SAN JOSE, Calif.-PalmSource Inc. officially announced its new dual-OS strategy at the company’s developer conference, an effort to support both high-end smart phones as well as low-end personal digital assistants. The company also announced processor company Nvidia Corp. will join the likes of Intel Corp., Motorola Inc. and Texas Instruments in providing chips for Palm OS devices.
Under PalmSource’s new operating system strategy, the company renamed its Palm OS version 6 as Palm OS Cobalt. The company said the operating system is tailored to the needs of the communications, enterprise, education and entertainment markets, and features improved compatibility with Microsoft Windows. The new operating system also supports multitasking and multithreading, memory protection and extensible communication and multimedia frameworks.
PalmSource’s OS version 5 was renamed Palm OS Garnet, and will support a range of screen resolutions, a dynamic input area, improved network communication and Bluetooth.
Sales of personal digital assistants slowed over the past year, while sales of smart phones grew almost 200 percent year-over-year, according to research firm IDC.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., PalmOne Inc., Kyocera Wireless Corp. and others build smart phones using the Palm OS.
