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Palm OS is the computer operating system that provides a software platform for the Palm series of handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) made by Palm Inc. According to Palm, Palm OS was designed from the beginning to fit into a palm-size device of a specific size and with a specific display size. Microsoft's Windows CE and Symbian's EPOC (originated by Psion) are also operating systems for handheld devices, but are designed to serve a broader range of devices.
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Palm OS uses multitasking, but only one task is for applications. The user uses one application at a time, one application program must finish before the next can be selected. This constraint allows the operating system to devote full attention to the application that is open. The space needed by the system for any application that is running is kept in dynamic, reusable random access memory (RAM). The application and its related database are kept in what is called permanent storage, but here the permanent storage is RAM (rather than a hard disk) that cannot be reused as the dynamic RAM can. Palm OS divides an application into runnable code and different types of data elements, such as user interface elements and icons. The data elements can be easily changed without necessarily having to rewrite code.
Manufacturers are free to implement different features of the OS in their devices or even add new features. This version history describes the officially licensed version from Palm/PalmSource/ACCESS.
Palm OS is a proprietary mobile operating system. Designed in 1996 for Palm Computing, Inc.'s new Pilot PDA, it has been implemented on a wide array of mobile devices, including smartphones, wrist watches, handheld gaming consoles, barcode readers and GPS devices.
Palm OS was originally developed under the direction of Jeff Hawkins at Palm Computing, Inc. Palm was later acquired by U.S. Robotics Corp., which in turn was later bought by 3Com, which made the Palm subsidiary an independent publicly traded company on March 2, 2000.