Palm's Cobalt Drops Mac Support

Now Palm will not be supplying syncing software for Cobalt for Mac OS X.

That means Cobalt devices no longer have an implicit connectivity advantage versus PocketPC devices. That means Palm Cobalt devices have just been commoditized, grouped in my mind with all the other non-Mac-native PDAs out there.

I'm not saying I won't purchase a Cobalt device in the future. I am saying they will now need to compete effectively, as stand-alone devices, against the PocketPC onslaught. This weakens Palm's competitive advantage.

I don't know the numbers. Maybe the market size of Mac OS X users is small enough that Palm can't justify the software development costs. But I doubt it.

My advice to PalmSource: go ahead and kill Palm Desktop and its associated development costs. Address Book and iCal, for all their warts, are already in place for you to exploit. Either continue to keep the HotSync+iSync combo working, or work with Apple to get iSync to natively support Cobalt.

The development costs associated with keeping connectivity working are low, and keep Mac OS X users like me largely locked into your platform.

Update: Judi Sohn makes a good point how we're all pointing back to the same nebulous source for this information. What I didn't mention is that a friend of mine was at the press briefing where the head of PalmSource made the announcement. Later, at the reception, he was seeking feedback on the decision, gauging the extent of the negative reaction. From what I can tell, this is the real deal. I also agree the PIM situation on Mac OS X is rather bad, but I'll temper that statement with the acknowledgment that I haven't met a PIM I didn't dislike, Windows or Mac.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004
12:00 AM