New Palm OS Sighted

Well it’s been years in the making, but we’re finally seeing images of what we believe to be Palm’s new operating system. Sure the iPhone-esque aesthetic doesn’t exactly scream new anymore since it’s been replicated in a dozen other phones, but any update to Palm’s aging platform is great news to us.

Access, the developer behind the new operating system, hopes to deliver ALP by late 2009, which is right in line with an earlier announcement this month from Palm that we’d be seeing a new operating system in about 18 months. Dumbphone and low-end smartphone users also can expect to see a mini version of the operating system on select phones, albeit with a few of the utilities cut out I’m sure.

What’s our verdict? The screenshots look interesting, and it’s always nice to see an update for the aging Palm platform, but I do worry if Palm will even have enough support in the industry in 18 months for this to be worthwhile. The other problem is ALP. The operating system has never actually found its way to a handset in North America. With a constant slew of derailments and delays, the OS has taken a back seat to another Linux-based operating system you might have heard of – Google’s Android. Check out the before and after pics below to see what all the fuss is about.