Palm confident of successful 2001

PalmOS 4 coming in 'a few months'

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 8th February 2001 11:57 GMT

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Palm is on track to release PalmOS 4.0 "in a few months", company CEO Carl Yankowski told attendees of the Banc of America Securities Conference in San Francisco yesterday.

That puts the OS' release ahead of an earlier official deadline, made at last December's PalmSource developers conference, of mid to late 2001, and more in line with comments made in November from the company's European head that the software will launch in March at CeBIT.

Yankowski also reiterated the company's plan to ship more wireless-enabled PDAs, presumably the long-awaited follow-up to the Palm VII family.

Palm's most recent launch, the m100, has sold very well, boasted Yankowski. Over 530,000 of the consumer-oriented PDAs have shipped since its August 2000 launch. The success of the m100, along with initiatives to target international markets and deals with 350 firms who want to give PDAs to their employees, will ensure Palm retains its domination of the palmtop market, Yankowski predicted.

A push into Europe would be very welcome, not least among Palm Europe staff, a number of whom have complained to us in the past that "Palm just doesn't get Europe". Yankowski said yesterday he wants to get international sales' 38 per cent share of Palm's revenue to over 50 per cent. ®