Stardate 20010816.0935 (On Screen): I've taken to making long-shot predictions here. What the hell; it's not as if anyone will shoot me if I'm wrong. It's fun, and I can gloat when I'm right. But of course I should acknowledge when I'm wrong, and this is such a time. Be corp is indeed going to be acquired, which is good. I predicted
a possibility that the buyer might be Qualcomm. Actually, it's going to be Palm, which fills me with mixed feelings. This is a match which has all sorts of interesting possibilities. What I'm wondering is whether Palm might have decided to try to down-adapt BeIA to PDAs instead of trying to update the PalmOS. A different possibility is that it is trying to diversify. There is, of course, strong speculation that Palm will divide itself into an OS company and a PDA company, and in such a case the new Be properties would become part of the OS group.
There are two ways this can go. Palm can absorb and ultimately waste the assets of Be, and sink into the ground and be buried by WinCE. Or Palm can use this as a step up in its product capabilities and use it to catch up to WinCE, which is much more advanced than the existing PalmOS. If anything, BeIA is even more advanced yet, and it is far more portable than is the PalmOS, which is attractive considering Palm's urgent need to move off of Dragonball and onto ARM. (BeIA may already run on the ARM.) The one thing which is certain is that this means the PC version of BeOS is now completely totally dead. Palm isn't going to waste a dime on further support for that. Aside from that, the big question is whether this will be the shovel which helps Palm dig its way out of the hole it is in, or merely becomes one of the many shovels which will help to bury it. (discussion in progress)
