Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette
Speaker 1: and I am an editor at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan
Speaker 1: Strickland pie May taught you the five point palm exploding
Speaker 1: heart technique. I nearly got Christ to spit on that one.
Speaker 1: I thought I'll take one last sip of water before
Speaker 1: I start to talk, and of course Jonathan tried to
Speaker 1: sabotage me. Okay, So before we get into this, we
Speaker 1: have a little listener mail. This listener mail comes from Zaid,
Speaker 1: who says, Hello, I'm a big fan and I just
Speaker 1: finished listening to your episode about iPods, and I was
Speaker 1: wondering if you could do one on the history of
Speaker 1: Palm or BlackBerry, two of the older smartphone companies that
Speaker 1: are still running but are being hidden in popularity by
Speaker 1: the iPhone or Android. I hope you can do an
Speaker 1: episode on one of these big fans. I had, well,
Speaker 1: so I had We're gonna tackle one of those two.
Speaker 1: Today we're gonna actually talk about Palm. Yes, indeed, now, um,
Speaker 1: I uh, I have a little bit of a history
Speaker 1: with Palm. UM. We'll talk about that in a moment,
Speaker 1: but I certainly I had a few years where I
Speaker 1: was actually using um A one of their U p
Speaker 1: d a's or um uh PD as personal digital assistance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what it was. I always think of public display
Speaker 1: of affection when I hear pd A. I did. I
Speaker 1: did a lot of those. I did a lot of
Speaker 1: those in the nineties. Alright, not the personal digital assistant
Speaker 1: but the other one. Okay, yeah, well yeah, ladies, Palm
Speaker 1: Palm actually has I'm sorry to use this pun changed
Speaker 1: hands several times, but it was founded as an independent company.
Speaker 1: UM back with when Jeff Hawkins started the company in
Speaker 1: and got um Ed Colligan and Donna Dubinski to work
Speaker 1: with him. And I should I should point out that
Speaker 1: I got a lot of my information from a really
Speaker 1: great concise timeline UM that I found by by James
Speaker 1: Nikolay and Nancy Garring of I d G. Yes, same here,
Speaker 1: um yeah. So if you really want to see the
Speaker 1: concise straightforward, you know, this is when it began. This
Speaker 1: is when it ended, and here's all the stuff in between.
Speaker 1: They have an awesome time frame, but I think we
Speaker 1: could put a lot of context around this because at
Speaker 1: the time, there wasn't really a whole lot out there
Speaker 1: like the Palm handheld computer. And in fact, it would
Speaker 1: be a little while before Palm actually came out with
Speaker 1: a device. Right. In fact, when the company first launched
Speaker 1: in two, there really there really were no consumer personal
Speaker 1: digital assistance on the market. If you if you had
Speaker 1: a p d A, you were either an early adopter
Speaker 1: or you were some executive who had invested in this
Speaker 1: and uh, and they were few and far between. So
Speaker 1: originally Hawkins and Company, we're working with other companies to
Speaker 1: try and produce some some p d A s UH.
Speaker 1: And in point of fact, they were working specifically with
Speaker 1: Tandy and Cassio. But those initial efforts proved unsuccessful. They
Speaker 1: just they the hardware they produced did not take off
Speaker 1: of the market. Now, UM, don't get the idea that
Speaker 1: this was the first h p DA of any kind,
Speaker 1: the one that pot relast I mean, UH. People will
Speaker 1: be quick to point out that the Apple Newton was
Speaker 1: announced in ninety two as well and came out in UH.
Speaker 1: Plus you know, there were there were many other companies.
Speaker 1: My father actually worked for as a mechanical engineer. He
Speaker 1: worked for an electronics manufacturer that came up with a
Speaker 1: very specialized handheld device that ended up being used by
Speaker 1: um shipping companies. Um. So you know this is specific
Speaker 1: just talking specifically about Palms. So we're not saying this
Speaker 1: is the first one, but the first one actually happened
Speaker 1: to launched after the company got acquired the very first time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we should point out before we get really involved in
Speaker 1: this Palms history. You know, you mentioned it changed hands
Speaker 1: several times, the whole pun thing. Um, it gets really
Speaker 1: complex there there, because we're talking about acquisitions, spinoffs, re acquisitions, uh, failures.
