During its latest financial announcement call last week, Palm has revealed that while it is on track to complete development of its new Nova operating system (also known as Palm OS II) by the end of the year, we will not see any devices running the new OS until middle of 2009. Earlier, Palm had indicated that it would have devices out by early 2009. The company did not explain what reasons were causing the latest delays.
Palm began work on the new operating system back in 2007. Built on Linux, it promises more capabilities focused around the Internet and web-based applications. Devices running Nova will be aimed primarily at high-end consumers while Windows Mobile devices (such as the upcoming Palm Treo Pro) will remain focused on the business user segment.
Palm is still using the Palm OS 5.4 Garnet operating system for its successful line of Palm Centro smartphones. Garnet is a dinosaur among mobile operating systems, having first been introduced in 2004. Its last major update dates back to 2006.