WEBVTT - The History of Palm 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.760 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.079 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.279 and I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:24.800 Sitting across from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.560 Strickland pie May taught you the five point palm exploding 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:33.360 heart technique. I nearly got Christ to spit on that one. 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:35.840 I thought I'll take one last sip of water before 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:38.560 I start to talk, and of course Jonathan tried to 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.440 sabotage me. Okay, So before we get into this, we 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:50.040 have a little listener mail. This listener mail comes from Zaid, 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:52.320 who says, Hello, I'm a big fan and I just 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.560 finished listening to your episode about iPods, and I was 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:56.720 wondering if you could do one on the history of 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.640 Palm or BlackBerry, two of the older smartphone companies that 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.160 are still running but are being hidden in popularity by 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:04.360 the iPhone or Android. I hope you can do an 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.160 episode on one of these big fans. I had, well, 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:09.440 so I had We're gonna tackle one of those two. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.080 Today we're gonna actually talk about Palm. Yes, indeed, now, um, 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:16.640 I uh, I have a little bit of a history 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.880 with Palm. UM. We'll talk about that in a moment, 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.200 but I certainly I had a few years where I 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:26.400 was actually using um A one of their U p 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:31.400 d a's or um uh PD as personal digital assistance. Yeah, 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:35.119 that's what it was. I always think of public display 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:37.360 of affection when I hear pd A. I did. I 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:38.840 did a lot of those. I did a lot of 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:42.240 those in the nineties. Alright, not the personal digital assistant 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:46.199 but the other one. Okay, yeah, well yeah, ladies, Palm 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:50.480 Palm actually has I'm sorry to use this pun changed 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:54.240 hands several times, but it was founded as an independent company. 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:58.360 UM back with when Jeff Hawkins started the company in 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:03.440 and got um Ed Colligan and Donna Dubinski to work 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:04.960 with him. And I should I should point out that 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.240 I got a lot of my information from a really 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:12.720 great concise timeline UM that I found by by James 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.680 Nikolay and Nancy Garring of I d G. Yes, same here, 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.520 um yeah. So if you really want to see the 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.280 concise straightforward, you know, this is when it began. This 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.080 is when it ended, and here's all the stuff in between. 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:26.359 They have an awesome time frame, but I think we 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:28.400 could put a lot of context around this because at 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.480 the time, there wasn't really a whole lot out there 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.800 like the Palm handheld computer. And in fact, it would 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:40.000 be a little while before Palm actually came out with 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:43.400 a device. Right. In fact, when the company first launched 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:47.840 in two, there really there really were no consumer personal 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.240 digital assistance on the market. If you if you had 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:53.160 a p d A, you were either an early adopter 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:57.119 or you were some executive who had invested in this 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.040 and uh, and they were few and far between. So 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:06.160 originally Hawkins and Company, we're working with other companies to 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:10.040 try and produce some some p d A s UH. 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.680 And in point of fact, they were working specifically with 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:19.960 Tandy and Cassio. But those initial efforts proved unsuccessful. They 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:22.919 just they the hardware they produced did not take off 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.520 of the market. Now, UM, don't get the idea that 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:30.040 this was the first h p DA of any kind, 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.959 the one that pot relast I mean, UH. People will 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.120 be quick to point out that the Apple Newton was 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:41.240 announced in ninety two as well and came out in UH. 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.640 Plus you know, there were there were many other companies. 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.880 My father actually worked for as a mechanical engineer. He 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.680 worked for an electronics manufacturer that came up with a 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.520 very specialized handheld device that ended up being used by 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:59.800 um shipping companies. Um. So you know this is specific 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.560 just talking specifically about Palms. So we're not saying this 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.560 is the first one, but the first one actually happened 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:11.040 to launched after the company got acquired the very first time. Yeah, 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:13.680 we should point out before we get really involved in 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.760 this Palms history. You know, you mentioned it changed hands 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:21.440 several times, the whole pun thing. Um, it gets really 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:30.120 complex there there, because we're talking about acquisitions, spinoffs, re acquisitions, uh, failures. 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:34.440 It really it's a dramatic story. Um. And you may 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:36.840 not seem so just on the offset because you're thinking, oh, 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.440 that's just a technology company. It like any other it 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.000 builds these products and but no, the story really is 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:46.760 one of beyond. It goes beyond technology into the whole 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.919 politics of of how corporations deal with one another with 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:55.360 mergers and acquisitions. So, yeah, the first acquisition happened in 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.520 n We're talking just three years after the founding of 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.159 the company. And keep in mind the company at this 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:05.400 point had not produced a successful p d A, but 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.039 but the people behind it were very well versed in 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:12.320 building the kind of infrastructure you need. We're talking like 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.200 programming infrastructure you need to create a successful p DA. 