PalmSource is still a part of Palm Inc. but is expected to become independent later this year. When asked if he would purchase PalmSource the Sony CEO said, "Yes, if they want to sell."
Interview Excerpt:
Perkins: What about your relationships with Palm and Symbian?
Idei: In terms of our OS strategy, it is not clear whether Symbian, which we share with the Nokia phones, is the right way to go for the mobile phone. And I can't tell you why Sony has a Symbian OS on its phones and Palm OS on its PDAs. [Laughs] Even Bill Gates asked me if I was crazy. But this is our history. I really want to own either Symbian or Palm—I want to buy them. Three years ago the Palm was so simple, but it is getting better and better. My problem now is that as Palm licensee we have to pay them lots of money. Palm is like Apple—we don't know if they are a software company or a hardware company. You can read the rest here.
