Clock is ticking for Palm

Technofile: There was a time when the Palm Pilot ruled. Executives would tap into their digital assistants and beam their business cards to each other before their next billion dollar deal. But the humble business card lives on, while the Palm looks like it may be about to bow out.

The Palm has had a torturous career. Its original designers left not long after Palm Pilot was bought by 3Com, makers of sticky notes, to found Handspring. Meanwhile, Handspring morphed into smartphones, notably the Treo, just as other mobile giants, like Nokia and Ericsson, started to turn their attentions to personal digital assistants (PDAs).

But now trouble looms for Palm operating systems (OS). In late September Palm unveiled a Treo smartphone running Microsoft's Windows Mobile system instead of Palm OS.

The now ailing Palm operating system has had two main problems to contend with.

Firstly, it was not a Windows machine. IT managers inside businesses were always going to be wary of a device that didn't slip seamlessly into their company architecture.

Secondly, the explosion in devices which can run diaries, contacts and memos has seen the Palm OS squeezed.

The first sign of trouble appeared when Sony exited from the PDA market last year, dumping its Clie range of hand-helds, belatedly realising that it was actually competing against its own mobile partnership with Ericsson.

That left only one other device maker, Palm One, using the operating system.

Palm's European vice-president, François Bornibus, recently went on record saying that if a firm has a Microsoft strategy for mobile they don't want to change to Palm. However, there is a glimmer of hope. In order to maintain relations with mobile phone operators, Palm will have to support Treos which use Palm OS. But that is only likely to continue until the Treo running Windows Mobile can take over the reigns.

Nokia already has the 9300 range and this week saw the launch of Sony Ericsson's update on its successful P900 smartphone, the P990.

Not only does the P990 work on 3G, but it incorporates Wi-Fi internet access, a two megapixel camera with autofocus and features a new hardware keyboard beneath the flip-down keypad.

It will start shipping during the first quarter of next year (price is yet to be confirmed). Smartphones are key to the future of mobile networks - the average revenue per user on a smartphone can be as high as four to five times that of standard mobiles.

So it's time to decide what side you want to be on. The platform race is on.