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.440 They weren't necessarily building hardware, but they were building kind 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.480 of the firmware that exists on the hardware that allows 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:26.640 a PDA to be possible. So that's when US Robotics 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.839 came along. U. S Robotics was a computer modem company 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:37.360 and they purchased Palm forty four million dollars yep, yep. 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.360 Around this time, US Robotics was one of the leading, 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:45.400 I would say arguably leading modem manufacturers. UM. They were 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.640 one of the first to market with UM fifty six 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:53.040 kilobyte per second. I know, stop laughing, UM modem. As 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:54.680 a matter of fact, that the company I work for, 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.120 the Internet service provider I used to work for UH 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:01.560 used US Robotics technology and its points of presence basically 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:06.200 your local dial up motor pool and UM yeah, US 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:09.400 Robotics acquired Palm in an attempt to diversify somewhat. Yeah. 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.000 I I also want to point out so the four 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.440 million dollar price point. Uh, this is gonna come a 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:17.680 running theme in this show too, because I did this 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:21.000 for everything except this first one. UM, and I just 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:25.640 did it now adjusted for inflation in two thousand and ten, 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.640 because that's the latest I can get. It would be 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:33.400 sixty two million, nine thousand, five leven bucks. So that's 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.320 a that's a good chunk of change for a company 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:39.640 that had yet to produce a really successful or really 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:46.520 any successful hardware. So yeah. A year later in US 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:54.320 Robotics introduces the palm Pilot one thousand. Yes, I remember that. UM. 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:59.159 Executives everywhere, at least the United States really liked this thing. UM. 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.960 It was the first, the first p d A that 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.560 I really saw a lot of in uh, in offices. 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:12.120 I joined that technology company I just mentioned in and uh, 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.880 you know, by early I noticed a lot of the 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:20.200 company directors had these palm pilots and they were just 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.680 they were just really popular, mainly because of the software. 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.720 The software behind it is Jonathan mentioned earlier. UM was 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:27.800 a great package of software. It allowed you to do 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.840 all kinds of things, keep track of your calendar, UM 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:35.040 it would sync with your computer. UM maybe not necessarily, 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:37.360 I don't know. If they Palm Pilot one thousand allowed 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.080 you to do that. To be honest, I think so. 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.520 But but yeah, so, I mean you could keep track 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.160 of everything. You didn't have to carry that big old 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:46.080 paper planner with you everywhere. You had this small handheld 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.000 device that you could, um, you know, throw in your 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.760 bag or throw in your pocket. It was much more 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:53.840 for one thing, it was much more convenient for another thing. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.200 It just looked cool. Yeah, and you could have like 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.040 a virtual rolodex on there, so you could keep a 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.640 list of all your context Now this might sound very 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:04.520 familiar to a lot of our listeners. It sounds a 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.680 lot like a smartphone, and in in many ways it's 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.760 sort of the predecessor for smartphones. It's just you've got 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:16.800 to leave one minor component out, the phone part. So 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.000 it was just as smart. Yeah, it was just smart, 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.960 which obviously that's why Palm was so successful early on, 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.880 because it was smart. But now the the the idea 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.120 here is of course, that you've got a device that 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:32.679 manages your information in a very portable way. So also 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:36.840 remember in the mid nineties, it's not that laptop computers 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:41.960 were didn't exist. They did, but they were heavy, heavy, divide. 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.680 They were not what you would consider easily portable for 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:49.320 the most part. I mean, I remember I my wife 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:54.120 had a laptop computer which actually was built a few 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.319 years before this, because she had it when um uh, 0:08:57.520 --> 0:08:59.720 when we were first dating, which was a few years 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:01.760 before of this. I'm not going to date it too much, 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:05.120 but anyway, I remember that the laptop was so heavy 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:07.760 it would hurt your lap to put it on. It 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:09.960 was not really a laptop, it was a It was 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:13.680 a desktop. It was just a portable desktop. So yeah, 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.120 and this time you needed something. If you were someone 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:17.880 who was going to be traveling a lot and you 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.959 wanted to be able to look at your calendar and 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:22.920 you didn't want to have to deal with lots of paper, 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:30.000 this was a great solution. So that was in inven 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:34.720 we get another change in ownership. Yes, three Calm the 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:40.199 makers of well they made all kinds of different technology goodies. 