Palm was once king of the PDA, but the rise of the smartphone and Windows-powered PDAs led to its crown slipping a long way. But this year the hot-hardware Centro smartphone helped bring Palm more success [2], and now there's news that Palm really has a new OS on the way, codenamed Nova, and due for unveiling at CES.

Strong rumors were circulating ahead of Palms announcement, fueled largely by an analyst at CL King & Associates who suggested a new OS was on the way and most likely some new hardware too. The new OS would be, he said, Linux-based and sporting a new design user-interface. The new hardware would most likely support HSDPA networks, which Palm currently does not, and that would let it compete with the iPhone and G1.

Palm's announcement hit [3] this morning, confirming a new OS will be revealed at CES, and though the information is sparse, Palm revealed a few interesting facts. The OS, and subsequently new hardware, will aim at middle ground Palm's identified between RIM's business-orientated Blackberrys and Apple's iphone "oriented to fun." Palm thinks it can capture a small share of the market, dominated mostly by Blackberries, and with the iPhone in second place. The OS helps smartphones make more intelligent use of data mined about their users: for example, Nova might know you're due to go on a business trip, and thus email you before you go with weather info pertinent to where you're going.

Apparently Nova may end up on e-reader devices and portable games consoles as well as plain smartphones, which is interesting news: it looks like Palm might be taking more risk than just aiming between Apple and RIM, by also taking a look at markets where Sony and Nintendo rule the roost.

[via BusinessWeek [3], Gizmodo [4]]