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According to Software Everywhere, Palm has been investigating the possibility of developing a version of Linux to run on its devices since 2004. More recently it has been hiring Linux software engineers who will be responsible for the 'design and development of components of a new software platform'.

Now the website quotes an analyst, who it says has been 'privy to Palm's plans in the past' and has confirmed that the company is working on its own OS.

'Palm has stated on several occasions that 80 per cent of their engineers are software engineers, they are perfectly

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able to design their own operating system and are working on it,' the unnamed analyst wrote in an email. 'I know they had a prototype of a Linux Treo 650'

He added that the company is hedging its bets and will maintain its relationship with both Palmsource and Microsoft.

He said that the new OS will be introduced in 2007.

Palmsource, which was formed when the OS division of the original Palm was spun off as a separate company, is now owned by Access, a Japanese company, and is developing a new version of the Palm OS, also based on Linux and tentatively known as the Access Linux Platform (ALP). There are thought to be some concerns at Palm that ALP will be geared more towards the needs of Asian smartphone manufacturers.

'It's thought that Access, heavily staked by [Japanese mobile operator] DoCoMo, will be looking largely to Japan and China for its customers,' writes Software Everywhere's David Beers. 'Meanwhile Palm, dominant in the US smartphone market, has been conspicuously quiet about the announcement of the Access Linux Platform in February. Now we know why.'

Palm recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of the introduction of its first PDA.