SUNNYVALE, Calif.-In a letter addressed to Palm OS developers, Palm Inc.’s Ed Colligan reiterated the company’s support for the Palm platform.
“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,” Colligan wrote in a letter that was widely distributed across the Internet. Colligan is Palm’s chief executive officer. “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.”
Colligan’s letter comes a few months after Palm announced plans to build a version of its Treo smart phone that would run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile operating system. Industry watchers speculated the move meant Palm was moving away from the Palm operating system, which it had long fostered and supported. Such speculation reached a fever pitch after Japanese company Access Co. Ltd. acquired PalmSource Inc., the company that owns and licenses the Palm operating system.
“I thought I had made this perfectly clear with earlier statements, but let me reiterate that our announcement on Sept. 26 that we’ll broaden our line of Treo smart phones to include ones made on the Windows Mobile platform is all about growing the Treo market,” Colligan wrote. “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 smart phone 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.”
Colligan pointed out that Palm recently renewed its Palm OS license through 2010.
