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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette

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Speaker 1: and I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: Sitting across from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan

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Speaker 1: Strickland pie May taught you the five point palm exploding

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Speaker 1: heart technique. I nearly got Christ to spit on that one.

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Speaker 1: I thought I'll take one last sip of water before

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Speaker 1: I start to talk, and of course Jonathan tried to

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Speaker 1: sabotage me. Okay, So before we get into this, we

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Speaker 1: have a little listener mail. This listener mail comes from Zaid,

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Speaker 1: who says, Hello, I'm a big fan and I just

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Speaker 1: finished listening to your episode about iPods, and I was

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Speaker 1: wondering if you could do one on the history of

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Speaker 1: Palm or BlackBerry, two of the older smartphone companies that

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Speaker 1: are still running but are being hidden in popularity by

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Speaker 1: the iPhone or Android. I hope you can do an

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Speaker 1: episode on one of these big fans. I had, well,

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Speaker 1: so I had We're gonna tackle one of those two.

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Speaker 1: Today we're gonna actually talk about Palm. Yes, indeed, now, um,

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Speaker 1: I uh, I have a little bit of a history

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Speaker 1: with Palm. UM. We'll talk about that in a moment,

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Speaker 1: but I certainly I had a few years where I

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Speaker 1: was actually using um A one of their U p

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Speaker 1: d a's or um uh PD as personal digital assistance. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's what it was. I always think of public display

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Speaker 1: of affection when I hear pd A. I did. I

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Speaker 1: did a lot of those. I did a lot of

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Speaker 1: those in the nineties. Alright, not the personal digital assistant

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Speaker 1: but the other one. Okay, yeah, well yeah, ladies, Palm

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Speaker 1: Palm actually has I'm sorry to use this pun changed

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Speaker 1: hands several times, but it was founded as an independent company.

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Speaker 1: UM back with when Jeff Hawkins started the company in

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Speaker 1: and got um Ed Colligan and Donna Dubinski to work

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Speaker 1: with him. And I should I should point out that

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Speaker 1: I got a lot of my information from a really

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Speaker 1: great concise timeline UM that I found by by James

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Speaker 1: Nikolay and Nancy Garring of I d G. Yes, same here,

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Speaker 1: um yeah. So if you really want to see the

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Speaker 1: concise straightforward, you know, this is when it began. This

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Speaker 1: is when it ended, and here's all the stuff in between.

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Speaker 1: They have an awesome time frame, but I think we

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Speaker 1: could put a lot of context around this because at

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Speaker 1: the time, there wasn't really a whole lot out there

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Speaker 1: like the Palm handheld computer. And in fact, it would

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Speaker 1: be a little while before Palm actually came out with

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Speaker 1: a device. Right. In fact, when the company first launched

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Speaker 1: in two, there really there really were no consumer personal

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Speaker 1: digital assistance on the market. If you if you had

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Speaker 1: a p d A, you were either an early adopter

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Speaker 1: or you were some executive who had invested in this

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Speaker 1: and uh, and they were few and far between. So

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Speaker 1: originally Hawkins and Company, we're working with other companies to

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Speaker 1: try and produce some some p d A s UH.

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Speaker 1: And in point of fact, they were working specifically with

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Speaker 1: Tandy and Cassio. But those initial efforts proved unsuccessful. They

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Speaker 1: just they the hardware they produced did not take off

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Speaker 1: of the market. Now, UM, don't get the idea that

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Speaker 1: this was the first h p DA of any kind,

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Speaker 1: the one that pot relast I mean, UH. People will

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Speaker 1: be quick to point out that the Apple Newton was

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Speaker 1: announced in ninety two as well and came out in UH.

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Speaker 1: Plus you know, there were there were many other companies.

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Speaker 1: My father actually worked for as a mechanical engineer. He

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Speaker 1: worked for an electronics manufacturer that came up with a

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Speaker 1: very specialized handheld device that ended up being used by

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Speaker 1: um shipping companies. Um. So you know this is specific

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Speaker 1: just talking specifically about Palms. So we're not saying this

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Speaker 1: is the first one, but the first one actually happened

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Speaker 1: to launched after the company got acquired the very first time. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we should point out before we get really involved in

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Speaker 1: this Palms history. You know, you mentioned it changed hands

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Speaker 1: several times, the whole pun thing. Um, it gets really

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Speaker 1: complex there there, because we're talking about acquisitions, spinoffs, re acquisitions, uh, failures.

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Speaker 1: It really it's a dramatic story. Um. And you may

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Speaker 1: not seem so just on the offset because you're thinking, oh,

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Speaker 1: that's just a technology company. It like any other it

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Speaker 1: builds these products and but no, the story really is

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Speaker 1: one of beyond. It goes beyond technology into the whole

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Speaker 1: politics of of how corporations deal with one another with

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Speaker 1: mergers and acquisitions. So, yeah, the first acquisition happened in

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Speaker 1: n We're talking just three years after the founding of

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Speaker 1: the company. And keep in mind the company at this

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Speaker 1: point had not produced a successful p d A, but

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Speaker 1: but the people behind it were very well versed in

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Speaker 1: building the kind of infrastructure you need. We're talking like

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Speaker 1: programming infrastructure you need to create a successful p DA.