Speaker 1: It really it's a dramatic story. Um. And you may
Speaker 1: not seem so just on the offset because you're thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: that's just a technology company. It like any other it
Speaker 1: builds these products and but no, the story really is
Speaker 1: one of beyond. It goes beyond technology into the whole
Speaker 1: politics of of how corporations deal with one another with
Speaker 1: mergers and acquisitions. So, yeah, the first acquisition happened in
Speaker 1: n We're talking just three years after the founding of
Speaker 1: the company. And keep in mind the company at this
Speaker 1: point had not produced a successful p d A, but
Speaker 1: but the people behind it were very well versed in
Speaker 1: building the kind of infrastructure you need. We're talking like
Speaker 1: programming infrastructure you need to create a successful p DA.
Speaker 1: They weren't necessarily building hardware, but they were building kind
Speaker 1: of the firmware that exists on the hardware that allows
Speaker 1: a PDA to be possible. So that's when US Robotics
Speaker 1: came along. U. S Robotics was a computer modem company
Speaker 1: and they purchased Palm forty four million dollars yep, yep.
Speaker 1: Around this time, US Robotics was one of the leading,
Speaker 1: I would say arguably leading modem manufacturers. UM. They were
Speaker 1: one of the first to market with UM fifty six
Speaker 1: kilobyte per second. I know, stop laughing, UM modem. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, that the company I work for,
Speaker 1: the Internet service provider I used to work for UH
Speaker 1: used US Robotics technology and its points of presence basically
Speaker 1: your local dial up motor pool and UM yeah, US
Speaker 1: Robotics acquired Palm in an attempt to diversify somewhat. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I I also want to point out so the four
Speaker 1: million dollar price point. Uh, this is gonna come a
Speaker 1: running theme in this show too, because I did this
Speaker 1: for everything except this first one. UM, and I just
Speaker 1: did it now adjusted for inflation in two thousand and ten,
Speaker 1: because that's the latest I can get. It would be
Speaker 1: sixty two million, nine thousand, five leven bucks. So that's
Speaker 1: a that's a good chunk of change for a company
Speaker 1: that had yet to produce a really successful or really
Speaker 1: any successful hardware. So yeah. A year later in US
Speaker 1: Robotics introduces the palm Pilot one thousand. Yes, I remember that. UM.
Speaker 1: Executives everywhere, at least the United States really liked this thing. UM.
Speaker 1: It was the first, the first p d A that
Speaker 1: I really saw a lot of in uh, in offices.
Speaker 1: I joined that technology company I just mentioned in and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, by early I noticed a lot of the
Speaker 1: company directors had these palm pilots and they were just
Speaker 1: they were just really popular, mainly because of the software.
Speaker 1: The software behind it is Jonathan mentioned earlier. UM was
Speaker 1: a great package of software. It allowed you to do
Speaker 1: all kinds of things, keep track of your calendar, UM
Speaker 1: it would sync with your computer. UM maybe not necessarily,
Speaker 1: I don't know. If they Palm Pilot one thousand allowed
Speaker 1: you to do that. To be honest, I think so.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, so, I mean you could keep track
Speaker 1: of everything. You didn't have to carry that big old
Speaker 1: paper planner with you everywhere. You had this small handheld
Speaker 1: device that you could, um, you know, throw in your
Speaker 1: bag or throw in your pocket. It was much more
Speaker 1: for one thing, it was much more convenient for another thing.
Speaker 1: It just looked cool. Yeah, and you could have like
Speaker 1: a virtual rolodex on there, so you could keep a
Speaker 1: list of all your context Now this might sound very
Speaker 1: familiar to a lot of our listeners. It sounds a
Speaker 1: lot like a smartphone, and in in many ways it's
Speaker 1: sort of the predecessor for smartphones. It's just you've got
Speaker 1: to leave one minor component out, the phone part. So
Speaker 1: it was just as smart. Yeah, it was just smart,
Speaker 1: which obviously that's why Palm was so successful early on,
Speaker 1: because it was smart. But now the the the idea
Speaker 1: here is of course, that you've got a device that
Speaker 1: manages your information in a very portable way. So also
Speaker 1: remember in the mid nineties, it's not that laptop computers
Speaker 1: were didn't exist. They did, but they were heavy, heavy, divide.
Speaker 1: They were not what you would consider easily portable for
Speaker 1: the most part. I mean, I remember I my wife
Speaker 1: had a laptop computer which actually was built a few
Speaker 1: years before this, because she had it when um uh,
Speaker 1: when we were first dating, which was a few years
Speaker 1: before of this. I'm not going to date it too much,
Speaker 1: but anyway, I remember that the laptop was so heavy
Speaker 1: it would hurt your lap to put it on. It
Speaker 1: was not really a laptop, it was a It was
Speaker 1: a desktop. It was just a portable desktop. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and this time you needed something. If you were someone
Speaker 1: who was going to be traveling a lot and you
Speaker 1: wanted to be able to look at your calendar and
Speaker 1: you didn't want to have to deal with lots of paper,
Speaker 1: this was a great solution. So that was in inven
Speaker 1: we get another change in ownership. Yes, three Calm the
Speaker 1: makers of well they made all kinds of different technology goodies.
