Hello MikeM54321,
Thanks for the continuing stream of reading material! It's hard to keep up ...
A couple of comments ...
> Thread- I linked this to my post regarding how many
> mobile wireless standards there are throughout the world.
> Now comes this article about how many OS systems there
> are competing for whatever space opens up for them.
I've been closely following the evolution of the "handhelds", cell phone, and PDA technologies, while also closely watching the miniturization of the PC.
I have to admit that it is going to be a real wild ride watching as the "laptop" moves more and more towards a portable computing platform, and the PDAs and Cell Phones merge into a handheld computing device.
You list the OS platforms, but obviously the most important space will be the applications development since this is what will drive the functionality.
> Here are just four mentioned:
> -EPOC by Psion
This appears to be the real front runner in the space, from my point of view. Symbian has done a great job of integrating, not only their own application development platform, but also Java. Most recently I read an article where Palm and Symbian are working together to allow the EPOCH OS to support Palm applications.
> -CE by Microsoft
From my perspective it will not be long before Microsoft drops this to a real limited OS for specific purposes. IMHO, the miniturization of PC technologies is reaching the point where you will be able to run a full PC OS on a handheld device. At that point, why case the market? For a company moving into this specific space, check out Xybernaut (XYBR) who recently received a patent on a very flexible architecture for a "core" computing and storage element which can be inserted into a variety of carriers - desktop, portable, wearable, and car, etc. I believe this is the way they will move their company, and that a good portion of the market will move.
> -Palm by 3Com
I'm thinking that their hardware platform is going to have to "morph" pretty quickly. They are going to be under a great deal of pressure from the likes of Symbian ... hence the partnership. I know that if I can get all the functionality of a Palm in my cell phone, then why buy a Palm? ;-)
> -Mobile Linux by Redhat
In this space, I'm seeing a "different" audience, and think that this is where the products like Xybernaut. In general I believe that the Linux attraction will occur with a device that becomes more of a wearable computer ... a "wearable laptop" due to the OS *and* user requirements. And I think that it is quickly becoming possible for a full PC to become handheld ...
Scott C. Lemon |
