Just because a company is called PalmOne and it invented the Palm operating system doesn't mean it is exclusively married to using that platform in its devices. At least that's what palmOne's Head of Europe, Vesey Crichton, suggested to the Swedish publication Allt om Handdatorer this week.

In the article, Crichton demonstrated interest in the Symbian OS and Nokia's implementation of that platform. infosync quotes the article as saying that Crichton and PalmOne's take on the Palm OS is that it is "not viewed internally as a religion."

While the thought of PalmOne implementing another operating system in some manner may come as a shock, it is not completely surprising after its separation from PalmSource, the arm that was in charge of maintaining the Palm OS. As a hardware only vendor now, PalmOne is free to pursue any avenue, including alternative operating systems, that would make its products more appealing, and therefore helping the bottom line, which in turn would make shareholders happy.

Take Europe for instance, the Symbian OS is used in the lion's share of smartphones, which as a market is growing at a much faster rate than the PDA market. Palm OS and Windows Mobile smartphone units sell in far fewer quantities in Europe. Should PalmOne decide to create a Symbian smartphone for the European market, then it would benefit from the brand recognition that comes with the PalmOne name while offering a product that is more in line with what European consumer want, a Symbian-based phone.

Another indication of change at PalmOne has to do with its recent acquisition of Handspring and the Treo 600. The Treo 600 is a Palm OS smartphone that is especially popular in the United States, where connected organizers, nevertheless, haven't caught on the way they have in Europe. The expectation is, however, that these types of handhelds will become the dominant mobile devices here too.

To help manage the Handspring merger with the aim of becoming profitable later this year, PalmOne recently laid off 100 people or 12% of its work force. When it did so, it stated that it wanted to create more of balance between PDAs and smartphones, making the smartphone, or Treo line, more of a focus than it had been before the take over.

One scenario has PalmOne coming out with smartphones in multiple platforms, pushing devices with certain operating systems in specific markets where they'll perform best. Samsung has a strategy like this, delivering handsets in the Palm and Windows Mobile operating systems, with another, the SGH-D700, on-the-way with the Symbian OS. By not being married to one platform, PalmOne could increase its chances of prospering and even surviving in an increasingly competitive area of technology.