Palm Clarifies Its Support for Palm OS

From PalmInfoCenter:
Palm CEO Ed Colligan has released an open letter to the Palm Development community. In his letter, he makes clear that Palm will continue to support the Palm OS and that new Palm OS handhelds and Treo smartphones are on Palms product roadmap. Colligan is addressing concerns that Palm's support of Palm OS is short-lived given the announcement of the Windows Mobile Treo. Read on for the full letter.

Dear Palm Developer,

I'm writing to you today because I'm concerned by the number of posts I've
read that suggest that Palm's support of Palm OS is either wavering or
short-lived. It is neither.

I thought I had made this perfectly clear with earlier statements, but let
me reiterate that our announcement on Sept. 26th that we'll broaden our line of
Treo smartphones to include ones made on the Windows Mobile platform is all
about growing the Treo market. We want to deliver the Palm experience on Windows
Mobile, strengthen our company's ability to deliver ever-more capable solutions
and answer current and potential customers' requests for a Windows Mobile-based
product from Palm. This is not a zero-sum game! This market is in its infancy,
and if we can expand our opportunities by being a strong cross-platform provider
of world-class smartphone products, then we should do so. At the same time, this
does not mean we need to walk away from our existing products or technology
partnerships, like Palm OS.

It's a fact that a large majority of businesses around the world use a
Microsoft-based infrastructure across their IT assets. And many of those
companies simply aren't open to products that use another OS. Some of our
carriers also have been asking for a Treo on this platform. Finally, many end
users in the world are attracted to the familiar Windows user interface. We can
either answer that marketplace demand with a Windows-based product, or we can
walk away from that business.

We have a rich product roadmap of Palm OS-based handheld computers, mobile
managers AND Treo smartphones that we intend to deliver. Our Palm OS customer
loyalty is extremely high, and we intend to continue to earn that loyalty with
great Palm OS-based products. We have sold more than 30 million Palm OS-based
products over the years, and it is not our intent to walk away from such a
strong and loyal user base. That's why in May we extended our license for Palm
OS, giving us the right to continue to make and market Palm OS-based products
until 2010.

So, I'd like to ask you to look at our Windows Mobile news as a way to
expand our market opportunity. We have every intention of continuing to support
our Palm OS developers and to encourage the expansion of the already rich array
of consumer and enterprise applications and peripherals for Palm OS. We're
pleased Access has initiated the purchase of PalmSource because we believe
Access has the resources to really invest in and develop Palm OS.

Net net, I believe that developing differentiated, software-rich products
on a range of industry-standard platforms puts us in a unique position with
customers and carriers and helps us expand the market opportunity for us, the
developer community and everyone involved in the smartphone category. I hope you
will agree.

Regards,

Ed Colligan
Palm, Inc. president and CEO