It didn’t surprise me today when I learned that Palm has been put up for sale. I am saddened by this news though. My first real PDA was the original PalmPilot 1000 followed by model after model through the years. I’m probably not alone when I say that Palm lost its luster long ago. I kept hoping they would do something amazing to turn things around and I kept my fingers crossed for them when the Palm Pre was released last year. Unfortunately that product hasn’t received the same attention as the iPhone and Android devices and now Palm’s future is up in the air. At this point I think it will take a miracle for them to reclaim their former glory… but that doesn’t keep me from rooting for them. 🙂
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Bummer. I’ve had a bit of emotional attachment to Palm since they were the PDA kings back in the early 90’s. I almost bought a Pre, but ultimately went with the iPhone 3GS. Though webOS seemed like it could have been a bigger hit, the hardware seemed to bring it down. I wish Palm the best, but ultimately this is still a free market economy and if you can’t compete, you sink. Maybe whoever buys them will be able to marry their innovative OS with some better hardware and make a great product.
Too bad. I went through five Palm devices, starting with a Palm Pilot and ending up with a Centro. Web OS looks great, but it was too little too late. They held onto Palm OS way too long
I still have my US Robotics Palm — as well as my symantec pager card upgrade. I was able to avoid owning a cell phone until 2003 with that set up.
(wipes a better tear from my eye)
Poor Palm has been fading for years now. I love them dearly, but one of the possible buyers is HTC and I have this vision for an Andriod that can run most of the library of Palm apps.
So long, old friend, and thanks for all the fish 🙁
I have loved and supported Palm OS devices since the day they came out…from the Pilot 1000 to the PP Professional to the Workpad C5 to the Handspring Visor Deluxe to various Sony Clie devices, then back to Palm through the Treo 700p. I loved the Palm OS. They just let it rot on the vine, and I think that ultimately killed them. I handled a Pre and I was less than impressed. Now I adore the Android OS. I shed a tear for Palm, but this was of their own making. We’ve come a long way from the company that made the Graffiti app for the Casio Zoomer and the HP Omnigo, but I guess their goose is now cooked.
Bye Bye old friend. I still think you were the best. But of course when you did not have the pre before the iphone I was caught by the apple, and now reluctant to be bothered to learn any other OS.
I still think the Palm LifeDrive was one of the finest PDAs ever. It would still serve well today.
I’ve liked my Pre, and love the multi-tasking. Palm delayed too long with the app store, and low-level API’s though: They lost mindshare before they managed to attract developers. There are some very good apps on the Pre, but they don’t really have the developer presence they need.
In the past Palm made it very difficult for resellers to sell their products. For many years they wouldn’t allow their products to be sold through the internet. Most recently they played games with the Pre and carriers by giving Sprint an exclusive and then giving an improved model (Pre Plus) to other carriers and not Sprint.
They also stuck with the same, old, OS for way too long and killed off a technology (PQAs) that later became Apple’s iPhone strength (Apps).
RIM is facing similar issues now…in the technology business you need to remain nimble and innovative or face becoming a fond memory very quickly.
1998 PP Personal (then upgraded with 2MB IR kit), Visor Deluxe, Visor Prism, Zodiac2 (two), Palm Pre – has it been 12 years?! Sad to say goodbye 🙁
I am not surprised at all. I started with a Palm Tungsten E2, went with a Centro so I could have the same excellent PDA functions for organization, but needed to run multiple apps, so I am now on a Palm Pre Plus and it is not as convenient as the Centro. I really like the 5 way navigation and the feel of the Centro much better than the Pre Plus. I am still in the 30 day window and think I will send it back and continue to use my Centro.
This is sad. I have owned many Palm or Palm OS devices over the years. Palm Vx, IIIc, m515, Sony T615c, Palm T|E, T|5.
My first Palm was the M125. It is in a parts box somewhere after it stopped syncing only a year after I bought it. I then bought a Sony Clie SJ22 which I still have and read ebooks on it after all these years. Sony made an excellent product when they manufactured their PDAs. I can’t say the same for Palm, but I did like their OS and Desktop software.
After having a pre since October (and using Palm devices since the m500), I can say webOS is the best mobile OS out there. I have used the iPhone OS extensively, as well as a Droid (granted not as extensively).
The way the OS pulls in your contacts from anywhere, gives you a unified inbox (a year ago!), multitasks (a year ago!), and isn’t dependent on a computer is brilliant to me.
The devices are a little lackluster competing against the Droid, iPhone 3Gs, and the like.
I can only hope that HTC or some other company buys Palm for webOS, and not just for the patents to fend off Apple. Or horrors of horrors, buys it and sells it piecemeal.
Who knows, maybe Ruby has some magical plan up his sleeve. But Apple and Google have something Palm had a year ago and let slip: momentum. It’s easier to start from a rolling stop than from a dead stop.
I loved my Palm Centro! Have been using the Pixi for a year and dislike it! With Centro, I had my comuter and connections in my hand. with Pixi, i cannot connect with my MSN friends. The Geeks at Sprint can’t even get my MSN Messenger to work and it won’t allow me to email anyone on MSN, Hotmail or Gmail! I may be switching back to Centro or exploring Blackberry or iPhone.