Things are heating up in the world of the Palm these days. Handspring, the Palm OS licensee started up by the original Palm founders, just IPOd last week, and word has it that its Visor PDA is rapidly chewing up market share-- primarily due, we surmise, to its distinctly iMacesque translucent color scheme. That means that there's definitely room to compete in the world of Palm compatibles, but despite widespread rumors and inside reports to the contrary, Apple has publicly stated that it's not working on its own Palm-based PDA. However, a new entrant in the Palm race gives us new hope that someday we'll indeed see Apple's interpretation of the Palm.

According to The Register, the newest horse in the Palm derby is none other than consumer electronics megagiant Sony. Now, that's not news; the fact that Sony's working on its own Palm OS-based PDA has long been a matter of public record. But it seems that the company just gave the Wall Street Journal a sneak preview of its new toy, and that publication was impressed-- impressed enough to gush like a schoolgirl. Reportedly this SonyPalm will be "5.3 ounces," narrower than the Palm V (which currently wins the sleekness awards, in our book), and "thinner than the Palm III." There's also "JogDial" one-handed scrolling, some unspecified multimedia capabilities, Memory Stick storage, and both black-and-white and color models-- and it's all wrapped up in what's reported to be a "blue and silver" color scheme, suggesting that whenever this thing ships, it'll be marketed as a PocketVaio or something like that.

So why does this give us hope for a brighter PDA future? Well, for one thing, Sony's Palm sounds like a very attractive alternative to the offerings from Palm and Handspring, and more choice is always good. But more importantly, remember which company Steve Jobs is always talking about? Yup-- he's constantly saying that he wants to make Apple into "the Sony of the computer industry." Guess what, Steve? To do that, you're going to have to keep that promise made so long ago: the promise to ship an Apple handheld to replace the Newton. While we're not holding our breath, we're cautiously optimistic that something's in the works, no matter what Phil Schiller said in an unguarded moment. Of course, if Apple wants a piece of the pie, it'd better hurry, because these things are all selling like mad, and the market won't stay unsaturated forever...