palm os
Xplore M70 released in Hong Kong
The Xplore M70 is launched slightly a year and a half after the Xplore M68’s debut. This Palm OS-based smartphone is more of a design refresh with very little offered in terms of upgrades since the internal parts and software remain similar to the M68. The Xplore M70 ships with a WAP browser, although you can install the included HTML browser from the software CD. There is also an option to purchase the Xplore M70 with push e-mail service for those who need to know the latest happenings around the world via their inbox. You can find the Xplore M70 in Hong Kong for approximately $225, although there is no word of this device making its way to the US. Despite the dying Palm platform, there are still tons of Palm-based software available, so picking this up won’t bring you to a dead end soon.
Android has the biggest market share in terms of smartphone platform, with RIM in number two and iOS in third place. In most charts and graphs that you see, RIM has been steadily declining in terms of market share which has put them almost on the same level as iOS, who has managed to maintain a steady ~25%, give or take.
Well now it looks like iOS has officially over taken RIM, putting them at 26.6% which is 1.9% more than RIM’s share at 24.7%. However RIM wasn’t the only “loser” here as the rest of the platforms, with the exception of iOS and Android, faced similar drops, with Microsoft and Palm dropping 1.9% and 0.4% respectively.
However, with Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich slated for a year end release, and iOS 5 (and the rumored iPhone 5) and Windows Phone 7’s Mango update scheduled for a release some time this fall, those numbers could look to change rather dramatically, something which we’re pretty sure Microsoft is counting on as they are hoping to regain the market share with their slew of upcoming WP7 devices running on the Mango update.
Too little, too late. Or so seems the reaction for reports that Palm’s Linux-based open source OS, codenamed “Nova” won’t be dropping until early 2009. Stephane Maes, VP Smartphone Product Marketing says that Palm will finish up on the software in late 2008, with development tools being released around the same time.
With Google’s Android platform planned to make a showing in 2008, it appears as though Palm will be late to the major open source OS game. Until then, Palm will continue offering their original OS, as well as their OS based around Windows Mobile.
The venerable AT&T Treo 680 has just received an update from Palm, whereby this revised software now supports SDHC cards (up to 4GB in size), AT&T’s Push-to-Talk system, Microsoft’s push e-mail system and enhanced ringtone support. You can check out Palm’s website for this update, and it is also claimed that battery life will improve as well. Support for a plethora of instant messaging programs such as AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! instant messenger are also included.