Why didn't Palm adopt Springboard or even Memory Stick standards? It would be much better for the Palm Economy and Palm OS users, according to some analysts. In my opinion, Palm was right from the very beginning.

Although present in all new Palm handhelds, the SD/MMC open standard didn't become popular just because of Palm's decision. In fact, other handheld makers are now adopting the same standard. In addition to Handspring who has added an SD slot to their Treos, HandEra's new HandEra 330 has both CF and SD/MMC slots. It looks like the MultiMediaCard Association (at http://www.mmca.org) is doing a very good job of promoting the MMC standard itself.

This new standard is getting more and more popular among Pocket PC users as well. Every single new Pocket PC model has a SD/MMC slot. Kodak digital cameras also adopted it. Ericson MP3 accessories for cell phones are compatible with SD/MMC cards. Even the new Dana from AlphaSmart has SD slots. The SD/MMC standard may even help bring about what once seemed unimaginable: it may help the seamless exchange of data between Palm OS and Pocket PC handhelds.

But the most important move came from the company that first popularized the expansion slots for PDAs. Handspring recently released the Treo 90, which has the same form factor as the Treo 180 and Treo 270 series but doesn't have wireless capability. However, the Treo 90 is the first handheld from Handspring to be equipped with a SD/MMC slot. This just may be the starting point of a new battle. Not between Palm and Microsoft, but between the makers of the Palm OS and the makers of Palm OS-based handhelds.

It's becoming clear that the SD/MMC cards are now the de facto standard for handhelds, no matter what the operating system. And it's also clear that other companies are adopting the SD/MMC to make the exchange of data between all sorts of equipment possible. But there's one thing missing from this strategy. In fact, there's a company missing. Sony is a giant in the consumer electronic market, and Memory Stick slots are spread all over Sony equipment, from digital cameras to notebooks, from digital portraits to handhelds. And we cannot forget that Sony is also licensing the Memory Stick technology. Acer, for example, has adopted the Memory Stick in both its Palm OS and Pocket PC handhelds.

It's going to be a tough battle. Some say SD/MMC is one step ahead of the Memory Stick because it's an open standard and because it has been adopted by a lot of companies, but I wouldn't be so confident. The Memory Stick is ahead of SD/MMC in some files. The ability to support card-based accessories is very common on the Memory Stick side. On the SD/MMC side, most of the devices (including the Treo 90 and iPaq 3800 series) are not SDIO compatible; in other words, they only support data storage. And as for those that consider the Memory Stick physically too big, Sony has an answer for that in the Memory Stick Duo (at http://www.memorystick.org/msinfo/eng/ms/duo.html). Smaller then a SD/MMC card, the Memory Stick Duo can even be used in the old Memory Stick slots with an adapter.