PDA News - Palm CFO talks Windows, Palm's "third business", Analyst says Windows Treo real

[Adama D. Brown]

Palm CFO: Windows Mobile device has benefits

In a new interview, Palm Chief Financial Officer Andrew Brown says that a Windows Mobile based Treo smartphone would be good for Palm, by selling to companies that standardize on Microsoft based products. Brown did not state whether or not Palm has such a device already in development. Photos and video of a reported Windows based Treo have been causing controversy over the last several days, as debates rage on whether or not the images are genuine.

http://news.com.com/Making+the+case+for+Windows+on+Palm+devices/2100-1047_3-5829076.html?part=rss&tag=5829076&subj=news

 

Palm's mysterious "third business"

An interview published late last month with Palm founder and CTO Jeff Hawkins has been stirring interest after Hawkins made cryptic references to a "third business" that Palm has. From the interview:

Hawkins: Today about 50 percent of our business is PDAs. That's a big mature business. It's not growing. But it's not going to go away. We have the smart phone business, which is the Treo line, and that's up-and-coming.... There is a third business that I've been working on but I'm not going to tell you what it is. It's in mobile computing. It's something different and it's in its early stage. We have three businesses at PalmOne. One you don't even know about, which is just a child. Another is the teenager and the other one is the mature 45-year-old.... I'll give you a couple clues. I always think of mobile computing as personal computing. This long-term vision has led us through everything -- first the organizers and now through the smart phone space. It's like everything a personal computer is. Continue down that path. What are the implications of a world where everyone has a super high-speed Internet connection in their pocket and many gigabytes of storage, super-fast processors, audio, visual and multimedia? What are the consequences of that? How will that change computing when you have all that stuff available to you all the time?

While much speculation has centered around 3G wireless broadband and artificial intelligence, it seems likely that what Hawkins is actually referring to is the LifeDrive line of "Mobile Managers," a third product category Palm sells along with their traditional handhelds and smartphones. Frequently, print interviews are done some months in advance due to publishing lead times, and this interview may refer to the LifeDrive from shortly before it made its debut.

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2005/08/01/focus6.html

 

Analyst: Windows Treos real, to ship by end of year

Hot on the heels of the comments by Palm's CFO, analyst Charles Golvin of Forrester Research stated that the photos that have been circulating of a Windows based Treo are in fact real, and that the device will be shipping to carriers soon and in customers' hands before the end of the year.

A representative for Palm refused to confirm or deny the report, instead reiterating that the ability to use other operating systems was one of the benefits of the PalmSource spinoff.

http://news.com.com/Making+the+case+for+Windows+on+Palm+devices/2100-1047_3-5829076.html?part=rss&tag=5829076&subj=news

[Antoine Wright]

If that is not admiting to WM Treo development and its possible release, I dont know what is.

[fermi337]

"Palm refused to confirm or deny the report"
Isn't that what always happens before a new device is released?