Palm, Inc. was an American company that specialized in manufacturing
personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. PDAs have been mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of highly capable smartphones, in partic ...
s (PDAs) and various other electronics. They were the designer of the
PalmPilot, the first PDA successfully marketed worldwide, as well as the
Treo 600, one of the first
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
s. Palm developed several versions of
Palm OS for PDAs and smartphones. The company was also responsible for the first versions of
webOS, the first multitasking operating system for smartphones,
and
enyo.js, a framework for
HTML5 apps.
In July 2010, Palm was purchased by
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
(HP) and in 2011 announced a new range of webOS products. However, after poor sales, HP CEO
Léo Apotheker
Léo Apotheker (born 18 September 1953) is a German business executive. He served briefly as the chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard from November 2010 until his dismissal in September 2011. He also served as co-chief executive officer o ...
announced in August 2011 that it would end production and support of Palm and webOS devices, marking the end of the Palm brand after 19 years.
In October 2014, HP sold the Palm
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
to a
shelf corporation
A shelf corporation, shelf company, or aged corporation is a company or corporation that has had no activity. It was created and left with no activity – metaphorically put on the "shelf" to "age". The company can then be sold to a person or gr ...
tied to the Chinese electronics firm
TCL Corporation
TCL Technology (originally an abbreviation for Telephone Communication Limited) is a Chinese electronics company headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. It designs, develops, manufactures, and sells consumer products including televisi ...
. Shortly afterward, TCL confirmed its plans to revive the Palm brand on future,
crowdsourced
Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...
smartphones.
History
Palm, headquartered in
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California.
Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nort ...
, was responsible for numerous products including the
Pre
Pre or PRE may refer to:
Places
*Preston railway station, UK National Rail code PRE
*Prince Edward station, on Hong Kong's MTR
People
*Steve Prefontaine (1951–1975), an American runner nicknamed "Pre"
Arts, entertainment, and media
*Pre (ba ...
and
Pixi as well as the
Treo and
Centro smartphones. Previous product lines include the Pilot 1000, Palm Pilot Pro, Palm III,
Palm V,
Palm VII,
Zire and
Tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isolat ...
. While their older devices run
Palm OS Garnet, four editions of the Treo run
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants.
Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...
.
Founding and acquisition
Palm Computing, Inc. was founded in 1992 by
Jeff Hawkins, who later hired
Donna Dubinsky and
Ed Colligan Edward "Ed" Colligan (born March 4, 1961) is a former president and CEO of Palm, Inc. which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2010. Colligan now is a small business investor, serves on a number of boards, and advises start-up companies.
Colligan ...
, all of whom guided Palm to the invention of
Palm Pilot. The company was originally started to write software for the
Zoomer, a consumer
PDA
PDA may refer to:
Science and technology
* Patron-driven acquisition, a mechanism for libraries to purchase books
*Personal digital assistant, a mobile device
* Photodiode array, a type of detector
* Polydiacetylenes, a family of conducting poly ...
manufactured by
Casio
is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...
for
Tandy.
The Zoomer devices were also distributed by Casio and
GRiD, while Palm provided the
PIM software. The
PEN/GEOS operating system was provided by
Geoworks
GEOS (later renamed GeoWorks Ensemble, NewDeal Office, and Breadbox Ensemble) is a computer operating environment, graphical user interface (GUI), and suite of application software. Originally released as PC/GEOS, it runs on DOS-based, IBM PC ...
.
The Zoomer failed commercially, but Palm continued generating revenue by selling synchronization software for
HP devices, and the
Graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
handwriting recognition software for the
Apple Newton MessagePad.
The company was acquired by
U.S. Robotics Corp.
U.S. Robotics Corporation, often called USR, is a company that produces USRobotics computer modems and related products. Its initial marketing was aimed at bulletin board systems, where its high-speed HST protocol made FidoNet transfers much f ...
in 1995. In June 1997, U.S. Robotics was acquired by
3Com
3Com Corporation was an American digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe ex ...
and Palm became a 3Com subsidiary. In June 1998, the founders became unhappy with the direction in which 3Com was taking the company, and left to found
Handspring
Handspring may refer to:
*Handspring (company), a company that made personal digital assistants
*Handspring (gymnastics), a gymnastics move involving forward or backward rotation of the body
*Rising handspring or nip-up, an acrobatic transition fr ...
.
Stock offering and split into PalmSource and PalmOne
3Com made the Palm subsidiary an independent,
publicly traded company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...
on March 1, 2000, and it traded on the
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
under the
ticker symbol PALM. Palm Inc had its
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
during the
dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
and in its first day of trading the
shares
In financial markets, a share is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation, and can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Share capital refers to all of the shares of an ...
of the new company hit an all-time high of
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
95.06.
