It's not lack of innovation that sunk PalmSource. Or..?

It’s debatable if the latest news from PalmSorce is a bad sign for alternatives to Windows Mobile: “Japanese software developer Access Co. said on Friday it would make U.S. software developer PalmSource Inc. wholly owned in a 34.4 billion yen ($311.3 million) cash deal to strengthen its development of software for handheld devices.” Palm recently introduced a Palm Treo with Windows Mobile.

So, what went wrong? Mike Singer at ZDNet wrote thought-provoking about five reasons why Palm went from owning the palmtop platform to be divided up. Mike Singer claims, among other things, that Palm executives were slow to see the convergence of cellular phones and personal digital assistants.

I agree, but I think that any management in Silicon Valley did not see what was going on. The market was not the U.S. but GSM in Europe and Asia. Still the mobile wireless infrastructure sucks heavy in the U.S. The test bed for mobile applications is Scandinavia, Korea or Japan, not Silicon Valley.