Newsgroup: it.comp.hardware.palmari
Titolo: [lungo] Ma vale la pena

> THE FUTURE OF PALMOS
   What is Palm Doing Anyway?
 What a roller coaster ride! The year 2001 seems to have
 been a turbulent year for Palm, filled with
 organizational and management changes, the death of the
 dot-com economy, lackluster product releases, and the
 onslaught of the Microsoft marketing juggernaut.  Many
 people have started asking, "Hey, what is Palm doing
 anyway?" and wondering how strong Palm's grip is on the
 handheld market.  Even the PalmSource developer's
 conference seemed to lack the big announcements and
 excitement of prior years.  And yet, in the background
 amongst the chaos, Palm has been quietly been laying the
 groundwork both technologically and structurally for a
 major assault in the handheld commerce battlefield.
 Palm's Product Line
 In the last twelve months or so, Palm has brought some
 new members to the PalmOS family, including the m500,
 m505, m125, and i705 handhelds.  While generally
 healthy, well-received additions sporting new expansion
 capabilities, always-on wireless access, and color in
 the smallest form factor yet, the new units were
 sometimes eclipsed by their flashy cousins brought to
 the party by other PalmOS licensees Handspring, Handera
 and Sony.
 While it's only natural for our excitement about a
 company to be tied to its hardware releases, it's
 important to remember that the Palm name also
 represents software--the PalmOS operating system--the
 digital backbone behind all PalmOS-Powered handhelds.
 A Better Business Model
 The hardware business is tough--a business plagued with
 razor-thin margins, inventory headaches, supply
 shortages, and product obsolescence.  Most analysts
 would agree that making software is often a much better
 business. There are often no cost-of-goods, warehouses,
 or raw materials to worry about.  And yet, the futures
 of software and hardware developers are inseparably
 tied together.  Software programs are useless without
 the devices to run them, and most hardware platforms
 owe their success to one or more "killer apps" which
 made their purchase worthwhile.  How would the Apple-II
 have sold without Visicalc... the IBM/PC without Lotus 1-
 2-3... the Nintendo without Mario?
 The software developers who make those killer apps want
 to be successful too.  After all, someone has to afford
 all those new-fangled gadgets and devices that keep the
 whole ball rolling.  So developers tend to write
 programs for platforms that can offer the biggest crowd
 of program-using, registration fee-paying customers.
 And "lots of customers" requires "lots of devices;"
 typically more devices than a single company can create
 and market on its own.
 Palm, in all their wisdom, has realized that their
 ultimate fate depends not just on the sales of
 individual devices, but on the success of the platform
 as a whole and the widespread adoption of PalmOS as a
 defacto standard.  In July 2001, Palm announced that it
 would separate the hardware and software components of
 its business into separate companies, a process that
 has recently completed.  The hardware company kept the
 "Palm" name, while the software group responsible for
 the operating system is now called "PalmSource."
 More than just a move to clarify the operations of the
 two groups, the division was meant to help attract
 experienced electronics and cell phone manufacturers.
 Otherwise, they might feel they would be competing
 directly against one half of Palm while supporting the
 other half.  Indeed, the success of new devices from
 Handspring, Sony and Samsung testify not to
 shortcomings in Palm's ability to innovate, but in their
 success at expanding PalmOS beyond a one-company
 standard.
 Another large change will be coming this summer in a new
 update to PalmOS. Version 5.0 expands beyond the
 classic Motorola Dragonball processor used in current
 handhelds to support faster ARM chips.  Often seen
 simply as a way to boost high-end performance to
 compete against PocketPC devices, the significance of
 the change is often overlooked.  After all, do we really
 need our Datebook apps to run any faster than they
 already do? More importantly, the new operating system
 makes PalmOS a multi-platform operating system, helping
 to welcome more manufacturers into the PalmOS fold.
 After all, it gives them more choice, and many cell
 phone manufacturers already have a sizeable investment
 in ARM technology. Perhaps more significantly, it
 doesn't lock them into buying a key component from
 Motorola, a big do-everything company which makes
 amongst lots of other products... a line of cell phones
 of their own.
 Widening the Market
 Microsoft, which is now aggressively pushing their
 alternative PocketPC platform, is no doubt very
 familiar with this widen-and-conquer approach. After
 all, no one has benefited more from the dominance of the
 PC platform than the Bill's behemoth.  Will history
 repeat itself in the handheld space? Perhaps.  But
 would that necessarily mean that Microsoft would win?
 Perhaps the ultimate soothsayer--history--can help us
 discern the answer.
 Stanley Steamers
 At the turn of the century (no, the one before that),
 two competing technologies jockeyed for the lead in a
