In light of Sony CEO Noboyuki Idei’s public statement that he’d love to buy PalmSource, Mike Rohde presents some good arguments about why PalmSource should remain independent.
I can’t agree with him more. PalmSource’s status as an independent company allows it greater flexibility in dealing with Palm OS licensees. If the Palm OS were owned by Sony, I don’t think we’d see nearly the diversity of Palm OS handhelds that are on the market now. Sony is doing an admirable job of trying to flood the market with every conceivable feature, but it’s not feasible for them to develop niche products like the AlphaSmart Dana or the Fossil Wrist PDA.
Given some of the downright quirky weirdness Sony builds into some of their bundled software, I worry that the integrity of the Palm OS itself would be in danger. I really like my CLIÉ NX70V, but let’s face it: some of the default applications have brain-dead interface issues.
