Is the Palm OS Still a Platform?

“Is the Palm OS still a platform?” is a question that I have been thinking about for a while now. Back when I first started using Palm handhelds, there were a number of companies developing solutions based on the Palm OS: Handspring, Sony, Garmin, Fossil, Symbol, Kyrocera, Handera, AlphaSmart, and of course, Palm.

The current Palm OS landscape has four companies still offering solutions that run the Palm OS: Palm, Garmin, GSpda, and newcomer Janam. For all intents and purposes, only Palm is actively developing solutions for the general public.

Can the Palm OS still be considered a platform if only one company is actively developing hardware and writing software for it? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a platform as “the computer architecture and equipment using a particular operating system.”

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