SANTA CLARA, Calif -- Michael Mace, Palm's (PALM:Nasdaq - news - boards) vice president of product planning and strategy, wants to keep his pants on.

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With a Palm Pilot in one hand and a Hewlett-Packard (HWP:NYSE - news - boards) Jornada in the other, Mace argues that the Jornada "thumps Palm," when it comes to the handheld device's screen resolution and features such as MP3 player and voice memos. Nonetheless, he explains, Palm outsells Jornada by a mile. Why? Because when he puts the Jornada in his pocket, "It pulls down my pants."

Welcome to "the Art of Palm," Mace's lecture on Palm development at the company's PalmSource conference here. Developers conferences are all about preaching to the masses, making the developer's work a religious cause, not just a decently paid white-collar job. Mace has an easy sell, in a world of feature-consuming, soulless computing devices. Fight the power! Death to Redmond!

Using riddles, Mace outlined the folly of the entrenched computing infidels. Picking specifically on the PocketPC, Mace explains that Microsoft (MSFT:Nasdaq - news - boards) will never succeed unless it can answer the riddle: "How can a dinosaur learn how to be a bird?" Microsoft loves features. In the PC world, more features are always better. But on a handheld, when you add features, you need a faster processor and more memory. That requires a bigger, heavier system that drains batteries more quickly. Next thing you know, peoples' pants are falling down and they get frustrated with their PocketPC. "Frustrated? We'll give you more features," Mace says with a laugh. "WindowsCE has been through this cycle three times already."

Then there's the Palm path.

Shutting out the world of feature frenzy, Palm and Mace are willing to say no to technical requests. Mace brought up some of the hot handheld buzzwords, planted both feet firmly on stage and insisted that no, Palm would not provide them. Full-motion video? Nope. Voice recognition? Nope. Full Web-browsing? Sorry, Charlie.

Market blasphemy!

Mace explained that Palm is willing to provide better-developed technology enhancements like MP3 sound clips and wireless text from Web sites. But it will not forge ahead with features that the majority of its users won't want, or will find frustrating due to technical limitations like creeping download pace.

Additionally, Palm won't branch out into other segments of the small computing world. While WindowsCE targets handhelds, miniportables and entertainment consoles, Palm will just stay in the zone. Handhelds and nothing but.

CTO Bill Maggs expanded on the Zen theme in a keynote, tranquilly asserting that Palm would be like a better piece of paper. "Paper is a great technology. It's got great resolution, great contrast and is extremely portable."

Maggs implored the crowd to give Palm-based handhelds all the benefits of paper, and then some. Same goes for the phone: Palm can do the phone one better. And, as Barry Cottle, chief operating officer of content and access, expanded in his speech, Palm would like to also enhance the wallet. "We got rid of your calendar and your address book. Next thing is your wallet," he said. "I don't care if I go after your PC or your phone."

Instead, the key is to start with the Palm Zen. Stay simple. Be easy to put in a pocket or purse. And offer understandable, utilitarian applications for users.

Maggs knows that isn't easy. In the next 12 to 18 months, he hopes to get the operating system to run on future generations of wireless communications networks, wireless local-area networks and wireless personal-area networks. Palm hopes to be able to develop software and hardware to allow your battery to keep your Palm handheld alive for one to two weeks at a time. The Palm operating system will handle voice as thoroughly as it handles data today, and will run on as many hardware types as possible.

As for making money on the Palm, Mace outlined Palm Pilot sales, operating systems licenses, hardware accessories, services, and Internet access and content as the company's main targets. As other handheld hardware competitors chip away at Palm's market share, Palm will need to pick up the revenue slack with "a services architecture to share revenue" with developers -- "To keep the company from tanking." So the group really is in this all together, forging ahead with Palm's elegant operating system, prepared potentially to give over gains to support the greater good.