Nieuws op Brighthand!

[robbert65]

Last year, various reports were going around that said palmOne was considering using other operating systems than just the Palm OS on future devices.

The details on these reports varied, but the most common one was that there would be a Windows Mobile version of the Treo smartphone.

Today, a comment made at the 3GSM World Congress added fuel to this fire.

According to msmobiles.com, during a keynote session, Peter Knook, the senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Division, said that there would be a major announcement at a Microsoft press conference later today related to Windows Mobile, palmOne, and Motorola.

This press conference has not yet taken place. Further details will be presented when they become available.

Not All that Shocking
At the time the earlier reports were going around, palmOne released a statement saying that it, "is open to evaluating products using additional operating systems if doing so would grow the marketplace or otherwise meet customer needs that currently are not addressed."

This is not a new position. palmOne has said before that it isn't totally committed to any single operating system. One of the reasons palmOne split off from PalmSource is to make it easier to use operating systems other than the Palm OS.

However, it should be made clear that there hasn't been the slightest hint that palmOne is going to drop the Palm OS entirely. Instead, its possible that the company will announce today that it is broadening its product line to include handhelds and smartphones running other operating systems.