Would It Be So Bad if the Palm Pre Didn’t Emulate PalmOS?

palm-preJust a short thought as I kick up my heels and rest up before tonight’s MobileFocus event. There’s talk of a PalmOS emulator on the Pre and sure, it could happen. But let me take a contrarian point of view to kick up some discussion: would it be so bad if it didn’t? Before you virtually stone me, hear me out for a second. Then you can throw stones as needed in the comments. :)

I’ll grant that there are oodles of PalmOS device owners out there. There are also plenty of PalmOS applications on those devices. But if I were one of those folks that had a PalmOS device and owned some compatible titles, I’d likely only get marginal utility from such an emulator. Why? Because in the long run, I’d want to see slick-looking updates to my fave apps so they could run natively in the gorgeous looking webOS.

Now the developers out there are cocking back their arms and getting ready to lob bombs at me too, but before you throw anything, let me ask you a question. Wouldn’t you like your application to take full advantage of all the native webOS hooks and features? If an emulator will allow you to do that (which is certainly possible), you’re set. I’m not sure that will be the case though because the Palm of today is looking forward — not backward. While Palm likely has no desire to cut off PalmOS developers at the knees, they know that the polish and shine of webOS is going to win them more customers than a crotchety-looking title (by comparison) in an emulator.

One more thought before the missiles fly. No matter how much you want to see a PalmOS emulator, will you not purchase the Pre solely because it can’t run your old PalmOS apps? I’ve seen some grumbling about losing old apps, but really: is it going to stop you? I’m thinking in many cases: no, not based on what you’ve seen of the Pre so far. I have yet to meet anyone in person or online that’s told me they’re passing on the Palm Pre because they can’t lose their old PalmOS apps.

Hey, I agree that if Palm can make it happen, it’s a win-win. I just wanted to ponder the possibilities since Palm originally said they weren’t doing this, although they’d be OK with it if a third-party offered it.

OK folks, let ‘em fly!

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