We knew this was coming, but that doesn’t make it feel any better. With the Palm OS Garnet stuck in 5.4.9 (and no plans to upgrade), and the Palm Linux operating system still a year away, some application developers are beginning to de-prioritize Palm OS. We can’t really put all the blame on the developers in this case. The market for Palm OS smartphones is shrinking (or at least, not growing as fast as others like Windows Mobile and Symbian).

eReader (formerly owned by Palm) has released a new Windows Mobile version of their ebook reader software (v 3.0.3) that is quite advanced, with cool features such as over the air ebook browsing and purchase. The price? Free. The Palm OS version is still stuck at version 2.6.3 and to add insult to injury, is $5. In this particular case, Palm OS users have to use and inferior product and are still expected to pay for it!

Another recent high-profile software update was version 2.0 Google’s Maps application. The best feature is called My Location, which can tell where you are based on the nearest cell tower. Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available for Palm OS Treo smartphones, due to a design decision made several years ago back in the Handspring days. Google Maps for Palm OS is stuck at 1.2.0.9.

Filed under: Mobile Software

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