"PalmSource Inc, which develops operating system software for handheld computers and phones, on Monday said David Nagel has stepped down as president, chief executive officer and director," reports Reuters.
"The company gave no reason for Nagel's departure, which was effective on Sunday, and a PalmSource spokeswoman declined any comment."
Comment: That's a bit of a shock, as Nagel pretty much was PalmSource, at least in public. But it is much the weakest of the major players, and wasn't making much progress.
The last time I talked to Nagel was at a Comdex expo when he appeared on a panel presenting PalmSource's strategy alongside representatives from Microsoft and Symbian. They could all have used the same slides, with only the names changed, because there wasn't any real difference in their strategies. It became all too obvious that potential backers could easily exclude PalmSource and then make a binary decision on whether they were for or against Microsoft, leaving Nagel on a hiding to nothing.
And things have got worse since then, with Sony dropping out of the global PDA market and PalmOne failing to adopt the latest PalmSource code....
