Well that was quick and slow at the same time. Just yesterday, I penned some thoughts about Palm’s Nova announcements coming in a few weeks at CES. One of those predictions, admittedly not much of a stretch, was that Palm would follow Apple and Google by launching their own application store. Turns out that Palm quick did just that last night. It’s also slow because Palm practically invented the smartphone market earlier this decade, but is now playing follow the leader, which usually isn’t good.

Palm should have leveraged their vast array of in-house and third-party applications long before this as they had a clear, competitive advantage. Namely, the number of Palm OS titles and smartphones on the market as early as 2002… anyone remember the Treo 180? Now Palm has over 5,000 applications (over 1,000 are free), which Venture Beat notes is half that of the Apple’s iTunes App Store and ten times more than Google’s Android Marketplace.

Numbers and strategies aside, Palm’s store is here now and available for download. The company has partnered with PocketGear, a long-time handheld software vendor; I haven’t yet seen any details if developer terms are modeled after that of Apple and Google.

Update: Mobile Crunch indicates that developers will see 50% of software sale revenues, which is far less than Google, Apple and even RIM are offering.

There’s quite the buzz over a Business Week story today on Palm and their new Nova operating system. Word is that Palm will uncover Nova in a few short weeks at CES; we’ve got our invites, so we’ll see what the "new-ness" is all about. Based on a couple of excerpts from the BW article, I’ve got a few insights as to where this is heading but that’s speculation on my part. It’s far to early to say if the new Palm platform will shine like a super-nova or peter-out like a like a white dwarf.

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Is this the shortest beta ever for a Google product? The company debuted their Chrome browser roughly 100 days ago and the beta tag is officially gone. Considering the Gmail logo still has the word beta in it, this might be a record.

There’s no doubt that Chrome offers a utilitarian, minimalistic view of the web, which can be a good thing, but there are still some barriers to fast, widespread adoption:

• No version for non-Windows platforms, although these are in the works. While PCs running Windows make up the lions share of the computer market, my gut says that Mac and Linux folks are more likely to adopt a non-native browser than Windows users. I don’t mean the tech-saavy Windows users here, I mean Joe the Plumber… OK, bad example. I mean my dad and his friends.
• No extensions yet, which is one of the main reasons folks turn to Firefox. Again, this is in the works and recently, the Google folks introduced an extension framework for Chrome.
• The new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine in the upcoming Firefox 3.1 takes away some of the advantage Chrome has with it’s speedy V8 engine. Both are lickety-split, but what was once a clear competitive advantage is about to see feature parity per early test results.
• Name recognition. Yup, Google as a brand is among the tops in the world, but mostly as a search engine to mainstream consumers. The Mozilla team has worked hard over the past few years to spread the word and get the Firefox brand in front of as many eyes as possible. This will surely change over time, but for now, I think more people know what Firefox is than what Chrome is.

At the moment, the general consensus is that Chrome effectively has around 1% of the browser market. It’s sure to grow, but not at the pace that Opera or Firefox have in the past. My guess: Google will consider it a win if they see 10% market share in the next twelve months. Of course, that’s subject to change if we see Google work some deals with OEMs and get Chrome on the PC as the default browser. It would be even better if they get it on some non-Android hardware as well. Also bound to help: the Chrome browser recently got a Bookmark manager.

At the moment, I generally use Chrome on my PCs (it works great on my netbook) but Firefox on my Mac. Who’s made the switch to Chrome full-time and why?

Good news from Boston-Power today by way of Earth2Tech: the company is producing a lithium-ion battery that will offer a much longer lifespan. How much longer? A battery using Boston-Power’s Sonata technology will last three times longer before the recharge capacity begins to degrade. This doesn’t mean that consumers will see devices run three times longer on a single charge; instead, it means that the battery can hold 100% of it’s rated capacity far longer before the eventual degradation. Put another way: after 300 charge cycles, most notebook batteries fail to fully recharge. They begin to hold less of a charge at that point and therefore you either need to buy another battery or deal with less run-time between charges. Boston-Power says that their batteries will keep 100% of the charge over 1,000 charge cycles.

HP will offer batteries using Boston-Power’s solution under the "HP Enviro Series" brand and expects to charge only $20 to $30 more for these power packs over current batteries. While we’re all looking for more run-time on the go, a solution like this can help lower overall device costs since one of these batteries will effectively last as long as three other batteries for your mobile device. Another plus for these batteries? They charge up quickly, as much as 80% in 30 minutes. That makes finding that seat near the AC adapter at Starbucks a little more palatable: you can gain a quick charge before finishing that cup of java.

Before you even continue on to the news bit, know that I’m agnostic when it comes to my wireless data. I frankly could care less whether I’m connected to the web via WiFi, WiMAX, EV-DO, or HSDPA. They all get me to the same place although some have cost and location advantages over others. But today’s news out of Verizon Wireless via PC World underscores my low expectations for nationwide WiMAX here in the United States. The carrier had already planned to follow GSM-based competitor AT&T into the LTE pool for 4G services and now they’re moving up their time-table. Verizon Wireless expects to begin offering faster Long Term Evolution service before the end of 2009. Original estimates had service availability beginning in 2010 with a full build-out by 2011.

