The two main rivals in the PDA operating system business sought to bolster their offerings, each touting improved and enhanced products.
Further, Microsoft Corp. announced two additional licensees for its operating system for personal digital assistants. Computer maker Gateway Inc. and consumer electronics company JVC licensed Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system and will use it to build PDAs. The move could represent a significant blow to Microsoft’s OS rival Palm.
As for Palm, the company offered a glimpse into its future plans, announcing at the CeBIT America trade show that it is working on a new version of its Palm operating system. However, Palm’s operating system division PalmSource offered few details beyond the code name for the sixth version of its OS, Sahara. Palm released its OS 5 last year.
Besides its new operating system, PalmSource also released a glut of announcements aimed at bolstering the enterprise appeal of its product, including new agreements with IBM Corp., Visto Corp., Novell and others.
Under PalmSource’s deal with IBM, the companies said they plan to collaborate on a Web services software stack, including support for Web service standards. Separately, PalmSource signed several deals to offer access to corporate e-mail, including deals to offer access to Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, POP3/IMAP and Novell GroupWise and ZENworks mail servers.
For its part, Microsoft announced a series of improvements to its PDA OS, Pocket PC, including a new branding strategy to bring PDAs and smart phones under the new Windows Mobile brand.
“We’ve kind of had a mixed branding,” said Ed Suwanjindar, product manager for the Mobile Devices division at Microsoft. “We probably haven’t been as consistent … as far as branding goes.”
Now, Microsoft will combine its Pocket PC and Smartphone brands under the Windows Mobile tagline. However, in discussing specific products, Suwanjindar said Microsoft will continue to refer to the specific OS brands.
Microsoft’s enhancements to the Pocket PC operating system include new software to access 802.11b networks, wireless access to Exchange and improved picture and video management.
