Symbol abandons Palm OS for Windows

Fuzzy future and tough upgrade path drive device maker to Windows

Tom Sanders in California

Symbol is discontinuing its Palm OS based handheld computers and will abandon the operating system entirely in favour of Windows. 

The company currently sells two Palm OS-based handhelds - the SPT 1550 and SPT 1800 - which are commonly used for industrial applications such as bar code scanning and supply chain monitoring. 

Advertisement

But the devices had to be upgraded to comply with the European RoHS Directive which took effect on 1 July, Symbol's vice president for mobile products Chuck Dourlet told vnunet.com

The regulation limits the amount of hazardous material such as lead, mercury and cadmium that can be used in electronic devices.

Symbol was unable to upgrade several of the SPT 1550 and SPT 1800 components, prompting the company to discontinue the devices.

Palm was forced earlier this year to stop selling its Treo 650 smartphone because of the RoHS directive.

Palm OS maker PalmSource was acquired last year by Access of Japan. The company is currently replacing the operating system with a Linux version.

Although the forthcoming operating system will support existing Palm applications through a software emulator, developers will have to rewrite their software to run on the new platform.

"To run Palm based products, you would have to do application rewrites and make changes to your operating system. There is no seamless transition going forward on Palm [OS]," said Dourlet.

The device maker is focusing on devices running Windows Mobile and Windows CE. Resellers that develop custom applications for the Symbol handheld PCs were informed of the changes last summer to allow them to port over their Palm OS applications to the Windows platform.

Symbol was acquired by Motorola in September. The transaction has yet to close. 

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Summit: Views From the Valley

V3.co.uk's US office weighs in on the information overload crisis

John Chambers speaks on collaboration

Cisco boss talks up new offerings

Analysis and Reports

Remote access - Three steps to getting connected

3.4 million UK professionals now work from home – is your company equipped?

Cost benefits of a global collaboration network

This white paper is a must read for organisations looking for evidence of the bottom-line benefits of high-definition video and voice communications

Poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

What is the biggest problem your firm faces as a result of the data explosion?

View poll results

Advertisement

White paper library

Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies; IThound.com brings you over 6,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Advertisement

Spotlight

Information management

Summit: Quiz IBM experts on information strategies

Join our live chat session on Thursday at 11am to...

RIM discusses new developer tools

Blackberry exec on the latest offerings for programmers

Houses of parliament

Summit: Doubts raised over Tory plans for NHS records

Experts say data quality could be an issue

Researchers take down spam botnet

Researchers from security firm FireEye have been able to effectively...

Primary Navigation