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Speaker 1: They weren't necessarily building hardware, but they were building kind

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Speaker 1: of the firmware that exists on the hardware that allows

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Speaker 1: a PDA to be possible. So that's when US Robotics

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Speaker 1: came along. U. S Robotics was a computer modem company

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Speaker 1: and they purchased Palm forty four million dollars yep, yep.

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Speaker 1: Around this time, US Robotics was one of the leading,

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Speaker 1: I would say arguably leading modem manufacturers. UM. They were

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Speaker 1: one of the first to market with UM fifty six

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Speaker 1: kilobyte per second. I know, stop laughing, UM modem. As

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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, that the company I work for,

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Speaker 1: the Internet service provider I used to work for UH

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Speaker 1: used US Robotics technology and its points of presence basically

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Speaker 1: your local dial up motor pool and UM yeah, US

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Speaker 1: Robotics acquired Palm in an attempt to diversify somewhat. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I I also want to point out so the four

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Speaker 1: million dollar price point. Uh, this is gonna come a

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Speaker 1: running theme in this show too, because I did this

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Speaker 1: for everything except this first one. UM, and I just

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Speaker 1: did it now adjusted for inflation in two thousand and ten,

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Speaker 1: because that's the latest I can get. It would be

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Speaker 1: sixty two million, nine thousand, five leven bucks. So that's

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Speaker 1: a that's a good chunk of change for a company

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Speaker 1: that had yet to produce a really successful or really

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Speaker 1: any successful hardware. So yeah. A year later in US

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Speaker 1: Robotics introduces the palm Pilot one thousand. Yes, I remember that. UM.

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Speaker 1: Executives everywhere, at least the United States really liked this thing. UM.

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Speaker 1: It was the first, the first p d A that

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Speaker 1: I really saw a lot of in uh, in offices.

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Speaker 1: I joined that technology company I just mentioned in and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, by early I noticed a lot of the

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Speaker 1: company directors had these palm pilots and they were just

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Speaker 1: they were just really popular, mainly because of the software.

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Speaker 1: The software behind it is Jonathan mentioned earlier. UM was

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Speaker 1: a great package of software. It allowed you to do

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Speaker 1: all kinds of things, keep track of your calendar, UM

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Speaker 1: it would sync with your computer. UM maybe not necessarily,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. If they Palm Pilot one thousand allowed

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Speaker 1: you to do that. To be honest, I think so.

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Speaker 1: But but yeah, so, I mean you could keep track

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Speaker 1: of everything. You didn't have to carry that big old

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Speaker 1: paper planner with you everywhere. You had this small handheld

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Speaker 1: device that you could, um, you know, throw in your

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Speaker 1: bag or throw in your pocket. It was much more

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Speaker 1: for one thing, it was much more convenient for another thing.

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Speaker 1: It just looked cool. Yeah, and you could have like

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Speaker 1: a virtual rolodex on there, so you could keep a

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Speaker 1: list of all your context Now this might sound very

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Speaker 1: familiar to a lot of our listeners. It sounds a

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Speaker 1: lot like a smartphone, and in in many ways it's

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Speaker 1: sort of the predecessor for smartphones. It's just you've got

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Speaker 1: to leave one minor component out, the phone part. So

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Speaker 1: it was just as smart. Yeah, it was just smart,

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Speaker 1: which obviously that's why Palm was so successful early on,

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Speaker 1: because it was smart. But now the the the idea

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Speaker 1: here is of course, that you've got a device that

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Speaker 1: manages your information in a very portable way. So also

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Speaker 1: remember in the mid nineties, it's not that laptop computers

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Speaker 1: were didn't exist. They did, but they were heavy, heavy, divide.

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Speaker 1: They were not what you would consider easily portable for

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Speaker 1: the most part. I mean, I remember I my wife

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Speaker 1: had a laptop computer which actually was built a few

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Speaker 1: years before this, because she had it when um uh,

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Speaker 1: when we were first dating, which was a few years

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Speaker 1: before of this. I'm not going to date it too much,

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Speaker 1: but anyway, I remember that the laptop was so heavy

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Speaker 1: it would hurt your lap to put it on. It

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Speaker 1: was not really a laptop, it was a It was

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Speaker 1: a desktop. It was just a portable desktop. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: and this time you needed something. If you were someone

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Speaker 1: who was going to be traveling a lot and you

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Speaker 1: wanted to be able to look at your calendar and

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Speaker 1: you didn't want to have to deal with lots of paper,

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Speaker 1: this was a great solution. So that was in inven

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Speaker 1: we get another change in ownership. Yes, three Calm the

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Speaker 1: makers of well they made all kinds of different technology goodies.