Speaker 1: Um My. One of my favorites was after the Palm acquisition,
Speaker 1: was a internet appliance called the Audrey, which lasted about
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty minutes on the market place before three comm
Speaker 1: decided to discontinue. But it's pretty neat, at least pretty
Speaker 1: neat looking. That just makes me think of a little
Speaker 1: shop of hors. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, the three com
Speaker 1: was a pretty savvy company and they said, well, you
Speaker 1: know this, this is obviously going to take off. They
Speaker 1: got in at the right time because Palm had started
Speaker 1: to make its ascent into popularity. Um and as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, they um they went ahead and had
Speaker 1: its the first developer conference for people to develop software. Now,
Speaker 1: I I feel compelled to point out too that like
Speaker 1: today's smartphones, Palm, the Palm operating system allowed you to
Speaker 1: uh install software from third parties. So it's not you
Speaker 1: don't You weren't limited to just the uh software that
Speaker 1: was on the phone. You could buy stuff from other people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and really we we hear developer conference all the
Speaker 1: time now, but back then it was pretty much it
Speaker 1: was a pretty novel idea. Uh. You know. Now you'll
Speaker 1: hear developer conferences from especially like Google, Microsoft and Apple.
Speaker 1: They they are known for them in particular, although other companies,
Speaker 1: of course also do developer conferences, including Facebook. You know,
Speaker 1: all sorts of platforms do them now because of course,
Speaker 1: applications run on pretty much anything you can think of,
Speaker 1: you know, refrigerators, in microwaves pretty soon ovens as well.
Speaker 1: And I'm not I'm not even exaggerating because it c s.
Speaker 1: I saw a lot of that. We might, uh we
Speaker 1: might should do an podcast on the Internet of Things
Speaker 1: at some point, yeah, because that's interesting too. So when
Speaker 1: three Comms acquisition was not just for Palm, Three Calm
Speaker 1: actually acquired US Robotics, which was Palm's parent company at
Speaker 1: that time. So that's right. So so you think of
Speaker 1: Palm as a little fish and US Robotics was a
Speaker 1: slightly bigger fish, and three Calm was an even bigger fish.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. And um, again, it acted at
Speaker 1: the right time. It saw an ascending company. US Robotics
Speaker 1: at that point had uh, pretty sophisticated modem technology. We
Speaker 1: weren't really in the broadband era at that point. A
Speaker 1: good acquisition for them, or at least that's way of
Speaker 1: appeared at the time, right, right, So in uh, this
Speaker 1: was a very eventful year and a very dramatic year
Speaker 1: in Palm's history. Uh. For one thing, the Bomb Computing
Speaker 1: sued Microsoft because Microsoft was marketing the Palm PC right
Speaker 1: and and of course Palm was saying this creates confusion
Speaker 1: in the marketplace because our company name is Palm and
Speaker 1: you've called your product the Palm PC. We're in the
Speaker 1: same sphere of of devices, right, So they made the
Speaker 1: argument that that was brand confusion, it was infringing on
Speaker 1: their trademarks. So Microsoft kind of backed off and changed
Speaker 1: the name to be Palm Size PC as opposed to
Speaker 1: just Palm PC. But that same year I saw some
Speaker 1: dramatic shake ups in the company because the founders, uh
Speaker 1: Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dobinski, and A Colligan, they decided to
Speaker 1: leave the company and found another company called Handspring, Yes,
Speaker 1: because they they were not comfortable in the direction the
Speaker 1: company was going in. Under three Colms got leadership, so
Speaker 1: they so you've got the founders of the company who
Speaker 1: are no longer happy with the way the company is going.
Speaker 1: We've actually seen this story before too. There's a very
Speaker 1: famous example with Steve Jobs, who he was. You know,
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs was a founder of Apple, and in the
Speaker 1: during the course of Apple's existence, when it got bigger
Speaker 1: and bigger, Steve Jobs was at some point kind of
Speaker 1: shuffled to the side and and almost ignored. In fact,
Speaker 1: saying ignored is probably not being too It does not
Speaker 1: really hyper believe, and so Steve Jobs left Apple only
Speaker 1: to return later. Um. But you know, so the story
Speaker 1: is not uncommon, it has happened before, but it's it's
Speaker 1: a pretty big event in any company's life when the
Speaker 1: founders you know, jump shup and and create a new
Speaker 1: company because they don't like the direction of their original company.
