Palm for ARM

Palmsource, the software company that is splitting from Palm, has previewed the fifth version of the operating system (OS) designed for the new range of hardware powered by the ARM processor.

The new OS uses the increased power of the ARM processor to offer better security and multimedia functions.

Built-in 128bit encryption from RSA Security will be part of OS5 as standard; a web browser and multimedia functions have been added as well as protocols for dealing with larger screen sizes. The communications stack, traditionally Palm's weakest area, is being rebuilt to cope with the demands of 2.5G, 3G and 802.11b standards.

"People develop a very intimate relationship with their Palms," said Palmsource chief executive David Nagle. "On the other hand they are very easy to lose; I've lost several myself.

"To that end we're building in better security onto Palm devices than you'd find on most PCs. The grunt of the ARM processor makes this possible."

Nagle also released new data from Gartner that showed Palm overtaking PocketPC in the enterprise sector, based on units shipped. He said organisations including General Motors and the US Army have standardised on Palm.

He also predicted that in the long term the PocketPC platform would wither away due to its hardware limitations.

"Handheld manufacturers don't want to go through a repeat of the PC business, where only Dell is making a profit due to price competition," Nagle continued.

"Currently if you don't like Microsoft's rigid hardware specifications you don't have a choice. If they try a price war we'll win, they need a minimum of 32MB Ram while Palm hardware uses 2MB to 8MB. Ultimately it's the wrong platform for a PDA," he said.

However, Anne-Marie Duffy of Microsoft disputed this.

"You will see a much lower cost range of PocketPC devices coming through in the next months. Dell, Viewsonic and Samsung are all moving into this sphere. We have 10,500 business applications for the Pocket PC and if you want to use resource heavy applications like PowerPoint then PocketPC can handle them with ease," she said.

Users of non-ARM hardware will be unable to use the new OS because the processor load will outstrip the existing hardware.