Palm OS Programming, 2nd Edition

How Palm Succeeded

Over the last five years, the market for handhelds has changed dramatically in many ways. The customer base has significantly broadened—there are early adopters, loyal followers, and business enterprise users, mixed with growing numbers of less-sophisticated general consumers. All of these folks are buying handhelds to organize differing aspects of their lives and they have enormously varying tolerances for difficulty and desires for the latest cool features. As of mid-2001, Palm and its licensees have sold more than 13 million handhelds and they control close to 80 percent of the market. This is a lot of people using a lot of handhelds.

This is all great news if you want to write software for the Palm OS platform. There are lots of potential customers. Whether you are developing consumer software, or enterprise software for thousands to tens of thousands of units, or a vertical application for a particular niche market, the Palm OS/device combination will work for you. It will, that is, if you pay attention to the key features that have made it successful.

The Magic Formula

So, here are those key features. Here are the elements of Palm’s magic formula to a successful handheld:

• Easy to carry

• Inexpensive

• Expandable (both for a user and a developer)

• Effortlessly connects with a desktop computer

• Works great and is simple to use

Every feature matters—you can’t take one out of the mix and still have the same successful handhelds. So, while you may see some of these features ...