SAN JOSE, California, United States—As expected, Palm released a trial version of its new operating system (OS), the Palm OS 5, which the company said will support wide area networks, Bluetooth connections and 802.11 standards, as well as a host of other new features.
The company hinted during its quarterly conference call late last year that it would release its new OS. Palm said the final version of the new OS will be released early in the third quarter.
Analysts have long criticized the company for not updating its OS. Those calls became even louder after Microsoft released its new Pocket PC 2002 OS last year. Palm executives have admitted that the company has not innovated enough.
Palm released its new OS during its annual PalmSource developer conference in California. The company also announced its OS subsidiary will go under the new name PalmSource. The company last year separated its business into device-making and OS operations.
Palm executives also assured the company’s developer community that the Palm OS 5 will be compatible with software programs written for the Palm OS 4.
The OS release comes just a week after the company released its wireless integrated i705 device.
