PALM and Adobe

Once I have sent an email message to Palm, that was many years ago, sending them some sincere and constructive feedback. I said to them, between other things, that competing with Microsoft was to get into the rat's race where many finished bad. And the arrogant answer I received was: "We are sorry but Palm does not accept feedback from outside the company". Years later and with problems piled up I'm sure Palm is not arrogant as before. Now they need ideas and success. If they achieved it, better for all of us.

The World of operating systems is getting close to a very interesting moment.

Palm introduced the WebOS, Google is talking about a Chrome OS, Microsoft is not talking about a secret project called Midori.

In the meantime Adobe is creating really cool and innovative Web applications destined to be even better while all the others are trying to get the media on their side. I'm talking about Acrobat.com.

Apple is doing well but not perfectly well. The update to OSX 10.5.7 is still painful for many users. And it is coming to the common sense that a never crashing OS is more a myth than anything else. Apple failed with MobileMe, even now is getting much better.

Linux is also getting a good share of attention, the latest version of Ubuntu is really good!

So what is there for you? well, Microsoft tends to make good products when is under pressure. When they thought they are invincible they forgot about Internet Explorer, released Windows Vista and made a mess of Live services. And I think Microsoft wasn't so vulnerable in years! and I think that is not over.

Eachone of us will like more to experiment and try different OS. We will be able to do that easier than ever.

Competition will be fierce and I believe will be needed for contestants to be stronger.

Why not Adobe and Palm as a team? I think that would be a good mix. Adobe has the Web apps and Palm the OS. They don't need to run the same rat's race. Just to work together to get a nice WebOS into a beautiful and very functional productivity platform. I think that PALM needs to expand the concept of their business and the opportunity is that lightweight computers are becoming popular. PALM introduced in the past the idea of a Phone companion and after that unsuccessful initiative many things changed: more Web oriented phones, Netbooks, cravings about a Mac tablet computer. That makes me think that the World is now ready for notebooks and desktop computers that run the same OS. Something like the iPhone, but including desktop and mobiles apps. For example:

• I would be happy to install a Word processor in my notebook and have it automatically available in my phone and other computers.
• I would like to install a game on my phone and being able to play it in my notebook.

Adobe and Palm could do it.