MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Palm's "Secret Third Business" isn't the LifeDrive

Brian · 09-28-2005, 11:11 AM

In a recent interview of Jeff Hawkins by Janet Rae-Dupree, technology editor for the San Jose Business Journal, Jeff Hawkins spoke about a secret third business that Palm is working on:

There is a third business that I've been working on but I'm not going to tell you what it is. It's in mobile computing. It's something different and it's in its early stage. We have three businesses at PalmOne. One you don't even know about, which is just a child. Another is the teenager and the other one is the mature 45-year-old.

Later in the interview he offers these hints:

I'll give you a couple clues. I always think of mobile computing as personal computing. This long-term vision has led us through everything -- first the organizers and now through the smart phone space. It's like everything a personal computer is. Continue down that path. What are the implications of a world where everyone has a super high-speed Internet connection in their pocket and many gigabytes of storage, super-fast processors, audio, visual and multimedia? What are the consequences of that? How will that change computing when you have all that stuff available to you all the time? I try to think into the future. That's how we come up with new products. So I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it's following the consequences of mobile computing.

This interview caused a lot of speculation about this "third business", with many people concluding that Mr. Hawkins was talking about the LifeDrive, not another device still under development. I never bought into this conclusion, however, and now it appears that Palm is in fact working on something, and it isn't the LifeDrive.

Michael Ducker of Treocentral.com attended an Analyst event at Palm this past Monday, at which time Jeff Hawkins offered this tease, as detailed in this article:

Hawkins could not leave without a tease, and so he explained how the the original Palm and the Treo were revolutionary devices, and how everything else released by Palm were sustaining devices. Now, he claims that Palm is working on a 3rd revolutionary device that will keep the company going over the next half decade. