PalmSource CEO excited about 3G

GENEVA - David Nagel is returning to his roots, after a fashion. The former vice president of product research and development at Apple Computer Inc., which was among the first companies in the world to launch a handheld computer device with its Newton, is now in the driver's seat of Palm Inc.'s operating system spin-off, PalmSource Inc.

But what makes Nagel particularly well-suited to run a company whose name is almost synonymous with PDAs (personal digital assistants) is not just his Apple past but his career in between: the amicable chief executive officer (CEO) was president of AT&T Labs and chief technology officer of AT&T Corp. In those positions, he acquired a deep understanding of wireless technology, an area in which PalmSource, he admits, will need to excel if it aims to compete successfully with companies like Microsoft Corp. and Symbian Ltd.

"The transition from 2G (second generation) digital mobile networks to 3G (third generation) mobile broadband networks has created an opportunity for us that wasn't there before," said Nagel in an interview Wednesday on the sidelines of the Telecom World 2003 conference and exhibition in Geneva. "In 2G, the prevailing software model was a closed, embedded one. The new 3G environment is open to other players."

The battle, according to Nagel, will be fought around the range of applications available to consumers and enterprise users alike. "The winners will be those who deliver the most and the richest," he said. "The 'killer application' will be diversity."

PalmSource's strength, according to the CEO, is its open platform that has attracted over 275,000 software developers to create almost 200,000 applications. "Open platforms are so much more efficient at garnering third-party development," he said. "Anyone who is discriminate will choose a product with a same-priced software platform that offers choice versus one that doesn't."

As for Linux, yes it's open but "architecturally complex -- a tough operating system for human beings," Nagel said. "It's not clear to me that Linux is tameable for consumer products."

One example of the challenges of using Linux comes via Hong Kong-based Group Sense (International) Ltd. (GSL), which, according to Nagel, spent 18 months trying to develop smart phones based on the open source operating system. "Using our OS, the company developed its first-ever phone in seven months," he said. "Part of the reason why GSL and our other licence partners for smart phones are able to save time and hassles is that drivers are readily available, and our silicon providers embed them in chips. So our partners don't have to sit down and write the 'how' for our chips."

Going forward with new versions of its OS, Nagel said the company will integrate the various "wireless stacks" that its license partners had to add themselves to build their smart phones.

As PalmSource squares off against Microsoft and Symbian to carve out a chunk of the emerging 3G market, Nagel said each enters the market with its own powerful customer base: Microsoft has a strong position in the corporate world, Symbian in the mobile world thanks in large part to Nokia Corp. For its part, PalmSource has more than 30 million people who own handheld products from Palm, he said.

"This is a new space for all of us," Nagel said. "We're going to see a lot of volatility over the next couple of years."

Volatility is something that has accompanied Nagel, the technologist, through much of his career, particularly in his first IT job. "Apple was being ground down by a superior business model," he said, recalling his later years with the company. "We always said that we had better technology but they -- Microsoft -- had the better business model, unfortunately."

And his new challenge? "It's great," Nagel said. "From my previous jobs, I've learned a lot about convergence, which is going to come in useful, even if it's been painful sometimes. But let me say how a great feeling it is for an engineer like myself to see how devices we build impact people's lives."