 race for dominance in a new, emerging product market.
 The battle was over horseless carriages, and whether
 steam power or the gasoline-powered internal combustion
 engine should drive them.  The Stanley twins of
 Massachusetts were major players in the field, building
 their first light steam car in 1897.  Their "Stanley
 Steamers" enjoyed brisk sales, with good reason.  Steam
 cars offered many benefits over gasoline-powered cars,
 including mechanical simplicity, better reliability and
 power, and the ability to run on virtually any fuel,
 including coal, kerosene, natural gas, or even wood.
 And yet, even with strong early technology, by 1915,
 steam cars were clearly losing the race to their
 gasoline counterparts.  A key reason for the change was
 the emergence of the Ford Model T in 1908.  The Model
 T's success came not from technological superiority but
 in how it was made; Ford invented mass production
 techniques to create Model T's cheaply, while Stanley
 Steamers remained crafted one at a time by hand.
 Because Model T's were so affordable, they were sold in
 great numbers, making them, and their gasoline-powered
 engines, the "defacto" standard of the day.  This market
 dominance nurtured the growth of a nationwide network of
 supporting gas stations, further solidifying gasoline's
 lead over steam.  More importantly, the increased
 momentum accelerated research in gasoline-based
 technology, so that even the early advantages steam
 power held were eventually surpassed in the following
 years.
 Apple Computer
 Nearly a hundred years later, a similar situation played
 itself out on the desktop battlefield between rival
 computer operating systems made by Microsoft and Apple
 Computer.  In the early 90's, Apple's elegant Macintosh
 operating system enjoyed a clear technological lead over
 Microsoft's early Windows 3.0 PC product, which was at
 best a feeble copy of the Macintosh OS.  With such a
 clear difference between them, Macintosh supporters
 expected consumers to embrace the new devices
 wholeheartedly, leaving clunky PC's behind.  However,
 against the objections of some within the company,
 Apple priced their computers at a premium, pricing no
 offerings at the level of their PC counterparts.
 Rather than growing their market share by making
 inexpensive machines or licensing their operating system
 to clone manufacturers (which they eventually did too
 late), Apple executives gleefully followed slogans such
 as "fifty-five or die", referring to the demand for a
 55 percent profit margin by then Apple-France president
 Jean-Louis Gasseé.
 In the long term, this strategy would prove
 shortsighted, as the lower price of PC's helped
 solidify their dominance in the market, allowing
 history to repeat itself.  In the same way the Model T
 helped drive innovation in internal combustion engines,
 the dominance of the PC helped drive and fund
 development of PC-specific peripherals, software, and
 even the operating system itself.  As a result, PC's
 and Windows have steadily improved in the years since,
 to the point that technological superiority on either
 side is an arguable point, something unthinkable just a
 decade earlier.  Today, while Apple still maintains a
 small loyal following, it now has no reasonable hope of
 unseating PC's running Windows, and the once real hope
 of capturing the dominant position in the desktop
 computer market has long since faded.
 Deja Palm
 Today, the PalmOS platform finds itself in a similar
 race with its PocketPC rival.  Oddly enough, this time,
 Microsoft finds itself in the underdog position against
 PalmOS, an operating system created and supported by
 many ex-Apple veterans, supporters and developers.
 Like the Macintosh of the 90's, PocketPC handhelds are
 often perceived as being more powerful than their
 counterparts, PDA's running PalmOS.  This time, however,
 Microsoft is the one burdened by inflated prices--this
 time not a choice but a consequence of high minimum
 hardware requirements needed to run the bulky PocketPC
 operating system.
 As a result, PocketPC manufacturers have made little
 headway breaking below the $400 price barrier, the cost
 of a basic desktop computer.  Entry-level handhelds
 running the relatively svelte PalmOS operating system,
 however, face no such limitation, routinely selling for
 less than $100, a far more consumer-friendly price for
 people with bills, car payments, children, pets, and
 other numerous money-eating expenses.
 While PocketPC's have made little progress on the low
 end of the market, PalmOS forces continue to advance on
 the high end, giving even the most financially-capable
 strong new choices in the PalmOS camp.  The past year
 has seen the appearance of no less than three PalmOS-
 powered phones, high resolution displays surpassing
 those found on PocketPC's, and countless innovative
 software releases, including a few from companies with
 pleasant colors in their names.  If this momentum
 continues, and there's no reason to believe that it
 won't, there's a good chance history will repeat itself
 yet again.
A voi i commenti :)
Gianmarco Carnovale
Amministratore Delegato
--
Portatili S.r.l.- P.zza Euclide 7-00197 Roma-Italy
tel. 
+ 39 06 8068 7910
   fax 
+ 39 06 8068 7911
"Tecnologia tascabile & soluzioni di mobilità"
www.portatilishop.it

