One of the big draws of using Palm OS devices has been stability. While it's not impossible to make a Palm OS device fall over, it does take a bit of effort and recovery never seems to hard.Many people's experience of Windows Mobile machines is similar to that of using full size Windows machines - the more you use them, the less stable they become. Usually fine straight out of the box but not so great if you actually want to do something with them.
So, the choice for many of us became stable or not stable. The problem was that the platform that should have meant greater interoperability was also the platform that meant finding an open paperclip every few minutes.
Palm was the natural choice. It had a great track record, the hardware was good and the OS was stable. It worked. There was also a natural synergy between Palm OS and Mac OS. Not entirely mainstream, stable, tweakable and a good community behind them.
But few can really argue against the fact that Palm lost its way. The pure Palm OS gave way to the ubiquitous Windows flavoured devices and fans had to wait to see what, if anything, would happen to their favoured OS. Would it ever develop? Would we get a new version with the next device - the one that would replace the TX? Would we actually get anything to replace the TX?
Well, now we have the first rumblings of Palm Nova. Maybe there is life out there. But Palm's problem is that many of us feel we've been here before. Lots of people have been very patient. I, for one, really like my Palm TX - it's a great device. But I also like to look forward to what the new device will be and what it will do. And, after years of waiting, I'm not entirely convinced that Palm is going to come up with that 'wow' device - not any time soon anyway.
I am facing exactly the same dilemma as many many others - do I wait for Palm to actually deliver or do I look elsewhere?
Until recently, that was not an option but then along rode St Steve of Jobs and his pesky iPhone and iPod Touch. Whilst not an option as a pda at first, the soon to be released SDK will undoubtedly open up the Apple gadgets to their full potential as tablets and pdas.
Palm may have made a step in the right direction with the announcement of Nova but we need more information to believe that something might actually happen. Until then, Palm will continue to see the incredibly loyal and patient fan base diminish and, if the Apple devices do live up to their full potential, it will need to do something amazingly special to win them back.
