PalmSource Sells Self In An Attempt To Remind People It Exists

from the in-case-you-forgot dept

There had been some speculation recently that, fresh off selling the "Palm" brand back to PalmOne (now Palm), the PalmSource might sell itself back to Palm and create one single unit again. Of course, as rumors that Palm's next Treo will be running Windows Mobile gained a measure of credibility, the reunification of the Palms seemed that much less likely. In fact, if you think about it... if Palm dumps PalmSource as its OS of choice, what future does PalmSource really have? So far, they've been unable to gain much traction anywhere outside of Palm and any family feud between the two would be disastrous. Well, it turns out that the company was, indeed, for sale, but the buyer is Japan's Access, makers of mobile software. Whether or not Access can rescue PalmSource, however, is a much bigger question. The mobile OS space has some big horses and PalmSource hasn't been able to get enough traction to be much more than an afterthought at this point. Spending $324 million on a shrinking afterthought in a competitive market seems like a tricky move to justify.