Why Garnet™ OS?

The Garnet OS platform is uniquely designed for the needs of today's mobile world. Garnet OS gives people easy control over all the mobile information, communication, and entertainment in their lives, whenever and wherever they want it. And because every individual is different, Garnet OS offers the world's biggest selection of mobile software, and supports the creation of a wide range of smart mobile devices.

The Garnet OS platform grew into this role because of its focus on the specific needs of the mobile user. Rather than trying to squeeze all the features and capabilities of a personal computer into a tiny package, Garnet OS devices are designed specifically for managing mobile information, communications, and entertainment. This gives Garnet OS devices big advantages in flexibility, ease of use, and compatibility.

Flexibility

Many people think of mobile phones as simply a tool for voice communication, or handhelds as just a tool for tracking addresses and calendars, but in reality they are used for an almost infinite variety of tasks. Garnet OS devices come in a wide range of prices, and with a huge selection of different features. And they can be customized with the industry's widest selection of software.

Hardware Selection

The Garnet OS platform gives a large selection of hardware devices. And they are priced to fit almost any budget. For more information on available Garnet OS devices, click here.

Software Variety

Garnet OS devices can be customized from more than 20,000 software titles, the industry's largest collection of software. They include professional software for almost any job (legal, medical, real estate, etc), productivity tools (database, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, etc), personal software (travel maps and translators, health and fitness managers, even hobbies like knitting and astronomy), and entertainment (games, e-books, music, and video). For more information on available Garnet OS software, visit the ACCESS Software Store or our Expert Guides section.

Number of applications available for each mobile platform
(Source: Developing for Mobile Environments, ARC Chart 2005)

Unlike PCs, software use on smart mobile devices is intensely vertical-the programs are very specialized to individual needs, and each user installs a different mix of personal and professional software. So, for example, in the medical field there isn't just medical software, but anaesthesiology software, dentistry software, psychology software, and so on.

Mix and Match any Software on any Device

Garnet OS software runs on virtually all Palm Powered devices, so users or corporate departments can mix and match the exact software they need with the hardware they require. This flexibility is unique to the Garnet OS software. Other mobile operating systems have incompatible versions for different hardware designs, and software created for one don't run on the others.

Ease of Use

Typical usage sessions on smart mobile devices are shorter than on a PC-the user takes out the device, captures or accesses data, sends or reads a message, and puts it away. That sets a much higher standard for ease of use. A user can't afford to fumble around with nested dialog boxes and hidden commands. The system's design must anticipate needs and take care of them in advance-let people get in and out fast and get on with life. One of ACCESS' greatest areas of expertise is thinking like a user, sweating the details of how a product will actually be used and how to make that usage simple and lightning-fast.

A survey of IT managers conducted by Gantry Group confirmed that the Garnet OS platform provides an ease-of-use advantage. It found that Garnet OS systems had a 54% lower yearly cost of ownership compared to Windows Mobile Pocket PC.

Annual cost of buying and supporting Garnet OS and Windows Mobile Pocket PC devices
(Source: Gantry Group, 2005)

The most important user actions have been made the easiest to access on Garnet OS devices. Pressing the calendar button takes you to today's appointments, rather than the last day you worked on. A single button press generally beams a business card. A single stylus tap adds information to an appointment. Other smart mobile device platforms typically require multiple user input actions to perform the same tasks. Garnet OS' legendary 'Zen of Palm' user experience design philosophy ensures that both existing and future mobile services and technologies will continue to be presented in an intuitive and easy-to-use fashion on Garnet OS devices.

Adding an Appointment Entry using Garnet OS

Adding an Appointment Entry using Windows Mobile

Adding an Appointment Entry on Series 60/Symbian

Calling a Contact on Garnet OS

Calling a Contact on Series 60/Symbian

Compatibility

ACCESS works with third-party developers to create compatibility solutions for working with popular desktop standards like Microsoft Office. Because ACCESS does not compete with these developers, there is very active competition among them to create compatibility products, and they actually provide a better compatibility solution than Microsoft's own built-in Word Mobile and Excel Mobile.

Garnet OS products generally preserve the formatting of Word documents when they are edited on a Palm Powered device.

Document compatibility with Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Word Mobile application

Document compatibility with on Series 60/Symbian

Compatibility with Major Enterprise Standards

To a corporation, some of the most important uses of a mobile device are working with corporate data and email. Corporate data is typically managed by a variety of enterprise solutions from companies like Oracle, SAP, Sun, Lotus, RSA, and Siebel. Because ACCESS is focused only on the mobile market, it has been able to create close, cooperative relationships with the leaders in corporate computing. As a result, Garnet OS systems integrate very well with a wide variety of enterprise solutions.

Wireless email is now a priority for many organizations around the world, and ACCESS partners with all the industry leading wireless email providers - BlackBerry, GoodLink, Intellisync, Notify Technology and Visto - to ensure full compatibility of these systems with devices running the Garnet OS.

The Future

Many people assume that the market for smart mobile devices will develop like the market for PCs, that everyone will converge on a single one-size-fits-all design. But in reality the opposite is happening-as the market grows, devices are becoming more and more diverse. The reality is that the market for smart mobile devices is more like the market for cars than PCs. Just as different people need and choose very different vehicles, different people and different companies will choose very different data devices, and customize them with different software programs. The Garnet OS platform offers the best selection of hardware and software, while preserving the ease of use that launched the mobile data market in the first place.