Palm Family (Palm OS)

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 9:02 am

Palm currently enjoys the biggest share of the PDA market. The usage of Palm’s devices is mainly limited to PIM (Personal Information Management), a functionality that enables you to access your calendar, e-mail,
address book, and to-do lists. Even though most users synchronize the Palm with their PC by placing the device in a cradle that connects the device to the desktop (or laptop) computer, they do have the possibility of connecting wirelessly in order to exchange e-mail and update their calendar.

The growing number of enterprise applications being rolled out today presents a challenge to Palm, because they often require capacity for local databases and local applications, both of which demand high performance from the handheld. This task reveals the weakness of the Palm OS, namely its lack of capacity. Until now, the focus has been on creating a device that, when used normally, only requires battery recharging once a week or once every other week. The goal of low power consumption has affected the Palm’s screen. Although it is less power consuming than most other Pocket PC devices, it has the poorest screen quality on the market. The power restrictions also affect processor performance negatively, but this doesn’t apply to PIM since the applications are adjusted to the processor’s speed. When building a new application containing information from ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, however, the limited performance of Palm devices is a restriction.

When critics of the Palm address the benefits of using a Pocket PC, their main argument is that the Palm hardware is too limited to enable the functionalities we want. On the other hand, Palm fans claim that high performance isn’t necessary if the application is built correctly from the outset. We will avoid choosing sides in this battle, but it is important to note that both camps have convincing arguments. Palm’s greatest advantage is that, due to its market share, people are getting used to working with the handheld. They are, in other words, used to the Palm’s metaphors and know how to navigate on the device. Similarly, one of Microsoft’s advantages is the resemblance in look and feel to Windows. Although Palm and Pocket PC are similar in some respects, each device has a distinct “look and feel” to it that people become accustomed to and like.

Taken From : Enterprise Guide to Gaining Business Value from Mobile Technologies