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Speaker 1: Um My. One of my favorites was after the Palm acquisition,

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Speaker 1: was a internet appliance called the Audrey, which lasted about

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Speaker 1: fifteen twenty minutes on the market place before three comm

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Speaker 1: decided to discontinue. But it's pretty neat, at least pretty

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Speaker 1: neat looking. That just makes me think of a little

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Speaker 1: shop of hors. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, the three com

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Speaker 1: was a pretty savvy company and they said, well, you

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Speaker 1: know this, this is obviously going to take off. They

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Speaker 1: got in at the right time because Palm had started

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Speaker 1: to make its ascent into popularity. Um and as a

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Speaker 1: matter of fact, they um they went ahead and had

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Speaker 1: its the first developer conference for people to develop software. Now,

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Speaker 1: I I feel compelled to point out too that like

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Speaker 1: today's smartphones, Palm, the Palm operating system allowed you to

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Speaker 1: uh install software from third parties. So it's not you

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Speaker 1: don't You weren't limited to just the uh software that

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Speaker 1: was on the phone. You could buy stuff from other people. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and and really we we hear developer conference all the

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Speaker 1: time now, but back then it was pretty much it

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Speaker 1: was a pretty novel idea. Uh. You know. Now you'll

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Speaker 1: hear developer conferences from especially like Google, Microsoft and Apple.

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Speaker 1: They they are known for them in particular, although other companies,

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Speaker 1: of course also do developer conferences, including Facebook. You know,

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Speaker 1: all sorts of platforms do them now because of course,

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Speaker 1: applications run on pretty much anything you can think of,

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Speaker 1: you know, refrigerators, in microwaves pretty soon ovens as well.

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Speaker 1: And I'm not I'm not even exaggerating because it c s.

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Speaker 1: I saw a lot of that. We might, uh we

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Speaker 1: might should do an podcast on the Internet of Things

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Speaker 1: at some point, yeah, because that's interesting too. So when

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Speaker 1: three Comms acquisition was not just for Palm, Three Calm

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Speaker 1: actually acquired US Robotics, which was Palm's parent company at

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Speaker 1: that time. So that's right. So so you think of

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Speaker 1: Palm as a little fish and US Robotics was a

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Speaker 1: slightly bigger fish, and three Calm was an even bigger fish.

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Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. And um, again, it acted at

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Speaker 1: the right time. It saw an ascending company. US Robotics

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Speaker 1: at that point had uh, pretty sophisticated modem technology. We

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Speaker 1: weren't really in the broadband era at that point. A

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Speaker 1: good acquisition for them, or at least that's way of

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Speaker 1: appeared at the time, right, right, So in uh, this

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Speaker 1: was a very eventful year and a very dramatic year

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Speaker 1: in Palm's history. Uh. For one thing, the Bomb Computing

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Speaker 1: sued Microsoft because Microsoft was marketing the Palm PC right

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Speaker 1: and and of course Palm was saying this creates confusion

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Speaker 1: in the marketplace because our company name is Palm and

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Speaker 1: you've called your product the Palm PC. We're in the

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Speaker 1: same sphere of of devices, right, So they made the

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Speaker 1: argument that that was brand confusion, it was infringing on

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Speaker 1: their trademarks. So Microsoft kind of backed off and changed

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Speaker 1: the name to be Palm Size PC as opposed to

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Speaker 1: just Palm PC. But that same year I saw some

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Speaker 1: dramatic shake ups in the company because the founders, uh

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Speaker 1: Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dobinski, and A Colligan, they decided to

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Speaker 1: leave the company and found another company called Handspring, Yes,

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Speaker 1: because they they were not comfortable in the direction the

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Speaker 1: company was going in. Under three Colms got leadership, so

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Speaker 1: they so you've got the founders of the company who

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Speaker 1: are no longer happy with the way the company is going.

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Speaker 1: We've actually seen this story before too. There's a very

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Speaker 1: famous example with Steve Jobs, who he was. You know,

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Speaker 1: Steve Jobs was a founder of Apple, and in the

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Speaker 1: during the course of Apple's existence, when it got bigger

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Speaker 1: and bigger, Steve Jobs was at some point kind of

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Speaker 1: shuffled to the side and and almost ignored. In fact,

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Speaker 1: saying ignored is probably not being too It does not

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Speaker 1: really hyper believe, and so Steve Jobs left Apple only

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Speaker 1: to return later. Um. But you know, so the story

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Speaker 1: is not uncommon, it has happened before, but it's it's

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Speaker 1: a pretty big event in any company's life when the

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Speaker 1: founders you know, jump shup and and create a new

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Speaker 1: company because they don't like the direction of their original company.

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Speaker 1: So Handspring begins to produce PDAs and uh and smartphones

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Speaker 1: that are operating on the Palm's system. So they're still

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Speaker 1: working with Palm, but they are not working for Palm, right. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that that actually is is my introduction to the the

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Speaker 1: Palm world. Because I didn't actually have a Palm product.

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Speaker 1: I bought a Handspring Visor Deluxe, which is one of two,

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Speaker 1: uh two original models of the Handspring. You had the

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Speaker 1: Visor and the Visor Deluxe. The Deluxe was cool because

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Speaker 1: you had, um something that the Palm machines didn't have,

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Speaker 1: which was a slot, a hardware slot. Um if you

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Speaker 1: think of it like an old style cartridge video game console.