Speaker 1: So Handspring begins to produce PDAs and uh and smartphones
Speaker 1: that are operating on the Palm's system. So they're still
Speaker 1: working with Palm, but they are not working for Palm, right. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that that actually is is my introduction to the the
Speaker 1: Palm world. Because I didn't actually have a Palm product.
Speaker 1: I bought a Handspring Visor Deluxe, which is one of two,
Speaker 1: uh two original models of the Handspring. You had the
Speaker 1: Visor and the Visor Deluxe. The Deluxe was cool because
Speaker 1: you had, um something that the Palm machines didn't have,
Speaker 1: which was a slot, a hardware slot. Um if you
Speaker 1: think of it like an old style cartridge video game console.
Speaker 1: The Visor Deluxe allowed you to there was there was
Speaker 1: basically a dummy thing in there to keep dust and
Speaker 1: dirt from getting out there, so you you know, pop
Speaker 1: out the little piece of plastic and you can snap
Speaker 1: in a cartridge that would allow you to uh run
Speaker 1: software from that that cartridge and you wouldn't would give
Speaker 1: you access to do things that you couldn't do with
Speaker 1: the software that you would load, um by connecting it
Speaker 1: and sinking it with your computer. And of course we're
Speaker 1: not talking we're not in the days of WiFi yet,
Speaker 1: so this is every time you sink information with your computer,
Speaker 1: you're doing it with a cable uh plugged in directly
Speaker 1: to your your computer or through a doc which you know,
Speaker 1: very popular with the executives because you have that on
Speaker 1: the side of the computer and it was um you know,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it was certainly a cool accessory to have
Speaker 1: on your you know, cool looking accessory to have on
Speaker 1: your desk and you would sink that information. Well, the
Speaker 1: this slot was really cool and it's something that's set
Speaker 1: hands Spring apart. And of course, although the three founders
Speaker 1: left palm they it wasn't completely acrimonious because they didn't say, well,
Speaker 1: we're leaving, we're taking our football with us and we're
Speaker 1: going home and doing our own thing. They actually licensed
Speaker 1: the palm os to run on the Handspring, so they
Speaker 1: were still sort of cousins. They were different, completely different
Speaker 1: corporate organizations. They still had a working relationship with each other. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're the cousin you don't like so much, but come on,
Speaker 1: they're still family. Um. And the Visor was just one
Speaker 1: of two big lines of products that Handspring produced. The
Speaker 1: other one is arguably much more famous. It's considerably more famous.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't what happened to media. No. But but
Speaker 1: not that long after they they founded Handspring, they started
Speaker 1: to produce the Trio. Trio that's t R EO. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Trio line of products, which if you if you
Speaker 1: pay attention to tech journalists who have been in the
Speaker 1: business for you know, a decade or more. Um, actually,
Speaker 1: I guess it's got to be longer than that now.
Speaker 1: But but you'll you'll hear the word Trio thrown around
Speaker 1: a lot, as like I know that, say Rafe Needelman
Speaker 1: of st Yes, he hung on to his Trio for
Speaker 1: far longer than most of us would would hold onto
Speaker 1: a piece of technology, you know, using it every day
Speaker 1: because he loved that device. He loved the hardware and
Speaker 1: the software integration. And Trio of course, will play another
Speaker 1: part of the story a little further down. So we've
Speaker 1: got Handspring operating more or less outside the realm of Palm,
Speaker 1: and it's still licensing the operating system, but otherwise it's
Speaker 1: its own thing. So in nineteen we have another interesting development.
Speaker 1: Three Calm decides to spin off Palm Computing and make
Speaker 1: it a subsidiary company. It's essentially its own standalone company now. Yes,
Speaker 1: and and this is the company that UM that is
Speaker 1: essentially creating the operating system. Right, So you've got the
Speaker 1: one company creating the operating system, and then you've got Handspring,
Speaker 1: which is doing hardware and using that operating system. Well,
Speaker 1: of course three comm had still been making the Palm hardware.