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.720 Um My. One of my favorites was after the Palm acquisition, 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.400 was a internet appliance called the Audrey, which lasted about 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.120 fifteen twenty minutes on the market place before three comm 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:54.000 decided to discontinue. But it's pretty neat, at least pretty 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:55.680 neat looking. That just makes me think of a little 0:09:55.679 --> 0:10:00.880 shop of hors. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, the three com 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.480 was a pretty savvy company and they said, well, you 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:05.920 know this, this is obviously going to take off. They 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:08.319 got in at the right time because Palm had started 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.720 to make its ascent into popularity. Um and as a 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:15.600 matter of fact, they um they went ahead and had 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:20.080 its the first developer conference for people to develop software. Now, 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:22.800 I I feel compelled to point out too that like 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.560 today's smartphones, Palm, the Palm operating system allowed you to 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:31.599 uh install software from third parties. So it's not you 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:35.720 don't You weren't limited to just the uh software that 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.960 was on the phone. You could buy stuff from other people. Yeah, 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.120 and and really we we hear developer conference all the 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:45.640 time now, but back then it was pretty much it 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.560 was a pretty novel idea. Uh. You know. Now you'll 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.720 hear developer conferences from especially like Google, Microsoft and Apple. 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.360 They they are known for them in particular, although other companies, 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:00.360 of course also do developer conferences, including Facebook. You know, 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:03.200 all sorts of platforms do them now because of course, 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.280 applications run on pretty much anything you can think of, 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:10.080 you know, refrigerators, in microwaves pretty soon ovens as well. 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:12.920 And I'm not I'm not even exaggerating because it c s. 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.480 I saw a lot of that. We might, uh we 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.720 might should do an podcast on the Internet of Things 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:22.400 at some point, yeah, because that's interesting too. So when 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:25.880 three Comms acquisition was not just for Palm, Three Calm 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:29.600 actually acquired US Robotics, which was Palm's parent company at 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.920 that time. So that's right. So so you think of 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.040 Palm as a little fish and US Robotics was a 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.720 slightly bigger fish, and three Calm was an even bigger fish. 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.640 That's true. That's true. And um, again, it acted at 0:11:43.679 --> 0:11:47.760 the right time. It saw an ascending company. US Robotics 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:52.320 at that point had uh, pretty sophisticated modem technology. We 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.520 weren't really in the broadband era at that point. A 0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:58.320 good acquisition for them, or at least that's way of 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:02.800 appeared at the time, right, right, So in uh, this 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.439 was a very eventful year and a very dramatic year 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:09.920 in Palm's history. Uh. For one thing, the Bomb Computing 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:16.000 sued Microsoft because Microsoft was marketing the Palm PC right 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.000 and and of course Palm was saying this creates confusion 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.920 in the marketplace because our company name is Palm and 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.080 you've called your product the Palm PC. We're in the 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.720 same sphere of of devices, right, So they made the 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:32.880 argument that that was brand confusion, it was infringing on 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:37.560 their trademarks. So Microsoft kind of backed off and changed 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.920 the name to be Palm Size PC as opposed to 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:45.160 just Palm PC. But that same year I saw some 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:49.760 dramatic shake ups in the company because the founders, uh 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:54.280 Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dobinski, and A Colligan, they decided to 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:59.760 leave the company and found another company called Handspring, Yes, 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.400 because they they were not comfortable in the direction the 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.960 company was going in. Under three Colms got leadership, so 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:10.640 they so you've got the founders of the company who 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.360 are no longer happy with the way the company is going. 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:16.600 We've actually seen this story before too. There's a very 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.319 famous example with Steve Jobs, who he was. You know, 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.599 Steve Jobs was a founder of Apple, and in the 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.880 during the course of Apple's existence, when it got bigger 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:30.800 and bigger, Steve Jobs was at some point kind of 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.960 shuffled to the side and and almost ignored. In fact, 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.720 saying ignored is probably not being too It does not 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:41.640 really hyper believe, and so Steve Jobs left Apple only 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.600 to return later. Um. But you know, so the story 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:48.720 is not uncommon, it has happened before, but it's it's 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.120 a pretty big event in any company's life when the 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.720 founders you know, jump shup and and create a new 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:00.000 company because they don't like the direction of their original company. 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:05.000 So Handspring begins to produce PDAs and uh and smartphones 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.440 that are operating on the Palm's system. So they're still 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:15.920 working with Palm, but they are not working for Palm, right. Um. Yeah, 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:20.240 that that actually is is my introduction to the the 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.600 Palm world. Because I didn't actually have a Palm product. 