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Speaker 1: The Visor Deluxe allowed you to there was there was

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Speaker 1: basically a dummy thing in there to keep dust and

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Speaker 1: dirt from getting out there, so you you know, pop

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Speaker 1: out the little piece of plastic and you can snap

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Speaker 1: in a cartridge that would allow you to uh run

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Speaker 1: software from that that cartridge and you wouldn't would give

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Speaker 1: you access to do things that you couldn't do with

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Speaker 1: the software that you would load, um by connecting it

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Speaker 1: and sinking it with your computer. And of course we're

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Speaker 1: not talking we're not in the days of WiFi yet,

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Speaker 1: so this is every time you sink information with your computer,

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Speaker 1: you're doing it with a cable uh plugged in directly

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Speaker 1: to your your computer or through a doc which you know,

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Speaker 1: very popular with the executives because you have that on

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Speaker 1: the side of the computer and it was um you know,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, it was certainly a cool accessory to have

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Speaker 1: on your you know, cool looking accessory to have on

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Speaker 1: your desk and you would sink that information. Well, the

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Speaker 1: this slot was really cool and it's something that's set

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Speaker 1: hands Spring apart. And of course, although the three founders

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Speaker 1: left palm they it wasn't completely acrimonious because they didn't say, well,

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Speaker 1: we're leaving, we're taking our football with us and we're

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Speaker 1: going home and doing our own thing. They actually licensed

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Speaker 1: the palm os to run on the Handspring, so they

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Speaker 1: were still sort of cousins. They were different, completely different

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Speaker 1: corporate organizations. They still had a working relationship with each other. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're the cousin you don't like so much, but come on,

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Speaker 1: they're still family. Um. And the Visor was just one

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Speaker 1: of two big lines of products that Handspring produced. The

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Speaker 1: other one is arguably much more famous. It's considerably more famous.

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Speaker 1: But that wasn't what happened to media. No. But but

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Speaker 1: not that long after they they founded Handspring, they started

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Speaker 1: to produce the Trio. Trio that's t R EO. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the Trio line of products, which if you if you

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Speaker 1: pay attention to tech journalists who have been in the

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Speaker 1: business for you know, a decade or more. Um, actually,

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Speaker 1: I guess it's got to be longer than that now.

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Speaker 1: But but you'll you'll hear the word Trio thrown around

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Speaker 1: a lot, as like I know that, say Rafe Needelman

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Speaker 1: of st Yes, he hung on to his Trio for

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Speaker 1: far longer than most of us would would hold onto

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Speaker 1: a piece of technology, you know, using it every day

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Speaker 1: because he loved that device. He loved the hardware and

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Speaker 1: the software integration. And Trio of course, will play another

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Speaker 1: part of the story a little further down. So we've

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Speaker 1: got Handspring operating more or less outside the realm of Palm,

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Speaker 1: and it's still licensing the operating system, but otherwise it's

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Speaker 1: its own thing. So in nineteen we have another interesting development.

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Speaker 1: Three Calm decides to spin off Palm Computing and make

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Speaker 1: it a subsidiary company. It's essentially its own standalone company now. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and and this is the company that UM that is

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Speaker 1: essentially creating the operating system. Right, So you've got the

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Speaker 1: one company creating the operating system, and then you've got Handspring,

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Speaker 1: which is doing hardware and using that operating system. Well,

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Speaker 1: of course three comm had still been making the Palm hardware.

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Speaker 1: They introduced the Palm seven also in which was the

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Speaker 1: first with with a wireless antenna built in, right, and

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Speaker 1: how much did that cost? That was five four and

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Speaker 1: to days dollars I wasn't um. So yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: they're still making stuff. But now you have competition in

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Speaker 1: the marketplace without hardware, and uh, you know, you've you've

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Speaker 1: got three Comms spinning Palm off. It's basically three comms

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Speaker 1: star business at that point. Actually, at that point, Palm,

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Speaker 1: the Palm section of three Comms business was probably the

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Speaker 1: highest performing as far as revenue generation is concerned. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and uh and then again in two thousand, the the

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Speaker 1: separation was complete. They decided to and they went they

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Speaker 1: went off on their own. And uh, a couple of

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Speaker 1: years ago we really do see the separation of hardware

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Speaker 1: and software with the uh the introduction of a group

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Speaker 1: called Palm Source. Again, I remember this pretty well because

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Speaker 1: I wasn't certain how long, how how this was going

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Speaker 1: to work out with my handspring, which I used for

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Speaker 1: several years. Again it worked great, Um, but yeah, you'd

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Speaker 1: have to instead of going to Palm dot com, you

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Speaker 1: would have to go to the Palm Source website to

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Speaker 1: learn more about the operating system and updates and things

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Speaker 1: like that. And uh, this might seem a bit surprising,

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Speaker 1: but Sony uh plunked down twenty million dollars twenty four

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Speaker 1: million tun or one thou hundred one dollars in today's currency,

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Speaker 1: which is the first company outside one of the acquiring