Speaker 1: They introduced the Palm seven also in which was the
Speaker 1: first with with a wireless antenna built in, right, and
Speaker 1: how much did that cost? That was five four and
Speaker 1: to days dollars I wasn't um. So yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: they're still making stuff. But now you have competition in
Speaker 1: the marketplace without hardware, and uh, you know, you've you've
Speaker 1: got three Comms spinning Palm off. It's basically three comms
Speaker 1: star business at that point. Actually, at that point, Palm,
Speaker 1: the Palm section of three Comms business was probably the
Speaker 1: highest performing as far as revenue generation is concerned. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh and then again in two thousand, the the
Speaker 1: separation was complete. They decided to and they went they
Speaker 1: went off on their own. And uh, a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago we really do see the separation of hardware
Speaker 1: and software with the uh the introduction of a group
Speaker 1: called Palm Source. Again, I remember this pretty well because
Speaker 1: I wasn't certain how long, how how this was going
Speaker 1: to work out with my handspring, which I used for
Speaker 1: several years. Again it worked great, Um, but yeah, you'd
Speaker 1: have to instead of going to Palm dot com, you
Speaker 1: would have to go to the Palm Source website to
Speaker 1: learn more about the operating system and updates and things
Speaker 1: like that. And uh, this might seem a bit surprising,
Speaker 1: but Sony uh plunked down twenty million dollars twenty four
Speaker 1: million tun or one thou hundred one dollars in today's currency,
Speaker 1: which is the first company outside one of the acquiring
Speaker 1: companies to make an investment in the Palm operating system
Speaker 1: because uh yeah, for their uh um handheld, Sony also
Speaker 1: licensed the Palm operating system. UM, so they were they
Speaker 1: were sort of I guess you would think of them
Speaker 1: as the windows of the except for the fact that
Speaker 1: there was actually a windows. But uh yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: they were. They were the company licensing operating the operating
Speaker 1: system for many many different companies handhelds right and and
Speaker 1: back in two thousand. I know, we we moved on
Speaker 1: from that, but I just wanted to mention the interesting
Speaker 1: thing about Palm going public in two thousand is that
Speaker 1: was right in the middle of the dot com bubble. Yes,
Speaker 1: and uh and you know, the dot com bubble and
Speaker 1: the dot com crash of course played a very important
Speaker 1: part in many companies, but in Palm it really helped
Speaker 1: them out because, uh, the I p O, the initial
Speaker 1: public offering was right there in the middle of the
Speaker 1: dot com bubble and at the height Palm shares sold
Speaker 1: for more than a share twenty dollars in today's money.
Speaker 1: Oh gotten old yet, because I've got a few more
Speaker 1: years ago. So in two thousand two, also, um, this
Speaker 1: is the introduction of our our of our other competitor,
Speaker 1: which we're not going to get into right this minute,
Speaker 1: but this is when BlackBerry came out from Research and
Speaker 1: Motion Research in Motion. So the BlackBerry smartphone hits the
Speaker 1: market in two thousand two. Keep in mind that at
Speaker 1: this point the Palm devices, a lot of them are
Speaker 1: still p d a's not phones. That that's true. And um,
Speaker 1: I also want to add, I think that in the
Speaker 1: late nineties and early two thousand's was when you would
Speaker 1: start seeing the Palm and Handspring devices at your local
Speaker 1: electronics store and in some cases discount uh department stores.
Speaker 1: So they are they were making their way into consumer
Speaker 1: hands which is and the reason I thought to say
Speaker 1: that just now is because of research in motion in
Speaker 1: the BlackBerry, because the BlackBerry is often thought of as
Speaker 1: an enterprise gadget basically four business people of corporate business
Speaker 1: work and Palm had made that Matt crossover. My wife,
Speaker 1: in fact, had gotten a h Palm p D, a
Speaker 1: black and white Palm PDA when they were still making those. Um,
Speaker 1: because they had gotten to be inexpensive. They they ended
Speaker 1: up being around us, you know, they were they were
Speaker 1: pretty affordable. Um. You wouldn't have necessarily a lot of
Speaker 1: the variety, you wouldn't have the color, you wouldn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of the functionality, but you'd have the Palm
Speaker 1: operating system in black and white. And really for a
Speaker 1: lot of people that's all they needed. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: knew quite a few people who had p d A
Speaker 1: s um, especially uh the folks that with the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Radio Theater Company. A lot of them had them. But
Speaker 1: then again, the Atlanta Radio Theater Company had a lot
Speaker 1: of people who you think, radio theater, that's an old technology.
