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ACCESS Co today announced it is changing the name of Palm OS Garnet, the latest version of the Palm platform, to plain old Garnet OS. This is the third name for the platform, which was originally called Palm OS 5.

The change is the first in what promises to be an ongoing process of altering Palm-based product names for the company, which acquired PalmSource (and therefore the Palm OS) over a year ago. In October 2006, ACCESS renamed PalmSource ACCESS Systems.

Previously, Palm changed its name to palmOne after splitting with PalmSource. It then bought the rights back to the Palm brand, which it had been sharing with the platform developer, and changed its name back to Palm in the July of 2005.

To ACCESS it makes sense to alter the name of the Palm OS because it isn’t Palm and doesn’t own the rights to the brand. Also, the company's yet to be released next-generation mobile platform, code-named the ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP), is a fresh start for the company.

With the move from Palm OS to Garnet OS, ACCESS is no longer going to use the Palm Powered Logo either. Rather, it is introducing a new one labeled ACCESS Powered. With no Palm OS, why do you need Palm a logo, right?

ACCESS Powered will appear on handhelds and smartphones running any OS from ACCESS, either on the hardware itself, or on splash screens. The logo may also be included on customers' packaging, marketing and sales collateral, tradeshow exhibits and other promotional items.

In the past, ACCESS said it would stop further development of the Palm OS, now Garnet OS. Instead, it would focus on developing ALP, which by the way includes an emulator that promises to run the majority of Garnet applications on ALP devices when they are released.

This doesn't mean a total lack of advancement for the aging OS, which still lacks 3G support or multi-tasking (for example), since ACCESS acquired PalmSource. Palm, Inc. has made many improvements to the platform with its most recent Palm OS smartphones, the Treo 680 and 700p.

In addition, Palm paid $44 million to ACCESS last month to obtain a perpetual license to the Palm OS. At the time, Palm senior VP of business development said the agreement "gives Palm increased ability to innovate on the Palm OS Garnet base, and to effectively differentiate Palm products long into the future." If ACCESS isn’t going to innovate, then Palm at least has too for the OS stay alive.

So Palm is able to modify the platform for its products as it sees fit, which it has basically been doing anyway.

Palm has yet to commit to ALP for future products. So there's been much conjecture that the handheld-maker could be developing a Linux-based mobile platform of its own. And because it owns the rights to the Palm name, it could conceivably call said platform the Palm OS.

You're not the only one if you find all these name changes, acquisitions, split offs, buying and selling of brands, etc. confusing. The question remains: What effect does this lack of 'stability' have in marketplace? Whatever it is, it can't be good.

Where's ALP?
Last month ACCESS attempted to squash rumors that ALP was delayed when the company said the pre-release version of the PDK (product development kit) was already in the hands of some licensees and a pre-release edition of the SDK (software development kit) had shipped to some companies as well.

The timing of when a device maker receives a PDK goes a long way towards determining how long it takes for them to develop and release a smartphone based on ALP. The same goes for the SDK and how ready developers will be with ALP-compatible applications when actual devices built on the operating system start to ship.

By letting both licensees and developers receive early versions of its development kits, ACCESS is allowing them to get a head start on product (hardware and software) creation. This way companies will be ready for the general availability of the ALP PDK and SDK, which is slated to happen sometime during the first half of this year, when ACCESS will also reveal the real name of ALP.

It is still too early to tell whether smartphones built on ALP will actually ship before the end of 2007, however.