It was already pretty much certain that Palm will finally unveil its next-generation mobile operating system, along with a brand new device, at January’s Consumer Electronics Show (the press invite reads: “Come to CES to see all that Palm New-ness you’ve been waiting for”) and now BusinessWeek is stirring the pot.

The opportunity

Despite the assertion that ‘Palm has protected its plans with Apple-like secrecy’, through quotes attributed to both Palm CEO, Ed Colligan, and Executive Chairman and head of product development, Jon Rubinstein, the article paints a picture of where the company appears to be heading.

New devices from Palm based on the Nova OS will target the “fat middle of the market”:

Rubinstein and others say the goal is to create products that bridge the gap between Research In Motion’s Blackberry devices, oriented to work and e-mail, and Apple’s iPhone, oriented to fun.

And while that sounds a little vague to me, there’s definitely plenty of room in the market for consumer-friendly smartphones that aren’t made by Apple. As I’m fond of saying, one size doesn’t fit all, and going out on a whim, I don’t think Palm is too late to the game — the market is expected to grow significantly over the next few years — especially if the company can deliver a user experience that is on par with devices from Cupertino. Easier said than done I know but Palm has previous form.