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What do we have here? Looks like some of the first pics I’ve seen of a netbook based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset have appeared at Silicon.com. While the eight portraits likely represent more concept design rather than actual product, I like what I see. For starters, Snapdragon is an ARM-based processor which lends hope towards near-instant-on, low power consumption and supports both Linux and Windows Mobile.

It’s a safe bet that WinMo would likely be paired with Snapdragon for a more pocketable MID device; Linux makes more sense for the netbook type devices. In fact, based on the pics of the netbook user interface design, it sure looks like RedFlag’s Midinux to me.

The real question is: when we will see these devices and will they use the newer 45nm Snapdragon chipset that Qualcomm introduced last month? The new QSD8672 offer a dual core CPU with clock speeds up to 1.5GHz. They also offer the following features that are competitive to Intel’s Atom, which is currently the netbook CPU of choice:

• Wireless 3G /HSPA+ support for 28Mbps down and 11Mbps up
• Integrated GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi
• 1080p video recording & playback
• MediaFLO, DVB-H, and IDSB-T mobile television
• Display resolutions up to WSXGA or 1440×900

These features would trump the currently existing Snapdragon platform which clocks in at 1GHz and offers less display resolution. Still, that chipset could round out a smaller MID feature-set nicely.

Taking a closer look at the netbook, you can see that it has a full keyboard and doesn’t look as deep as other netbooks on the market. This design appears to forgo the space of a trackpad but does have a touchscreen. Even better: it swivels like a convertible tablet. Given that handwriting recognition apps in Linux fall behind those in Windows XP Tablet Edition and Vista, this may be more of a touchscreen solution over a full inking solution.

Qualcomm says that Snapdragon devices like this should run between four and six hours on a single charge and my gut says that’s with a standard sized battery. If correct, that means you can get extended battery run-time performance in a standard, lighter package. Here’s hoping we see some more details in a few weeks at CES. Thanks for the tip, Allan! 

A few months back, we looked at the worldwide smartphone market numbers and watched RIM jump past Windows Mobile. Mac OS X handset sales, i.e.: the iPhone, more than doubled year-over-year and perennial market leader Symbian was in danger of dipping below the 50% line. Fast forward to today thanks to Gartner’s 3rd quarter numbers and you can see that the trends are continuing. For some that’s good, while others were already declining in market share and they keep sinking. Note: while other similar research came to light this week, I’m focusing on Gartner’s numbers simply for consistency because I used them a quarter ago.

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Although the initial release of Microsoft Windows Vista caused headaches for some, I’ve found that Service Pack 1 has made life much more enjoyable from a computing perspective. That’s why I have high hopes for SP2, not to mention Windows 7. We’ll have to wait for to-be-determined date to see Windows 7 launch, but SP2 for Vista is in the works now. In fact, the first beta just became available to some folks today and I’m downloading it now. Expect to see a public beta in the very near-future; we’ll tell you when.

While I’m downloading, you can read the highlighted points and features in the beta version, which of course, are subject to change…

Update: for my configuration, the installation package was 301MB in size. Vista said that the update could take up to an hour, but on the Lenovo X301, it was completed in around 12 minutes.

Update #2: I’ve removed the feature list in the build by request and due to what appears to be a misunderstanding in communications.

If you didn’t know that Sprint’s XOHM service was WiMAX, you’re probably in the majority. That’s why Sprint officials kept referring to it as "a hotspot as big as a city" at the Baltimore launch event in October. Unfortunately, that’s too long for a marketable mobile service offering’s name so clearly the wireless technology needs a new name. Hey, that’s it: Clear!

That’s the deal and although it still doesn’t describe the service in my book, it does work on another level now that Sprint has sold its WiMAX airwaves to Clearwire. The company announced the closing of various prior deals including a $3.2 billion investment from Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks. Stacey Higginbotham offers additional clarity to the future of nationwide WiMAX with these tidbits along with my thoughts:

• The Clear network will capable of upgrades to LTE. Hmm… you could give bonus points for strategic planning ahead, but does it show a lack of confidence in WiMAX in a nod to the "other" 4G standard that’s coming? AT&T and Verizon Wireless have already committed to LTE.
• Clear service is expected to offer average downloads of 2Mbps to 4Mbps, with peak speeds faster. That’s in line with what I saw in Baltimore at the launch event, but in my opinion, it’s not dramatic enough to sacrifice the very limited geographic availability for my usage.
• Clearwire will work with Sprint to leverage Sprint’s current 3G service with support for dual-mode 3G / WiMAX hardware. This should help customers in existing Sprint data coverage areas if they know that their location will be getting WiMAX from Clear in the short-term future.
• By the middle part of 2009, we’ll move beyond USB and ExpressCard  WiMAX solutions for notebooks and see more mobile internet devices, MP3 players and other devices. My gut says that even at that point, you’re looking at devices that can only connect to WiMAX in a dozen or so cities.

Whatever you call the network, Clearwire has to get those investment dollars put to work right away for network expansion since a service is only good if it’s readily available for use. At that moment HSDPA, EV-DO, and even WiFi to some extent, clearly fit that bill.