But competition and the end of the tech bubble caused Palm's shares to lose 90% of their value in just over a year. By June 2001 the company's shares were trading at US$6.50, making it the worst performing PDA manufacturer on the NASDAQ index at the time.
In January 2002, Palm set up a wholly owned subsidiary to develop and license Palm OS, which was named
PalmSource
ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. (formerly PalmSource) is a subsidiary of ACCESS which develops the Palm OS PDA operating system and its successor, the Access Linux Platform, as well as BeOS. PalmSource was spun off from Palm Computing, Inc.
P ...
in February. PalmSource was then spun off from Palm as an independent company.
In October 2003, the hardware division of the company merged with Handspring, was renamed to palmOne, Inc.
and traded under the ticker symbol PLMO. The Palm trademark was held by a jointly owned holding company.
United as a single company
![Newpalmlogo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Newpalmlogo.svg)
In May 2005, palmOne purchased PalmSource's share in the 'Palm' trademark for US$30 million.
In July 2005, palmOne launched its new name and brand, reverting to Palm, Inc. and trading under the ticker symbol PALM once again.
In late 2005,
ACCESS, which specializes in mobile and embedded web browser technologies, acquired PalmSource for US$324 million.
On January 4, 2006, Palm released the Palm
Treo 700w, the first
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants.
Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...
-powered Treo, in a partnership with
Verizon Wireless
Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...
and
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
.
In December 2006, Palm, Inc. paid US$44 million to ACCESS for an irrevocable license to use and modify the source code for Palm OS Garnet as well as ship Palm OS Garnet in any Palm product without paying royalties; with this arrangement, the Palm company could once again develop both its hardware and software.
In June 2007, Palm formed a strategic relationship with the private-equity firm
Elevation Partners, who purchased a 25% equity stake of the company for US$325 million
– an investment that came after months of rumours about a possible Palm sale. Palm CEO Ed Colligan acknowledged that "We were approached by larger parties over the last six months," and "the reality is that we thought this was the best outcome for our business and our investors."
On December 18, 2008, Palm CEO Ed Colligan announced that the company would no longer develop any new handheld PDAs. Palm announced the
webOS operating system and
Palm Pre
The Palm Pre , styled as palm prē, is a multitasking smartphone that was designed and marketed by Palm with a multi-touch screen and a sliding keyboard. The smartphone was the first to use Palm's Linux-based mobile operating system, webOS. The ...
smartphone at the
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
on January 8, 2009, and released on June 6, 2009 with
Sprint
Sprint may refer to:
Aerospace
*Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design
*Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile
Automotive and motorcycle
*Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989
*Chevrolet Sprint, ...
. The design team was led by
Matias Duarte Matias is a form of the given name Matthew. In German-speaking Europe it is most often written as Matthias. It appears in this form in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Alternate spellings are: Mathias, Mattias, Mattis, Mats and Matti. Matias ...
, Mike Bell, Peter Skillman and
Michael Abbott.
In early 2009, the hype over WebOS sent Palm’s stock from US$3 to a high of about US$18. While reviews of the Palm Pre were positive, launching with only one U.S. carrier (Sprint, which was also a distant third in the market) proved to be a crucial mistake that limited sales, even though it became Sprint's phone. The Pre was often described as Palm's
swan song
The swan song ( grc, κύκνειον ᾆσμα; la, carmen cygni) is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful so ...
as it was too late to keep the company – with only $250 million in cash and short- term investments at the beginning of 2009 – independent for long. By 2010 the share price of Palm dropped to below US$4.
Acquisition by HP and demise
![HP Palm Logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/HP_Palm_Logo.svg)
On April 28, 2010, Hewlett-Packard announced it would purchase Palm at $5.70 a share for $1.2 billion in an all-cash deal.
The acquisition was completed on July 1, 2010.
The Palm global business unit was to be responsible for webOS software development and webOS-based hardware products, from a robust smartphone roadmap to future slate PCs and netbooks.
In February 2011, HP unveiled a new line of WebOS products, including the
Pre 3
The HP Pre 3, styled as Pre3 , is a touchscreen slider smartphone manufactured by Hewlett-Packard. The device uses webOS, is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and has a 3.6-inch screen. It is conceptually the successor to the Palm Pre 2 ...
,
Veer
The Veer is an option running play often associated with option offenses in American football, made famous at the collegiate level by Bill Yeoman's Houston Cougars. It is currently run primarily on the high school level, with some usage at t ...
, and
TouchPad; however, these products were branded under HP's name and not with the Palm name.
[ In July 2011, as part of a reorganization, WebOS head Jon Rubinstein was demoted from senior vice president to a "product innovation role", and replaced by Steven DeWitt, head of HP's North American consumer PC unit. At the same time, Palm was renamed the "webOS global business unit", effectively ending the use of the Palm brand.]
