Palm is set to debut its next-generation OS, codenamed “Nova”,  in January at CES 2009. There isn’t a lot of detail about what’s new in this new platform right now, but one thing is for sure: it is the make-or-break OS for Palm. Nova needs to be absolutely amazing for Palm to stay relevant in the game.

Most industry observers and analysts aren’t predicting a major comeback for Palm. The market is already very crowded with heavyweights like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Nokia and RIM. Palm, who had popularized the PDA category in the 90’s, has fallen from the stratosphere in recent years. While the competition has continued to innovate and while the market quickly shifted from standalone PDAs to Smart Phones, Palm was too slow to adapt to the competition and market changes.

Take a look at the original Palm Pilot and the latest Palm Tungsten E2 below. There is a lot of resemblance between the 2 models that span almost 10 years apart.

palmpilot PalmOne_Tungsten_E2

Original Palm Pilot (1996)

Palm Tungsten E2 (2005)

      

I used to be diehard fan of Palm Pilots and have owned the original Palm Pilot Personal, Palm IIIc, Palm V, and Handspring Visor. The Palm had an almost cult following in those years, not unlike the iPhone today. But a lack of innovation for several years can really take a toll on your market share as well as stock price.

Like other folks, I am not bullish on what Nova will do for Palm. The only ray of hope is that the driving the Nova development is Jon Rubinstein, who spent 9 years at Apple and was central to the creation of iPod and iMac, before joining Palm. Let’s see if Jon is going to pull off some magic for Palm. I will be reporting more about Nova when I am at CES in January.

- J.

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