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Originally Posted by sUnShInE
So we're clear: They were Palm, then they decided to become 'PalmOne' and spent millions of dollars on promotion, press, new letterhead, and uniforms for the janitors... and now they're spending $30M to become Palm again.
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Close.... They were USRobotics, then part of 3Com, then Palm... from there, they decided it was strategically smarter to break apart their software and hardware divisions apart, so there was no conflict of interest. It also allowed them to be able to sell PDA hardware running non-PalmOS software (which never really happened).
So it breaks down like this:
USRobotics -> 3Com -> (Hanspring splits off) -> Palm
software -> Palmsource
hardware -> palmOne/Handspring
And now that their vision is clear, full-on smartphone direction with Cobalt powered by Linux... there is no need to even think about PocketPC or non-PalmOS running on the same hardware.. so they merged back again.
Strategically, it makes perfect sense. I consider the Palmsource/palmOne split a mistake, as they tried to dip their toe into using Palm hardware to power non-PalmOS software.
All companies make at least one blunder.. this was probably theirs.