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Speaker 1: companies to make an investment in the Palm operating system

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Speaker 1: because uh yeah, for their uh um handheld, Sony also

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Speaker 1: licensed the Palm operating system. UM, so they were they

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Speaker 1: were sort of I guess you would think of them

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Speaker 1: as the windows of the except for the fact that

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Speaker 1: there was actually a windows. But uh yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: they were. They were the company licensing operating the operating

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Speaker 1: system for many many different companies handhelds right and and

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Speaker 1: back in two thousand. I know, we we moved on

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Speaker 1: from that, but I just wanted to mention the interesting

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Speaker 1: thing about Palm going public in two thousand is that

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Speaker 1: was right in the middle of the dot com bubble. Yes,

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00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,480
Speaker 1: and uh and you know, the dot com bubble and

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00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,600
Speaker 1: the dot com crash of course played a very important

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Speaker 1: part in many companies, but in Palm it really helped

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Speaker 1: them out because, uh, the I p O, the initial

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Speaker 1: public offering was right there in the middle of the

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Speaker 1: dot com bubble and at the height Palm shares sold

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Speaker 1: for more than a share twenty dollars in today's money.

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Speaker 1: Oh gotten old yet, because I've got a few more

348
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Speaker 1: years ago. So in two thousand two, also, um, this

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Speaker 1: is the introduction of our our of our other competitor,

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Speaker 1: which we're not going to get into right this minute,

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Speaker 1: but this is when BlackBerry came out from Research and

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Speaker 1: Motion Research in Motion. So the BlackBerry smartphone hits the

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Speaker 1: market in two thousand two. Keep in mind that at

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Speaker 1: this point the Palm devices, a lot of them are

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Speaker 1: still p d a's not phones. That that's true. And um,

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Speaker 1: I also want to add, I think that in the

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Speaker 1: late nineties and early two thousand's was when you would

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Speaker 1: start seeing the Palm and Handspring devices at your local

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Speaker 1: electronics store and in some cases discount uh department stores.

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Speaker 1: So they are they were making their way into consumer

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Speaker 1: hands which is and the reason I thought to say

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Speaker 1: that just now is because of research in motion in

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Speaker 1: the BlackBerry, because the BlackBerry is often thought of as

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Speaker 1: an enterprise gadget basically four business people of corporate business

365
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Speaker 1: work and Palm had made that Matt crossover. My wife,

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Speaker 1: in fact, had gotten a h Palm p D, a

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Speaker 1: black and white Palm PDA when they were still making those. Um,

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Speaker 1: because they had gotten to be inexpensive. They they ended

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Speaker 1: up being around us, you know, they were they were

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00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:09,800
Speaker 1: pretty affordable. Um. You wouldn't have necessarily a lot of

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00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:11,760
Speaker 1: the variety, you wouldn't have the color, you wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: a lot of the functionality, but you'd have the Palm

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Speaker 1: operating system in black and white. And really for a

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Speaker 1: lot of people that's all they needed. Yeah, and I

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Speaker 1: knew quite a few people who had p d A

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Speaker 1: s um, especially uh the folks that with the Atlanta

377
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Speaker 1: Radio Theater Company. A lot of them had them. But

378
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Speaker 1: then again, the Atlanta Radio Theater Company had a lot

379
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:34,360
Speaker 1: of people who you think, radio theater, that's an old technology.

380
00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,959
Speaker 1: But it turns out the people who are interested in it,

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00:22:37,320 --> 00:22:39,240
Speaker 1: not just the actors but also you know, of course

382
00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:43,560
Speaker 1: they the engineers and everyone, um, they also tend to

383
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Speaker 1: fall into the early adopter uh sphere. So quite a

384
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Speaker 1: few of them had PDAs back when they were fairly

385
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Speaker 1: you know, new on the scene. And by this time

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Speaker 1: almost you know, i'd say, i'd say a a sizeable

387
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:05,040
Speaker 1: persone of them had them. Okay, Um, So in two

388
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:07,679
Speaker 1: thousand three, this is where we start to see the

389
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:12,000
Speaker 1: companies come back together again. Yes, well sort of kind of.

390
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:14,760
Speaker 1: It's funny because you know, we had Palm on its own,

391
00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:18,399
Speaker 1: then US Robotics acquired Palm, then three Com and three

392
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:22,119
Speaker 1: Comm acquired US Probotics. Then the founders left to start

393
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 1: Handspring right then up right and then and then there

394
00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:31,960
Speaker 1: was a subsidiary for the operating system. So so now

395
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:36,240
Speaker 1: there's a Palm company and a palm Um operating system

396
00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:39,640
Speaker 1: Palm one, and then hand Spring agreed to be required

397
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:43,000
Speaker 1: by Palm. Right, So now we we see the founders

398
00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:48,400
Speaker 1: essentially returning to the company because Palm besides announces that's

399
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 1: going to acquire hand Spring. Uh. And so now you've

400
00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,720
Speaker 1: got a hardware company that's that's Palm One. I'm sorry,

401
00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:57,679
Speaker 1: I said Palm one when I met Palm Source. Palm

