After an afternoon surfing the web, this is probably an over simplified version of what I think is happening. There are two threads that are going on, one is Palm the company and the other is Palm OS.
First in 2006 “Palm” the company” sold “Palm OS” to a Japanese company DBA Access. Palm then changed their focus to the smart cell phone industry, notice the Treo, then the Centro and soon to be released Pre. The Pre will be based on a “WEB OS” operating system not the palm OS. However, there has been a recent announcement that that there will be a special program available for the pre which will allow it to run legacy Palm OS application.
If you go to the US web site it is hard if not impossible to even order a PDA then only a Tx. The Canadian site still offers E2 and Tx (if the I phone is any example then it could take up to 2 years to get the Pre in Canada). So if you are in need of a “Palm device” they may still be available for a few months.
Over the years the Palm company has fallen behind in the industrial strength PDA market. The color screen has always been an issue in the out doors and the extra cases etc required to make them strong enough to with stand the Western Canadian environment were a hassle.
There are other companies that make industrial strength Palm OS PDA. Two years ago I came across the Meazura made by Aceeca. The Meazura have proven to rugged enough and reliable for our purposes. They have backup chip and and a back up program (which is extra). Combine this with excellent support from Aceeca.
So is Palm OS dead may be Mark Twain said it best when he wrote ” The News of My Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated”