Palm OS Classic Available for Nokia - First Take

IanFogg | November 15, 2007, 03:20 PM

When I wrote the the N810 was a platform play, I really didn't expect Palm OS classic/garnet to suddenly be launched, officially, for the Nokia tablet range. That report was focused on Nokia's thinking on OS and mobile platform choices, not Access with Palm Garnet OS.

I've installed it. The Access virtual machine seems to do what it claims. I've successfully played Palm OS Bejeweled (what else?) on a Nokia N800. But nevertheless, Access' move is rather random. Perhaps Access simply wants some mindshare, and pr, post iPhone and Google Android? If so, it's a success for me!

Regardless, there is one major substantive impact.

This further drives up the number of mobile OS platforms, which makes life ever harder for companies considering building mobile applications or widgets. They have to decide which platforms to target with their precious r&d Euros.

Palm OS will not die. Symbian has two main flavours (UIQ and Series 60), so does Windows Mobile, then there's Mac OS on iPhone, Android, Blackberry/RIM, Brew, Nokia's Linux OS, and loads of proprietary handsets.

It's a mess. The one commonality is the presence of ever more desktop-like web browsers on mobile devices.