Speaker 1: But it turns out the people who are interested in it,
Speaker 1: not just the actors but also you know, of course
Speaker 1: they the engineers and everyone, um, they also tend to
Speaker 1: fall into the early adopter uh sphere. So quite a
Speaker 1: few of them had PDAs back when they were fairly
Speaker 1: you know, new on the scene. And by this time
Speaker 1: almost you know, i'd say, i'd say a a sizeable
Speaker 1: persone of them had them. Okay, Um, So in two
Speaker 1: thousand three, this is where we start to see the
Speaker 1: companies come back together again. Yes, well sort of kind of.
Speaker 1: It's funny because you know, we had Palm on its own,
Speaker 1: then US Robotics acquired Palm, then three Com and three
Speaker 1: Comm acquired US Probotics. Then the founders left to start
Speaker 1: Handspring right then up right and then and then there
Speaker 1: was a subsidiary for the operating system. So so now
Speaker 1: there's a Palm company and a palm Um operating system
Speaker 1: Palm one, and then hand Spring agreed to be required
Speaker 1: by Palm. Right, So now we we see the founders
Speaker 1: essentially returning to the company because Palm besides announces that's
Speaker 1: going to acquire hand Spring. Uh. And so now you've
Speaker 1: got a hardware company that's that's Palm One. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I said Palm one when I met Palm Source. Palm
Speaker 1: one is the hardware company. Uh. And then a officially spinoff,
Speaker 1: Palm Source, which is the Upbring system company. So you've
Speaker 1: got two companies under the Palm name, one doing hardware,
Speaker 1: one doing the Upbring system. And uh. They that's when
Speaker 1: you start seeing the Palm trio's So it's no longer
Speaker 1: the Handspring trio coming out. The Palm trio starts to
Speaker 1: come out. So two thousand five, two thousand five, the
Speaker 1: CEO of Palm One, Todd Bradley, leaves the company and
Speaker 1: Ed Colligan, one of the founders of Palm takes over
Speaker 1: in his stead Um and uh, yeah, Palm Source had
Speaker 1: the rights to the brand name. So Palm one, the
Speaker 1: hardware company, bought it, which is really weird. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: but right, you've got subsidiaries by Yeah, this is where
Speaker 1: it really gets this. Like I said, it really shows
Speaker 1: you how complicated corporate America can get, or just corporations
Speaker 1: in general. It's not just limited to America obviously. And
Speaker 1: I bet the he's got this one too. Yes. Uh.
Speaker 1: In the process of acquiring the brand name, uh, the
Speaker 1: the Palm One acquired of the Palm Trademark Holding Company
Speaker 1: for thirty million dollars thirty three million dollars fo SORR
Speaker 1: today and uh and in a pretty significant departure, one
Speaker 1: which I was completely shocked by at the time, UH, Trio,
Speaker 1: the Trio running Windows Mobile software was announced, and I
Speaker 1: thought that was absolutely strange. After the Palm operating system
Speaker 1: had such a significant share of the market, that Palm
Speaker 1: One would release a device with the Windows Mobile operating system. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is kind of like to to explain Chris's surprise,
Speaker 1: think of it like this. Think imagine if Apple were
Speaker 1: to announce that it was going to release a version
Speaker 1: of the iPhone for running Android. Yeah, that would be
Speaker 1: the kind of surprise. You think, what that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's the Apple iPhone. Why isn't it
Speaker 1: running the Apple operating system. Well, that was kind of
Speaker 1: reaction that people had when they heard that the Palm
Speaker 1: devices were going to run Windows Mobile. Because Palm devices
Speaker 1: ran Palm operating system, it kind of they went together. Yeah. Similarly,
Speaker 1: I had the same sort of double take when Apple
Speaker 1: announced that it would allow people to use Bootcamp. So hey,
Speaker 1: you can you know, load Windows on your Mac right?
Speaker 1: Why would Okay? Yeah? And uh and to to let
Speaker 1: you guys know the there were only I think four
Speaker 1: smartphones released by Palm that ran Windows Mobile. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a very small sliver of their product lineup, but
Speaker 1: it was they were. There were versions of the Trio
Speaker 1: that ran Windows Mobile as opposed to the Palm operating system,
Speaker 1: which you could argue that could also can cause confusion
Speaker 1: within the marketplace. Well, also we should point out to
Speaker 1: that in this time, this is the mid two thousand's,
Speaker 1: now we're getting up to very close to the release
Speaker 1: of some big competitor um, and the Palm OS is
Speaker 1: getting really dated by this point. Um, it was very
Speaker 1: very popular. Uh, you soul find support for it in
Speaker 1: many products. I know that Ubuntu even has a Palm
Speaker 1: sc client still available. Um, but uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean their clients available for the others too, but I
Speaker 1: mean it's baked into the software. The thing is UM.
