This is by no means new:

Palm/Microsoft are going to port WindowsMobile to run on Palm hardware.  Microsoft makes very little money off of licensing for WindowsMobile/CE so this move must be an effort to sell more of the things that go along with mobile systems: back end integration, lock people into the WindowsPlatform, etc.  Does this mean we may see ActiveSync get some more attention and maybe get ported to more platforms?

Palm has always had great hardware in my opinion and was absolutely an innovator in this field.  I believe having their own OS has contributed greatly to their downfall.  With Windows CE we have had eVB, eVC, the .NET CF for years.   They weren't always great but they were all VERY usable small device development environments.  With Palm you have had C++ using CodeWarrior and J2ME using the KVM.  I have not looked at J2ME in a couple of years, but I have seen some big names post about it: it's not very good.  Maybe I am out of touch with the community, but I've never heard of a big app being written on PalmOS the way I do about windowsmobile stuff.  I run into mobile apps all over the place: at the airport, in Kohls or Target, at the rental-car place; every one I've gotten a chance to look at was undoubtedly a  Windows CE based device.  Big apps being written on these things means companies like DAP, TDS, Symbol, Intermec get orders for hundreds of units at a time, meanwhile Palm has been (as far as I know) relying on individual purchasers to upgrade their units to be able to view their calendar faster or store that extra million contacts they were missing. 

Since I may end up evaluating palm units on a future project I'm curious: can anyone else tell of their experience developing for Palm over the past several years?