 A voi i commenti :)
Beh, se l'inter, ora che ha trovato Ronaldo, riuscisse a mantenere...
;]P
-- 
,          ,+''+,  [P3-600]- Lock
 '+,,+'             [
Lock.too.it
 - 
ichp.too.it
 - 
Powershot.too.it
]

non ho avuto il coraggio di leggerlo sorry se qualcuno fa un breve riassuno
:)

 ha scritto nel messaggio > Beh, se


 Beh, se l'inter, ora che ha trovato Ronaldo, riuscisse a mantenere...
ma tu non eri "amico" della presidentessa viola di serie B?
Antognoni & Pupo


Io un pò il PalmOS 5 lo temo.
Potrà sembrarvi strano, ma non vorrei che Palm stesse intraprendendo la
stessa strada di Microsoft con un S.O. troppo "pesante" e ricco di accessori
relativamente inutili per una piattaforma hw , il palmare, che è concepita
per altri scopi.
Vedremo cosa succederà, ma se il prossimo Natale vedrò nelle vetrine un Palm
con PalmOS 5 a 900 Euro ne rimarrò molto deluso.
Ciao

 con PalmOS 5 a 900 Euro ne rimarrò molto deluso.
Beh, allora l'articolo ti dovrebbe rassicurare, il principio che viene
affermato è che PalmOS vincerà perchè, tra le varie cose, non si farà mai lo
sbaglio di far pagare un palmare quanto un pc desktop (cosa che cerca di
fare invece Microzozz).
Personalmente continuo a trovare conferme alle mie aspettative.
Ciao,


 Ciao, Gianni.
;]
Ci vediamo VEN?


 Personalmente continuo a trovare conferme alle mie aspettative.
Beh, Palm è stabilissimo. Investite in Palm e nel ramo immobiliare.
Beh... forse in quello Immobiliare... Insomma...
;]P


per altri scopi.
Sono dubbi che ho anche io, da quando hanno fatto l'annuncio della sua
uscita.
Continuo a non capire a cosa serva un multitask su un palmare, ma
forse ho in mente troppo Epoc.
Ciao,
Gianantonio
-- 
www.ItaPUG.org
 - Italian Palm User Group - Tips&Tricks&Tutorials -


Il multitask nel palmare serve solo a sprecare risorse, considerendo che per
passare da un' applicazione all' altra con un Palm occorrono 2 sec ed i dati
non si perdono cmq.
Mah, vedremo ...