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.080 I bought a Handspring Visor Deluxe, which is one of two, 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.120 uh two original models of the Handspring. You had the 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:33.160 Visor and the Visor Deluxe. The Deluxe was cool because 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.240 you had, um something that the Palm machines didn't have, 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.520 which was a slot, a hardware slot. Um if you 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:44.560 think of it like an old style cartridge video game console. 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.680 The Visor Deluxe allowed you to there was there was 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:50.160 basically a dummy thing in there to keep dust and 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:51.760 dirt from getting out there, so you you know, pop 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:53.920 out the little piece of plastic and you can snap 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.080 in a cartridge that would allow you to uh run 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.800 software from that that cartridge and you wouldn't would give 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.480 you access to do things that you couldn't do with 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:06.320 the software that you would load, um by connecting it 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:08.280 and sinking it with your computer. And of course we're 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:10.440 not talking we're not in the days of WiFi yet, 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.400 so this is every time you sink information with your computer, 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.600 you're doing it with a cable uh plugged in directly 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:19.520 to your your computer or through a doc which you know, 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:21.520 very popular with the executives because you have that on 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:25.240 the side of the computer and it was um you know, 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.760 but yeah, it was certainly a cool accessory to have 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:33.520 on your you know, cool looking accessory to have on 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.640 your desk and you would sink that information. Well, the 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.760 this slot was really cool and it's something that's set 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:44.479 hands Spring apart. And of course, although the three founders 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.920 left palm they it wasn't completely acrimonious because they didn't say, well, 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.320 we're leaving, we're taking our football with us and we're 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.040 going home and doing our own thing. They actually licensed 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.000 the palm os to run on the Handspring, so they 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.840 were still sort of cousins. They were different, completely different 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:06.600 corporate organizations. They still had a working relationship with each other. Yeah, 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.720 they're the cousin you don't like so much, but come on, 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.800 they're still family. Um. And the Visor was just one 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:15.440 of two big lines of products that Handspring produced. The 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:20.800 other one is arguably much more famous. It's considerably more famous. 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.240 But that wasn't what happened to media. No. But but 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.800 not that long after they they founded Handspring, they started 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:32.360 to produce the Trio. Trio that's t R EO. Yeah, 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.000 the Trio line of products, which if you if you 0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.880 pay attention to tech journalists who have been in the 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.640 business for you know, a decade or more. Um, actually, 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:43.280 I guess it's got to be longer than that now. 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:46.760 But but you'll you'll hear the word Trio thrown around 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.880 a lot, as like I know that, say Rafe Needelman 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:54.040 of st Yes, he hung on to his Trio for 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.880 far longer than most of us would would hold onto 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.000 a piece of technology, you know, using it every day 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.159 because he loved that device. He loved the hardware and 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.800 the software integration. And Trio of course, will play another 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:12.040 part of the story a little further down. So we've 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:17.000 got Handspring operating more or less outside the realm of Palm, 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.880 and it's still licensing the operating system, but otherwise it's 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:26.280 its own thing. So in nineteen we have another interesting development. 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.720 Three Calm decides to spin off Palm Computing and make 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:35.159 it a subsidiary company. It's essentially its own standalone company now. Yes, 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:39.879 and and this is the company that UM that is 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.040 essentially creating the operating system. Right, So you've got the 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:46.720 one company creating the operating system, and then you've got Handspring, 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:50.320 which is doing hardware and using that operating system. Well, 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:54.920 of course three comm had still been making the Palm hardware. 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:59.240 They introduced the Palm seven also in which was the 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:02.760 first with with a wireless antenna built in, right, and 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:07.280 how much did that cost? That was five four and 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:15.159 to days dollars I wasn't um. So yeah, I mean 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:17.920 they're still making stuff. But now you have competition in 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:22.240 the marketplace without hardware, and uh, you know, you've you've 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:27.479 got three Comms spinning Palm off. It's basically three comms 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:33.040 star business at that point. Actually, at that point, Palm, 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:36.440 the Palm section of three Comms business was probably the 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.400 highest performing as far as revenue generation is concerned. Yeah, yeah, 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.479 and uh and then again in two thousand, the the 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:49.320 separation was complete. They decided to and they went they 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:52.879 went off on their own. And uh, a couple of 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:56.120 years ago we really do see the separation of hardware 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.600 and software with the uh the introduction of a group 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.960 called Palm Source. Again, I remember this pretty well because 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:07.920 I wasn't certain how long, how how this was going 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:10.199 to work out with my handspring, which I used for 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:15.120 several years. Again it