The launch of the TouchPad was met with extremely poor sales; on August 18, 2011, HP announced that it would immediately end the production and support of all Palm and WebOS devices, and would be "exploring options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward", including a potential sale of the division to another company. HP also cancelled the U.S. release for the Pre 3 and Veer, and infamously, held a fire sale
A fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices. The term originated in reference to the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage. It may or may not be defined as a closeout, the final sale of goods to zero inventory ...
on remaining TouchPad stock, lowering prices for the tablet to as low as US$99 (which, however, led to a major spike in demand for the device).[ The decision, made by HP's CEO at the time ]Léo Apotheker
Léo Apotheker (born 18 September 1953) is a German business executive. He served briefly as the chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard from November 2010 until his dismissal in September 2011. He also served as co-chief executive officer o ...
, along with its $11.7 billion acquisition of Autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
, and threats to spin-off HP's consumer business, led to a major decline in HP's market performance, with its shares falling in value by 45.4%.
Following the resignation of Apotheker and his replacement by Meg Whitman, it was announced in December 2011 that an open source version of much of WebOS would be created. Shortly afterward, Jon Rubinstein, along with a number of other senior Palm staff members, began to leave HP.[ On August 15, 2012, it was revealed that HP had re-organized the remaining WebOS team as a unit known as "Gram", made up of the remaining components of Palm.] In February 2013, HP announced that it had sold the WebOS team, along with a license to the WebOS source code, documentation, and underlying patents, to LG Electronics
LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG Corporation, the fourth largest '' chaebol'' in South Korea, and often considered a ...
. LG planned to primarily utilize the WebOS platform for its smart TV products, rather than on mobile devices, but did not rule out the possibility.
TCL ownership, new device
On December 30, 2014, it was reported that in October 2014, HP had sold the Palm trademark and related intellectual properties to Wide Progress Global Limited, a shelf company
A shelf corporation, shelf company, or aged corporation is a company or corporation that has had no activity. It was created and left with no activity – metaphorically put on the "shelf" to "age". The company can then be sold to a person or g ...
controlled by Nicolas Zibell — a regional president of TCL Corporation
TCL Technology (originally an abbreviation for Telephone Communication Limited) is a Chinese electronics company headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong Province. It designs, develops, manufactures, and sells consumer products including televisi ...
, which markets Android smartphones under the Alcatel Alcatel may refer to:
* Alcatel, a former French telecommunications equipment company, which became Alcatel-Lucent and is now part of Nokia
* Alcatel Mobile, a brand of mobile phones, tablets and wearables, formerly a joint venture between Alcatel ...
brand. At the same time, it was discovered that the former Palm.com now redirected to MyNewPalm.com; the site displayed a "coming soon" page with the previous orange Palm logo, and the slogan "Smart move", which is also the slogan used by Alcatel OneTouch.
TCL publicly confirmed its acquisition of the Palm brand on January 6, 2015, stating that it planned to "re-create" the company with a new team based in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
, and incorporate crowdsourcing into its product development.
On October 15, 2018, a new Palm companion device was unveiled, which is manufactured by a new Palm-branded startup company from California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
that is financially backed by TCL and basketball player Stephen Curry
Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, ...
. It is an "ultra-mobile", Android-based device designed to serve as a smaller, simplified companion to a larger smartphone. The new device was announced as being exclusive to Verizon Wireless
Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...
, only available as an add-on to an existing or new device plan.
See also
* List of Palm OS devices
* Palm (PDA)
* Palm Desktop
Palm Desktop is a personal information manager computer program for Microsoft Windows or Mac OS/Mac OS X, and can be used alone or in combination with a Palm OS personal digital assistant.
Features
Palm Desktop contains four main modules which cor ...
* Palm Foleo
The Palm Foleo was a planned subnotebook computer that was announced by mobile device manufacturer Palm Inc. on May 30, 2007, and canceled three months later. It intended to serve as a companion for smartphones including Palm's own Treo line. Th ...
* PalmSource, Inc.
ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. (formerly PalmSource) is a subsidiary of ACCESS which develops the Palm OS PDA operating system and its successor, the Access Linux Platform, as well as BeOS. PalmSource was spun off from Palm Computing, Inc.
P ...
References
External links
*
{{authority control
1992 establishments in California
2011 disestablishments in California
American companies established in 1992
Companies based in Silicon Valley
Companies based in Sunnyvale, California
Computer companies established in 1992
Computer companies disestablished in 2011
Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Defunct computer companies based in California
Defunct mobile phone manufacturers
Electronics companies established in 1992
Electronics companies disestablished in 2011
Hewlett-Packard acquisitions
Manufacturing companies based in California
Software companies established in 1992
Software companies disestablished in 2011
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
2000 initial public offerings
2010 mergers and acquisitions