Palm Computing Inc has denied widespread reports that it is working on a color handheld for release in the first half of next year. The company was reported to be working on a device based around the new Motorola DragonBall VZ processor, which has on- chip color support for LCD screens. However, Mark Bercow, vice president of strategic alliances and platform development, said he wasn’t even sure if Palm was intended to use the new generation of Motorola chips and that the company had made no color Palm announcements at its Palmsource ’99 developers conference.
Palm has been examining the possibility of a color PalmOS for some time now. The main issue with a color system is the additional drain on the batteries. Indeed the success of Palm over Windows CE devices proves that users prefer the long battery life and easy-to-use interface of the grayscale Palm over all- singing, all dancing, color Windows CE. However, if Palm can resolve its power consumption and management issues, we wouldn’t discount the possibility of a color Palm device being launched next year.
All of the previous Palm devices – including third party machines that use the OS – have used the DragonBall processor range. However, as Palm looks to move into new markets, such as the mobile phone market, through its deal with Nokia, it seems that it will broaden the range of processors that the PalmOS can use. Palm has said that Nokia will port the PalmOS to run on processors from ARM Holdings Ltd, which are widely used in mobile phones. A tie-up with ARM will also put Palm on the fast track to the Bluetooth short-wave radio interconnect standard, as the Cambridge, UK-based company claims that the Bluetooth components it is developing will become the industry standard.