402
00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:01,680
Speaker 1: one is the hardware company. Uh. And then a officially spinoff,

403
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:04,480
Speaker 1: Palm Source, which is the Upbring system company. So you've

404
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:07,200
Speaker 1: got two companies under the Palm name, one doing hardware,

405
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:12,440
Speaker 1: one doing the Upbring system. And uh. They that's when

406
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 1: you start seeing the Palm trio's So it's no longer

407
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 1: the Handspring trio coming out. The Palm trio starts to

408
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:25,120
Speaker 1: come out. So two thousand five, two thousand five, the

409
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:30,000
Speaker 1: CEO of Palm One, Todd Bradley, leaves the company and

410
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:33,680
Speaker 1: Ed Colligan, one of the founders of Palm takes over

411
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:39,359
Speaker 1: in his stead Um and uh, yeah, Palm Source had

412
00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 1: the rights to the brand name. So Palm one, the

413
00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 1: hardware company, bought it, which is really weird. Yeah, you know,

414
00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:50,480
Speaker 1: but right, you've got subsidiaries by Yeah, this is where

415
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: it really gets this. Like I said, it really shows

416
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: you how complicated corporate America can get, or just corporations

417
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:59,280
Speaker 1: in general. It's not just limited to America obviously. And

418
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 1: I bet the he's got this one too. Yes. Uh.

419
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:08,520
Speaker 1: In the process of acquiring the brand name, uh, the

420
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:13,080
Speaker 1: the Palm One acquired of the Palm Trademark Holding Company

421
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Speaker 1: for thirty million dollars thirty three million dollars fo SORR

422
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:27,160
Speaker 1: today and uh and in a pretty significant departure, one

423
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 1: which I was completely shocked by at the time, UH, Trio,

424
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 1: the Trio running Windows Mobile software was announced, and I

425
00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:41,359
Speaker 1: thought that was absolutely strange. After the Palm operating system

426
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,439
Speaker 1: had such a significant share of the market, that Palm

427
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,600
Speaker 1: One would release a device with the Windows Mobile operating system. Yeah,

428
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:51,399
Speaker 1: this is kind of like to to explain Chris's surprise,

429
00:25:51,760 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 1: think of it like this. Think imagine if Apple were

430
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 1: to announce that it was going to release a version

431
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:01,480
Speaker 1: of the iPhone for running Android. Yeah, that would be

432
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: the kind of surprise. You think, what that doesn't make sense.

433
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's the Apple iPhone. Why isn't it

434
00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 1: running the Apple operating system. Well, that was kind of

435
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:13,040
Speaker 1: reaction that people had when they heard that the Palm

436
00:26:13,119 --> 00:26:16,360
Speaker 1: devices were going to run Windows Mobile. Because Palm devices

437
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 1: ran Palm operating system, it kind of they went together. Yeah. Similarly,

438
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:25,439
Speaker 1: I had the same sort of double take when Apple

439
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: announced that it would allow people to use Bootcamp. So hey,

440
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,400
Speaker 1: you can you know, load Windows on your Mac right?

441
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 1: Why would Okay? Yeah? And uh and to to let

442
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:40,760
Speaker 1: you guys know the there were only I think four

443
00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:45,760
Speaker 1: smartphones released by Palm that ran Windows Mobile. Yeah, it

444
00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:48,639
Speaker 1: was a very small sliver of their product lineup, but

445
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 1: it was they were. There were versions of the Trio

446
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,920
Speaker 1: that ran Windows Mobile as opposed to the Palm operating system,

447
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:57,200
Speaker 1: which you could argue that could also can cause confusion

448
00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:00,679
Speaker 1: within the marketplace. Well, also we should point out to

449
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 1: that in this time, this is the mid two thousand's,

450
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:05,720
Speaker 1: now we're getting up to very close to the release

451
00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:10,920
Speaker 1: of some big competitor um, and the Palm OS is

452
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:14,199
Speaker 1: getting really dated by this point. Um, it was very

453
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:16,959
Speaker 1: very popular. Uh, you soul find support for it in

454
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,680
Speaker 1: many products. I know that Ubuntu even has a Palm

455
00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 1: sc client still available. Um, but uh, you know, I

456
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:28,159
Speaker 1: mean their clients available for the others too, but I

457
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 1: mean it's baked into the software. The thing is UM.

458
00:27:32,359 --> 00:27:36,840
Speaker 1: At this point, other competitors are showing starting to show

459
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:40,639
Speaker 1: that they've got a grip on smartphone software and p

460
00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: D a functionality that they didn't have before. BlackBerry was

461
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:48,359
Speaker 1: certainly giving them a run for their money. Windows Mobile

462
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,480
Speaker 1: was was starting to take over some market share, and

463
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:56,360
Speaker 1: I think that that was a move that said, okay, well,

464
00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:58,680
Speaker 1: we're going to have to do something about the operating system.

