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Fours years ago, Microsoft and Palm announced an alliance that would have Palm Treo phones running Windows Mobile and Bill Gates even demonstrated one in his keynote at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show. Now however, the bloom is off the rose and Palm has announced that they are dropping Windows Mobile:
Another one bites the dust. A few months ago, Motorola’s consumer handset division said they were ditching Windows Mobile for an all-Android approach. In an earnings call today (transcribed by Business Insider), Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said the makers of the Windows Mobile-powered Treo Pro and WebOS-powered Palm Pre are abandoning WinMo for an all-WebOS lineup.
Palm built their first Windows Mobile Treo, the 700w, in 2006 in an attempt to appeal to Microsoft-oriented business customers. But their most recent entries in the line didn’t get much traction in the US market. The Treo 800w wasn’t a strong performer or seller, and the Treo Pro got good reviews, but didn’t really take off either.
Microsoft isn’t running short of Windows Mobile partners, but while a few years ago Windows Mobile look like a juggernaut in the smartphone arena, it now is merely a player.
