Snow Leopard takes a bite out of support for legacy Palm OS devices

Still rocking that Palm Zire with your new Intel-based Mac? Then you might just want to reconsider that upgrade to Snow Leopard, as Apple has apparently decided to ditch its support for legacy Palm OS devices in the latest incarnation of iSync. That, as you may be aware, had previously acted as a conduit for Palm's aging but still available Palm Desktop software, and let folks easily sync up their contacts and other data from their Centro, Treo, Zire, Tungsten, or even a venerable old PalmPilot. Of course, that doesn't quite rise to the same level of controversy as the whole Pre / iTunes situation, especially considering that Palm itself has mostly moved on from said devices, and there are still some third-party sync solutions available for folks that want to keep the Palm OS dream alive.

[Brad Hubbard Posted Aug 25th 2009 5:55PM]

This is prevalent in Apple's corporate culture, and one of the biggest things that keeps them out of enterprise business: backwards compatibility is just not a concern. If you aren't buying the latest and greatest, you're pretty much SOL.

Companies hold onto devices a lot longer than Apple's core customer base. 18 months may seem like a long time to Apple, but with a 5 year amortization on capital expenditures, you can't just shut off support or compatibility.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 25th 2009 6:10PM]

Our company doesn't upgrade operating systems once a computer is purchased anyway. So this kind of backward support isn't an issue. When the new computer is purchased, we get the new OS. If our centralized printers are no longer supported, they are ditched.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 26th 2009 9:26AM]

@ LenH

I guess that can work in certain tech environments but I have to agree with Brad here. As an office IT manager/director, we upgrade the O/S, the Office Suite (Word, Excel, etc), and any other software all at the same time. Many users have a variety of smart phones and other peripheral devices. Our printers cost thousands of dollars. Just "ditching" support for a $3,000 printer or our V.P.'s phone is not really an option. That's only the tip of the iceberg as we also have in-house developed applications that must be able to run after the upgrade as well. Careful planning and execution are key here which is why backwards compatibility is so important be it for better or for worse.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 26th 2009 2:42AM]

If Microsoft pulled this, it would be all over.

[Doax Posted Aug 26th 2009 10:43AM]

Oh! There they go again! Zainy Apple!