465
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 1: Of course, it also showed the world that they might

466
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: be considering other options. Yeah. In two thousand seven, that

467
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:09,679
Speaker 1: was another big year for Palm, and unfortunately not in

468
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:13,679
Speaker 1: a good way. UM. Palm had tried to get into

469
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 1: a it was really it was trying to launch a

470
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:20,960
Speaker 1: new market. Uh. There was a product called the Folio,

471
00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:25,080
Speaker 1: which was at the time referred to as a sub notebook.

472
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:27,760
Speaker 1: Now later on we would refer to these kind of

473
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:33,840
Speaker 1: products as netbooks. Essentially, it was undersized, uh notebook style computer,

474
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:37,480
Speaker 1: you know, clamshell style computer. Uh. And it had a

475
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 1: smaller keyboard, smaller screen, UM, more limited operating system and

476
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:44,719
Speaker 1: it was kind of ahead of its time and as

477
00:28:44,800 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 1: a result, before it even had a chance to launch.

478
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:50,840
Speaker 1: I think within three months of announcing the product, Palm

479
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: pulled the plug and said, you know what, We're not

480
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 1: going to release the Folio after all, which is funny.

481
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: I mean I actually read a hands on review of

482
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: the Folio that because Engadget got ahold of one, so

483
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,840
Speaker 1: and Gadget ran a review just kind of a minor

484
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 1: a really quick review, and they said it wasn't a

485
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 1: very compelling device and they would have preferred a new

486
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: smartphone running a snazzy or operating system to a a

487
00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: notebook that they felt was underpowered. And um, it even

488
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:20,959
Speaker 1: had WiFi and Bluetooth capability, but you know, it just

489
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,760
Speaker 1: never made it to market after three months of like

490
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: I said, three months after they announced it, they pulled

491
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: the plug and uh and instead, um, the Focus was

492
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:35,360
Speaker 1: supposed to be put back onto the smartphone market. Well

493
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,320
Speaker 1: that year two thousand seven was another big year in

494
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:42,160
Speaker 1: the smartphone market because a juggernaut hit the scene. That

495
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 1: would be Apple's iPhone. Yes, Apple's iPhone, which we all

496
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 1: know has completely redefined the smartphone market. Just as the

497
00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:54,720
Speaker 1: iPod redefined the MP three market, the iPhone redefined the

498
00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:59,240
Speaker 1: smartphone market. Whether you think the iPhone is a great device.

499
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 1: Or if you don't, if you just don't get it

500
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:05,520
Speaker 1: or whatever, you cannot deny that the iPhone has had

501
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 1: a huge impact the The app store alone has totally

502
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 1: changed the playing ground for smartphones because everyone has to

503
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 1: have an app store now yep, yep, including including Windows

504
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 1: and BlackBerry and now Palm. And it's extending also beyond smartphones.

505
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,479
Speaker 1: But that's neither here nor there. Yep. Yeah. In two

506
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,240
Speaker 1: thousand nine and Collegan finally left Palm. He was the

507
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:33,520
Speaker 1: last one of the original founders the others that are

508
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 1: already left before then. But that was also the year

509
00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 1: that the Palm PREX came out, and that's the first

510
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,960
Speaker 1: of the new Palm smartphones. It had it's running on

511
00:30:42,560 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 1: Palm's newest operating system for we boas. But to uh

512
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: massive critical acclaim, Yeah, I like it. I was at

513
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:56,680
Speaker 1: that consumer electronics show in two thousand nine when Palm

514
00:30:56,800 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 1: debuted the Palm pre and it was one of the

515
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 1: biggest buzz generators on the floor. Everyone thought that this

516
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 1: was an amazing device. It was such a huge leap

517
00:31:07,880 --> 00:31:10,600
Speaker 1: from what Palm had been doing before and and it

518
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:15,920
Speaker 1: looked like a smooth uh and and sleek operating system

519
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 1: and had a really nice user interface. Everyone thought that

520
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 1: it was a worthy competitor to other smartphones on the market.

521
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 1: Keep in mind this was just when Google Android was

522
00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: you know, Google Android had only been available for a

523
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 1: couple of months when when Palm unveiled this, the iPhone

524
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: had been out for two years and uh, and people

525
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 1: were saying, this may be a real competitor. But unfortunately

526
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 1: the Pre there was no announced date for or there

527
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:47,120
Speaker 1: was no announcement for a release date rather for the

528
00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:50,720
Speaker 1: Palm Pre at c S. By the time Palm did

529
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,640
Speaker 1: release the Pre, which was uh at the late spring

530
00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 1: of that year, almost summer um, a lot of the

531
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 1: buzz had died down, and that excitement, that initial real

532
00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:04,160
Speaker 1: excitement of everyone thinking, wow, this is really a compelling device.

533
00:32:04,880 --> 00:32:06,880
Speaker 1: By that time it kind of just gone away because

534
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:09,160
Speaker 1: you know, people hadn't it was outside out of mind

535
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:12,840
Speaker 1: and uh. And so it launched and people still said,

536
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:14,959
Speaker 1: you know, this is a good device, it's it's a

537
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 1: worthy smartphone. It just did not have the mind share

538
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 1: and I hate that term, but no, it's it's appropriate.

