Japan’s Access has completed the takeover of PalmSource,
the owner of the Palm operating system.
The £191m takeover means Access now owns the most widely used
personal digital assistant (PDA) operating system.
Although the Palm operating system is currently on most PDAs in
use globally, it is facing increased competition from other
operating systems on smaller devices such as smartphones.
Symbian is one of the leaders in this field, with support from
the likes of Nokia, and the Blackberry operating system sold on
devices from RIM has taken the lion’s share of the “push” e-mail
market.
Microsoft is now also making some leeway in the mobile operating
system market with its Windows Mobile product.
Access intends using the Palm OS to create a Palm-Linux hybrid
OS, taking advantage of PalmSource’s own acquisition a year ago of
China MobileSoft, one of Asia’s leading Linux mobile software
developers.
Access produces the Linux-based NetFront mobile browser, among
other products.
PalmSource yesterday joined the Linux Phone Standards (Lips)
Forum, which is aiming to draw up a mobile Linux OS standard that
easily integrates with mobile applications running over it.
Lips is backed by Orange, Huawei, MontaVista Software, and
various other developers. By delivering a more compliant Linux OS
standard to other applications, Lips hopes to drum up wider support
for Linux in the mobile space.