Speaker 1: At this point, other competitors are showing starting to show
Speaker 1: that they've got a grip on smartphone software and p
Speaker 1: D a functionality that they didn't have before. BlackBerry was
Speaker 1: certainly giving them a run for their money. Windows Mobile
Speaker 1: was was starting to take over some market share, and
Speaker 1: I think that that was a move that said, okay, well,
Speaker 1: we're going to have to do something about the operating system.
Speaker 1: Of course, it also showed the world that they might
Speaker 1: be considering other options. Yeah. In two thousand seven, that
Speaker 1: was another big year for Palm, and unfortunately not in
Speaker 1: a good way. UM. Palm had tried to get into
Speaker 1: a it was really it was trying to launch a
Speaker 1: new market. Uh. There was a product called the Folio,
Speaker 1: which was at the time referred to as a sub notebook.
Speaker 1: Now later on we would refer to these kind of
Speaker 1: products as netbooks. Essentially, it was undersized, uh notebook style computer,
Speaker 1: you know, clamshell style computer. Uh. And it had a
Speaker 1: smaller keyboard, smaller screen, UM, more limited operating system and
Speaker 1: it was kind of ahead of its time and as
Speaker 1: a result, before it even had a chance to launch.
Speaker 1: I think within three months of announcing the product, Palm
Speaker 1: pulled the plug and said, you know what, We're not
Speaker 1: going to release the Folio after all, which is funny.
Speaker 1: I mean I actually read a hands on review of
Speaker 1: the Folio that because Engadget got ahold of one, so
Speaker 1: and Gadget ran a review just kind of a minor
Speaker 1: a really quick review, and they said it wasn't a
Speaker 1: very compelling device and they would have preferred a new
Speaker 1: smartphone running a snazzy or operating system to a a
Speaker 1: notebook that they felt was underpowered. And um, it even
Speaker 1: had WiFi and Bluetooth capability, but you know, it just
Speaker 1: never made it to market after three months of like
Speaker 1: I said, three months after they announced it, they pulled
Speaker 1: the plug and uh and instead, um, the Focus was
Speaker 1: supposed to be put back onto the smartphone market. Well
Speaker 1: that year two thousand seven was another big year in
Speaker 1: the smartphone market because a juggernaut hit the scene. That
Speaker 1: would be Apple's iPhone. Yes, Apple's iPhone, which we all
Speaker 1: know has completely redefined the smartphone market. Just as the
Speaker 1: iPod redefined the MP three market, the iPhone redefined the
Speaker 1: smartphone market. Whether you think the iPhone is a great device.
Speaker 1: Or if you don't, if you just don't get it
Speaker 1: or whatever, you cannot deny that the iPhone has had
Speaker 1: a huge impact the The app store alone has totally
Speaker 1: changed the playing ground for smartphones because everyone has to
Speaker 1: have an app store now yep, yep, including including Windows
Speaker 1: and BlackBerry and now Palm. And it's extending also beyond smartphones.
Speaker 1: But that's neither here nor there. Yep. Yeah. In two
Speaker 1: thousand nine and Collegan finally left Palm. He was the
Speaker 1: last one of the original founders the others that are
Speaker 1: already left before then. But that was also the year
Speaker 1: that the Palm PREX came out, and that's the first
Speaker 1: of the new Palm smartphones. It had it's running on
Speaker 1: Palm's newest operating system for we boas. But to uh
Speaker 1: massive critical acclaim, Yeah, I like it. I was at
Speaker 1: that consumer electronics show in two thousand nine when Palm
Speaker 1: debuted the Palm pre and it was one of the
Speaker 1: biggest buzz generators on the floor. Everyone thought that this
Speaker 1: was an amazing device. It was such a huge leap
Speaker 1: from what Palm had been doing before and and it
Speaker 1: looked like a smooth uh and and sleek operating system
Speaker 1: and had a really nice user interface. Everyone thought that
Speaker 1: it was a worthy competitor to other smartphones on the market.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind this was just when Google Android was
Speaker 1: you know, Google Android had only been available for a
Speaker 1: couple of months when when Palm unveiled this, the iPhone
Speaker 1: had been out for two years and uh, and people
Speaker 1: were saying, this may be a real competitor. But unfortunately
Speaker 1: the Pre there was no announced date for or there
Speaker 1: was no announcement for a release date rather for the
Speaker 1: Palm Pre at c S. By the time Palm did
Speaker 1: release the Pre, which was uh at the late spring
Speaker 1: of that year, almost summer um, a lot of the
Speaker 1: buzz had died down, and that excitement, that initial real
Speaker 1: excitement of everyone thinking, wow, this is really a compelling device.
