There was a time when Palm was synonymous for PDA. Now the lion's share is in the hands of Microsoft, Blackberry and the smartphone pack. The PalmOS operating system needs some urgent changes. However, the problem is in other hands.

(this story is also available in Spanish)

Last year, the company-formerly-known-as-Palm sold PalmSource to the Japanese from Access, specialised in Linux and operating systems for cell phones. Access' flagship product is Netfront, the browsing application more used in smart phones.

The results of all this dance has been the announcement by Access/PalmSource of its new ALP (Access Linux Platform) operating system. According to their press release, it is an evolution of Palm OS on top of Linux. Nevertheless, it is a Linux operating system that, while it is at it, runs PalmOS programs.

The difference is not that subtle when you look at the above diagram of the operating system (click on it to enlarge). There is a huge Linux core with other components resting on top of it, such as graphical interfaces, communication managers, audio/video streaming systems, and, last but not least, a PalmOS emulator.

So, in future ALP-based devices, your dear old Palmasutra will actually run on an emulator, just as it happens with the PalmOS emulators that developers are usin on their PCs.

Access has very good reasons for supporting PalmOS: tens of thousands of applications, millions of PalmOS devices in the market, and a special relationship with a world-class brand.

PalmOS itself can find its salvation in the penguin. Since 2004, Windows Mobile exceeds PalmOS in number of licenses for mobile devices, having reached 46 percent. Regarding the devices themselves, last year Blackberry became the most widely used PDA, with 20 percent of the market, while Palm went down to 18 percent.

The only one that manages to get away is the Treo, that is not considered a proper PDA, but a smart phone instead, or a converged device according to the new jargon. During the last quarter of 2005, more than a million Treos were sold. This justifies Palm's alleged heresy of launching a Windows Mobile-based Treo.

PalmOS is a simple, sturdy operating system, but it is in dire need of deep changes, not mere patching. What is needed by now is a multitasking system, supported by a large community of developers, powerful applications and that does not hang (as happens with the Treo 650 more often than expected).

As the news goes, such a change is not going to happen, and PalmOS will simply fade away, replaced by the APL or by Windows Mobile in new devices. At least, we had fun.