Access Co. Ltd., the company that owns the rights to the Palm operating system (Palm OS), announced Thursday that it is renaming Palm OS “Garnet OS” instead. The company has done so to differentiate Garnet OS from Palm Inc., manufacturers of the Treo handset and holders of the Palm trademark.
The announcement comes in tandem with Access’ introduction of a new “Access Powered” mark that will replace “Palm Powered” in devices designed around the operating system.
Last October Access announced that it would subsume PalmSource and change its name to Access. It sold PalmSource’s trademark rights back to Palm Inc.. As part of that continued effort, Access is renaming Palm OS to Garnet OS instead.
This isn’t the first time the name “Garnet” has been associated with Palm OS. In February 2004, PalmSource introduced different names for the Palm operating system — Palm OS 5 became Palm OS Garnet, and Palm OS 6 became Palm OS Cobalt.
Besides Garnet OS, Access’ specific focus is in developing a Linux-based platform for mobile phones and other devices. The Access Linux Platform, as the company calls it, wil include a compatibility layer for Garnet OS.