista and 7 team.

With a price of $130 for Leopard, and now $30 for Snow Leopard, OS X users are (potentially) looking at a $160 price tag for upgrading to the newest OS. Those Windows users looking to upgrade to 7 are looking at similar prices.

In many ways, Windows Vista is the Snow Leopard of Microsoft, except it came two and half years earlier. Also in many ways, Leopard is the Windows 7 of Apple. It provides the end user features and fixes that people want, but the under the hood changes are minimal. There was no revolution with Leopard; Snow Leopard may be that push that the industry needs to say goodbye to 32 bit entirely.

This article may seem poorly worded and described, I know. It’s very vague, but the ideas are there. The two platforms, for the first time in almost three years, are going to be equal again. The technological and feature fields have been leveled again. I have already pre-ordered my Snow Leopard upgrade disk, and I will be first in line to pick up the Windows 7 Family Pack on October 22nd.

Over the past few weeks, the Windows vs. Mac OS X/Microsoft vs. Apple battle has been heating up. With both Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard nearing completion (and Windows 7 even being rumored to have been released to manufacturing this week), the fanboys and fangirls on each side of the war are once again at it, calling the release of each of the operating systems ‘service packs’, ‘the update that should have already been’, and ‘failure fixer’ (in regards to Windows). Yesterday, Microsoft’s COO Kevin Turner announced that, “we’re going to have some retail stores opened up that are opened up right next door to Apple stores this fall.” While this may seem like a taunt, and from some vantage points a downright dirty move to pull, Microsoft is clearly challenging Apple’s presence in the retail industry. And while Microsoft has its own crazed supporters, who, almost just as often as Apple fanatics, spew untrue or unsupported facts regarding their operating system or someone else’s, the company behind OS X, and it’s more radical user base, often exhibit an intensity and forcefulness about their software that it is sickening.

Over the past eight years, Mac OS X has grown into a powerful operating system, and its dramatic rise in market share has proven that. But, despite this rapid increase in support (especially over the last two to three years), the core group of supports, the Apple fanboys (I use that in a unisex fashion), are quite a large, rambunctious, and even harsh bunch. But, let me make myself clear: this article is not targeted at the casual Apple user; they are not the problem. The true issue here is the radical base of supports; the people who believe everything Apple says, does, or releases, is right, fair, and brilliant.

When it comes to Apple’s operating system, Mac OS X, the radical users argue that the software is all about “the experience”. They use points such as “Macs don’t get viruses”, or “It just works”, when in all actuality, neither of those points are true. If everything “Just works”, why is Apple updating its software constantly? If it just works, shouldn’t the Finder that so many people complain about have any issues? Shouldn’t the user interface be consistent and fast, not needing optimization? If everything just works, why do I need to search for drivers for a particular web cam or camera for it to work on the system? I hate when these extreme users argue with the “It just works” statement. Let’s be frank: every operating system out there has its problems, as well as its strengths. But, to argue that everything works flawlessly all of the time is just a lie.

Secondly, when diehard Mac OS X supporters argue that the software has “the experience”, they are making generalizations. Yes, it may work for you, or any of your other Mac buddies, but let’s be frank: people don’t like the Dock. They don’t like the window system. They don’t like the fact that their applications from Windows don’t work (without any sort of virtualization/dual boot scenario). The experience belongs to each of us, and you cannot claim that it works for everyone. To say that, you are implying that one thing can fit all of us. If that was true, we would all be living under one form of government, everyone would be straight (in terms of sexual orientation), and we would all support the same causes and positions. Unfortunately, that’s not true. Yes, for some “the experience” is what sells the software. For some, “the experience” doesn’t really matter for things such as email and web browsing. But, for others, “the experience” isn’t the experience that they care to use, so to argue that it’s one of the systems best features should not be argued. It’s just forcing your ideals down someone else’s throat.

When it comes to the operating system, some of the more radical users (and Apple, on occasion) claim that it doesn’t matter how small the market share for the system is, but how many people love to use it, along with the other points (“the experience”, etc.). I love this, because it is so contradictory to their standard hardware practices. At how many keynotes do Steve Jobs and company discuss how many iPhones, iPods, and Macs they have sold? My favorite is when people say “Well, Apple has sold forty million iPhones, far more than the _____ from _____” (the blanks can be filled in with “Pre, Palm”, “BlackBerry, RIM”, and almost any other device and manufacturer you can think of (and even down the iPod/Zune battles)). Why do I love this? When it is in their favor, Apple fanatics argue the number of units sold, alongside of “the experience”. But, when the numbers aren’t in their favor (such as the operating system market), they say that numbers don’t matter, and it’s all about the experience.

This shows how insanely-minded these individuals are. Simply, they only argue the points that are in favor of what they want, and they ignore the others. “Well, the iPhone has a brilliant and full App Store!” Unfortunately, it didn’t have copy and paste until June 2009. On top of that, Apple likes to advertise these new features (such as MMS capabilities, video recording, and copy and paste) on their website and TV advertisements like they are revolutionary new features, while they have been on a large number of phones for years and years now.

Let’s be frank, though. The majority of the Apple/Mac user base isn’t insane. Most of them could care less about the Microsoft vs. Apple wars that ensue from time to time. Most of them don’t worry about market share, number of units sold, or any of that other crap. All they care about is that the product they are using is working, and that’s all they should. But once you bring radical, opinionated fanatics into the equation, things change. So, for the love of god, can you please stop spreading your pointless arguments all over the place? It’s really getting on my nerves.