Enderle: Palm + Microsoft

Continuing on his theme comparing the roads taken and not taken by Apple and Palm from earlier in the month, Rob Enderle writes today at Technology Pundits about the Palm, Microsoft and Verizon's announcement this morning. Enderle notes that Palm is diverging from Apple's go it alone strategy, although he finds "it interesting that the one dominant product line that Apple itself has runs on a Microsoft platform (iPod)."

Enderle's believes the partnership is "clearly targeted at the under penetrated opportunity that RIM now so well targets, not only will provide the strongest alternative to date to RIM but, much like the iPod did in the MP3 space, the best opportunity so far to grow the market."

He then concludes:

If this partnership is successful it will not only showcase the power of partnerships but once again the opportunities Apple continues to miss being unable to take a similar path. It is interesting to note that Microsoft has three shots at this one with Palm, one with HP, and one with Motorola. That’s 3x the odds of any one of the hardware vendors and, if nothing else, certainly makes the partnership path seem more lucrative.