539
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 1: It just didn't have that kind of level of excitement

540
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:26,640
Speaker 1: that had back when they first announced it, and it

541
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 1: did not do well as a result. Yep, yep. As

542
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, in March of last year, recording

543
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:35,560
Speaker 1: this in UH in the early part of eleven, in March,

544
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 1: Palm had to announce as a public company that they

545
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 1: had lost twenty two million dollars twenty two million dollars

546
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,680
Speaker 1: in today's money and in its most recent quarter. And

547
00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:49,080
Speaker 1: basically it was it was made obvious that things were

548
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:51,120
Speaker 1: just not working out and they were going to need

549
00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 1: a little help. And in April, late April of Hewlett

550
00:32:55,960 --> 00:33:00,240
Speaker 1: Packard HP said that it was going to gobble Home

551
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:09,160
Speaker 1: up for how much? One point two billion dollars? So, yes,

552
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 1: that's amazing. And if you remember, UH, in the winter

553
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:17,920
Speaker 1: of two thousand nine, a certain podcaster by the name

554
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 1: of Jonathan Strickland made a prediction that Palm would either

555
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:27,800
Speaker 1: die or be acquired in the year. I'm trying to

556
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:33,040
Speaker 1: save face from recent events that have ruined my predictions

557
00:33:33,080 --> 00:33:36,120
Speaker 1: for this year, and I have a small footnote. We

558
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: need to we need to wrap it up, but I

559
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,160
Speaker 1: have a small footnote for you. Uh. Did you know

560
00:33:40,280 --> 00:33:46,480
Speaker 1: who who was considered a semi game changer? Uh? That

561
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,520
Speaker 1: HP acquired before it acquired Palm and uh and late

562
00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:57,280
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, HP acquired three Calm, and so I think, wait,

563
00:33:57,320 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 1: somebody acquired three Calm. Who was it? I looked it up.

564
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,360
Speaker 1: It was a p and and they finally completed the

565
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: acquisition in April. So together again, together again at last,

566
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,520
Speaker 1: and and hopefully now a lot of people are speculating

567
00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 1: as to what HP is going to really do with

568
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:17,520
Speaker 1: that web os. But I don't think any uh tech

569
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: journalists who has paid any attention to it would say

570
00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,160
Speaker 1: that the web os and Palm are dead. They are

571
00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 1: still going to do something, but h it takes a

572
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:29,239
Speaker 1: while to once an acquisition happens to really digest what's

573
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,799
Speaker 1: going on. But were we suspect that we'll probably see

574
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 1: the web os appearing on tablets and maybe some netbooks, uh,

575
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:40,799
Speaker 1: and maybe smartphones in the future as well. Smartphones are

576
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:43,719
Speaker 1: the that's the longest bet for most people right now,

577
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:48,280
Speaker 1: just because HP is not really known as a smartphone company.

578
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:51,719
Speaker 1: But um, but it's you know, we've seen products that

579
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:54,439
Speaker 1: are running the web os or have said to soon

580
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:58,320
Speaker 1: be running the web os kind of appear in rumors

581
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 1: and but yeah, there's no thing really concrete yet, Yep,

582
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 1: So it'll be Uh, I'm interested to see what will

583
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,280
Speaker 1: come out since the web os has been so acclaimed.

584
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:10,680
Speaker 1: I'm I'm looking forward to the possibility that there's going

585
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 1: to be another viable competitor in the marketplace and we're

586
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 1: all going to get cooler gadgets. Yeah, and and other

587
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:20,320
Speaker 1: companies need to heed the story of Palm because Palm

588
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:24,360
Speaker 1: was very instrumental in shaping the way smartphones launched in

589
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:28,000
Speaker 1: the United States. And uh, you know, it's it's a

590
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 1: good lesson to learn that you might be the thing,

591
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:36,799
Speaker 1: like the central pivotal company of a particular movement, but

592
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:40,480
Speaker 1: within a decade time, decades time, you may, you know,

593
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,719
Speaker 1: find yourself really floundering. So I mean there there are

594
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 1: many lessons to learn from Palm's story. And with that,

595
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:50,279
Speaker 1: we're going to wrap this up. If you guys have

596
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 1: any comments on Palm, if you are a proud owner

597
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:57,960
Speaker 1: of a Palm device, or you have your own predictions

598
00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,400
Speaker 1: for what's going to happen with Palms webbels, you can

599
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:03,320
Speaker 1: let us know. You can let us know on Twitter

600
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 1: or Facebook are handled there is text stuff hs W

601
00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,120
Speaker 1: or you can shoot us an email and that address

602
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:12,880
Speaker 1: is tech stuff at how stuff works dot com and

603
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,200
Speaker 1: Chris and I we thought to you again really soon.

604
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,400
Speaker 1: For moralness and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff

605
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 1: works dot com. To learn more about the podcast, click

606
00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:25,600
Speaker 1: on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of

607
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:29,480
Speaker 1: our homepage. The how Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived.

608
00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 1: Download it today on iTunes, brought to you by the

609
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:40,439
Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you