I like Palm, it’s one of my favorite personal mobile computer maker, but it’s slowly fading away. I don’t believe Palm will close it’s doors however, I do believe it’ll come back.
The story of Palm started in 1992, the year it was founded to create small portable devices. In the same year Apple had started work on something they called a personal digital assistant, aka PDA. Apple’s name for the PDA was Newton, and it would become the standard maker for all PDAs to come.
Palm, started work on a PDA called the Zoomer. It was, however, a commercial flop. Palm managed to stay in business by selling software for HP, as well as Apple’s Newton. Eventually Palm learned from it’s mistakes and created the Palm Pilot line. The Palm Pilot is also considered the first generation Palm PDAs.
Although Palm never had to much success they had better success than Apple. Apple’s Newton although very powerful, had a $1000+ price, and it’s size made it eventually lose in the market. In 1997, Steve Jobs announced the end of the Newton.
Three years later in 2000, Palm and Apple were in talk about something, but nothing seemed to happen. In 2001, Apple started a small unnoticeable fight to claim the name iPhone. In 2002, Apple added some of Newton’s API’s like its writing recognition system into OS X(it has yet to be used).
Around 2004 the rumors of the iPhone started and by 2006 the rumors started to become factual evidence. The president of Palm responded to Apple bringing out a phone by saying:
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
In January of 2007, Apple announced the iPhone. About 9 months later, 3 months after the iPhone was released, Palm sadly said they are pulling their new generation device/OS. Palm had spent much time on the new operating system, but the iPhone killed it before it was even released.
“Palm is canceling its Foleo product right before the company was due to ship the new notebook-like device to retailers. Palm founder Jeff Hawkins unveiled the Foleo at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital Conference in May, calling it ‘the most exciting product I have ever worked on.’ Shaped like a notebook computer, the Foleo was designed to work in tandem with smartphones such as Palm’s Treos. The idea behind it was to provide a larger screen and keyboard that would allow smartphone users to more easily check their email and edit documents stored on their mobile devices. The company originally planned to sell the device starting this summer for about $500 each.” Troy Wolverton reports for The Mercury News.
The above post was made right after iSuppli reported that the iPhone had out sold all smart phones in July.
I do believe Palm can bounce back very easily, it has had rough times before so this is nothing new. At this time however, Palm has commented that they are closing all their retail stores. Palm seems to be doing what Apple did in 1997, closing down projects and other resources to focus on one path and then build up from there.
At this point people are say it’s going to be war between RIM and Apple for 2008, but maybe in 2009 Palm will join it again.