worked great, Um, but yeah, you'd 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.119 have to instead of going to Palm dot com, you 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:18.840 would have to go to the Palm Source website to 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.600 learn more about the operating system and updates and things 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:24.960 like that. And uh, this might seem a bit surprising, 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.640 but Sony uh plunked down twenty million dollars twenty four 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:33.639 million tun or one thou hundred one dollars in today's currency, 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.280 which is the first company outside one of the acquiring 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.440 companies to make an investment in the Palm operating system 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:45.080 because uh yeah, for their uh um handheld, Sony also 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.600 licensed the Palm operating system. UM, so they were they 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:51.120 were sort of I guess you would think of them 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:55.040 as the windows of the except for the fact that 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.120 there was actually a windows. But uh yeah, I mean 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:01.240 they were. They were the company licensing operating the operating 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:06.199 system for many many different companies handhelds right and and 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.159 back in two thousand. I know, we we moved on 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:11.640 from that, but I just wanted to mention the interesting 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.960 thing about Palm going public in two thousand is that 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:19.000 was right in the middle of the dot com bubble. Yes, 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:21.480 and uh and you know, the dot com bubble and 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:23.600 the dot com crash of course played a very important 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.240 part in many companies, but in Palm it really helped 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:31.560 them out because, uh, the I p O, the initial 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:33.639 public offering was right there in the middle of the 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:37.000 dot com bubble and at the height Palm shares sold 0:20:37.240 --> 0:20:41.240 for more than a share twenty dollars in today's money. 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:46.159 Oh gotten old yet, because I've got a few more 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.800 years ago. So in two thousand two, also, um, this 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:52.200 is the introduction of our our of our other competitor, 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.120 which we're not going to get into right this minute, 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:57.119 but this is when BlackBerry came out from Research and 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:02.560 Motion Research in Motion. So the BlackBerry smartphone hits the 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.880 market in two thousand two. Keep in mind that at 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:08.680 this point the Palm devices, a lot of them are 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:13.639 still p d a's not phones. That that's true. And um, 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:18.919 I also want to add, I think that in the 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.080 late nineties and early two thousand's was when you would 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:26.080 start seeing the Palm and Handspring devices at your local 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:31.280 electronics store and in some cases discount uh department stores. 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:35.760 So they are they were making their way into consumer 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:38.280 hands which is and the reason I thought to say 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:40.080 that just now is because of research in motion in 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:42.639 the BlackBerry, because the BlackBerry is often thought of as 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:46.240 an enterprise gadget basically four business people of corporate business 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:49.760 work and Palm had made that Matt crossover. My wife, 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:54.119 in fact, had gotten a h Palm p D, a 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:58.040 black and white Palm PDA when they were still making those. Um, 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.840 because they had gotten to be inexpensive. They they ended 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:04.479 up being around us, you know, they were they were 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:09.800 pretty affordable. Um. You wouldn't have necessarily a lot of 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:11.760 the variety, you wouldn't have the color, you wouldn't have 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.840 a lot of the functionality, but you'd have the Palm 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:17.359 operating system in black and white. And really for a 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:19.159 lot of people that's all they needed. Yeah, and I 0:22:19.200 --> 0:22:21.840 knew quite a few people who had p d A 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.719 s um, especially uh the folks that with the Atlanta 0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:28.560 Radio Theater Company. A lot of them had them. But 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:30.679 then again, the Atlanta Radio Theater Company had a lot 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:34.360 of people who you think, radio theater, that's an old technology. 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:36.959 But it turns out the people who are interested in it, 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:39.240 not just the actors but also you know, of course 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:43.560 they the engineers and everyone, um, they also tend to 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:49.399 fall into the early adopter uh sphere. So quite a 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:53.360 few of them had PDAs back when they were fairly 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:55.720 you know, new on the scene. And by this time 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:59.600 almost you know, i'd say, i'd say a a sizeable 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:05.040 persone of them had them. Okay, Um, So in two 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:07.679 thousand three, this is where we start to see the 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:12.000 companies come back together again. Yes, well sort of kind of. 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:14.760 It's funny because you know, we had Palm on its own, 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:18.399 then US Robotics acquired Palm, then three Com and three 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:22.119 Comm acquired US Probotics. Then the founders left to start 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:28.520 Handspring right then up right and then and then there 0:23:28.560 --> 0:23:31.960 was a subsidiary for the operating system. So so now 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:36.240 there's a Palm company and a palm Um operating system 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:39.640 Palm one, and then hand Spring agreed to be required 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:43.000 by Palm. Right, So now we we see the founders 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:48.400 essentially returning to the company because Palm besides announces that's 0:23:48.400 --> 0:23:51.480 going to acquire hand Spring. Uh. And so now you've 0:23:51.480 --> 0:23:54.720 got a hardware company that's that's Palm One. I'm sorry, 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:57.679