Speaker 1: By that time it kind of just gone away because
Speaker 1: you know, people hadn't it was outside out of mind
Speaker 1: and uh. And so it launched and people still said,
Speaker 1: you know, this is a good device, it's it's a
Speaker 1: worthy smartphone. It just did not have the mind share
Speaker 1: and I hate that term, but no, it's it's appropriate.
Speaker 1: It just didn't have that kind of level of excitement
Speaker 1: that had back when they first announced it, and it
Speaker 1: did not do well as a result. Yep, yep. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, in March of last year, recording
Speaker 1: this in UH in the early part of eleven, in March,
Speaker 1: Palm had to announce as a public company that they
Speaker 1: had lost twenty two million dollars twenty two million dollars
Speaker 1: in today's money and in its most recent quarter. And
Speaker 1: basically it was it was made obvious that things were
Speaker 1: just not working out and they were going to need
Speaker 1: a little help. And in April, late April of Hewlett
Speaker 1: Packard HP said that it was going to gobble Home
Speaker 1: up for how much? One point two billion dollars? So, yes,
Speaker 1: that's amazing. And if you remember, UH, in the winter
Speaker 1: of two thousand nine, a certain podcaster by the name
Speaker 1: of Jonathan Strickland made a prediction that Palm would either
Speaker 1: die or be acquired in the year. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: save face from recent events that have ruined my predictions
Speaker 1: for this year, and I have a small footnote. We
Speaker 1: need to we need to wrap it up, but I
Speaker 1: have a small footnote for you. Uh. Did you know
Speaker 1: who who was considered a semi game changer? Uh? That
Speaker 1: HP acquired before it acquired Palm and uh and late
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, HP acquired three Calm, and so I think, wait,
Speaker 1: somebody acquired three Calm. Who was it? I looked it up.
Speaker 1: It was a p and and they finally completed the
Speaker 1: acquisition in April. So together again, together again at last,
Speaker 1: and and hopefully now a lot of people are speculating
Speaker 1: as to what HP is going to really do with
Speaker 1: that web os. But I don't think any uh tech
Speaker 1: journalists who has paid any attention to it would say
Speaker 1: that the web os and Palm are dead. They are
Speaker 1: still going to do something, but h it takes a
Speaker 1: while to once an acquisition happens to really digest what's
Speaker 1: going on. But were we suspect that we'll probably see
Speaker 1: the web os appearing on tablets and maybe some netbooks, uh,
Speaker 1: and maybe smartphones in the future as well. Smartphones are
Speaker 1: the that's the longest bet for most people right now,
Speaker 1: just because HP is not really known as a smartphone company.
Speaker 1: But um, but it's you know, we've seen products that
Speaker 1: are running the web os or have said to soon
Speaker 1: be running the web os kind of appear in rumors
Speaker 1: and but yeah, there's no thing really concrete yet, Yep,
Speaker 1: So it'll be Uh, I'm interested to see what will
Speaker 1: come out since the web os has been so acclaimed.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm looking forward to the possibility that there's going
Speaker 1: to be another viable competitor in the marketplace and we're
Speaker 1: all going to get cooler gadgets. Yeah, and and other
Speaker 1: companies need to heed the story of Palm because Palm
Speaker 1: was very instrumental in shaping the way smartphones launched in
Speaker 1: the United States. And uh, you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: good lesson to learn that you might be the thing,
Speaker 1: like the central pivotal company of a particular movement, but
Speaker 1: within a decade time, decades time, you may, you know,
Speaker 1: find yourself really floundering. So I mean there there are
Speaker 1: many lessons to learn from Palm's story. And with that,
Speaker 1: we're going to wrap this up. If you guys have
Speaker 1: any comments on Palm, if you are a proud owner
Speaker 1: of a Palm device, or you have your own predictions
Speaker 1: for what's going to happen with Palms webbels, you can
Speaker 1: let us know. You can let us know on Twitter
Speaker 1: or Facebook are handled there is text stuff hs W
Speaker 1: or you can shoot us an email and that address
Speaker 1: is tech stuff at how stuff works dot com and
Speaker 1: Chris and I we thought to you again really soon.
Speaker 1: For moralness and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. To learn more about the podcast, click
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