After the Treo 755p, whither the Palm OS?

Is the Palm OS really ready for the scrap heap?

Palm’s announcement Wednesday of the Palm OS Treo 755p provoked some questions as to whether this would be the last Palm device to run the Palm Garnet OS now that Palm is embracing Linux.

But Palm officials aren’t saying much on the subject, and a Palm spokeswoman, when asked Wednesday, declined to comment.

However, several analysts noted that Palm CEO Ed Colligan revealed in an early April meeting with analysts that the company is developing a Linux-based operating system to ship with devices by year’s end, although Palm will also continue to release new devices with the Palm OS this year.

One account of what Colligan said, from Ryan Paul in ARS Technica, also noted that the CEO said the transition to Linux will continue into next year and the planned Linux-based Palm OS will be backward-compatible with Garnet.

It’s the kind of issue that’s critically important to Palm application developers.

“I don’t think the 755p is the end of the road for the Palm OS,” analyst Craig Mathias, of The Farpoint Group in Ashland, Mass., said in an interview. “A lot of people like the Palm OS. Obviously, the training load and the support load really increases as you switch platforms” to something such as Linux.

Added Bob Egan, an analyst at Tower Group in Needham, Mass.: “Colligan has sent confusing signals. On the one hand, we have a new handset announced with the old [Garnet] platform, while some people in Palm have signaled to different analysts this move toward Linux. It’s frankly tough to judge if this is the last one [on the Palm OS] or if there will be a few more.”

Todd Kort, an analyst at Gartner in Stamford, Conn., said he expects Verizon to replace its 700p with the 755p, following Sprint’s support of the 755p. When Verizon does so, “that will likely be the last Garnet OS device,” he said.

Mathias expects Windows Mobile to eventually “be a big winner” but conceded that with the iPhone hitting the market next month, “it’s a confusing time” for judging platform success.