Digital Home Thoughts: Tapwave Kills Zodiac, Goes Out of Business

Scratch another PalmSource licensee. Tapwave has officially ended all sales and support of its Zodiac multimedia device, and is ceasing operation. This is the first time I have ever seen a vendor literally pull up stakes and fold overnight. A message posted on the company's web site reads..

"We are sorry to inform you that the Zodiac business was discontinued and service and support are no longer available as of July 25th 2005."

The site also mentions that any outstanding RMA or product support claim will be handled by Ueker and Associates, which is a clear indication of bankruptcy.

Zodiac started out its short life as a PalmOS-based handheld gaming device. Unfortunately Tapwave was never able to attract support from game publishers, and the platform began to languish. When that strategy failed, Tapwave repositioned Zodiac as a "multimedia device", to compete against even more indomitable foes like the iPod and Archos devices. Needless to say, Zodiac proved to be even less successful in this space than in the gaming market. Earlier this year Tapwave disclosed plans to end the Zodiac operation and move to a new business model based on licensing out Zodiac's hardware design to other firms. Obviously those plans didn't go through.

I happen to have a Zodiac 2 myself, so this is indeed sad news for me. What to do with it? :?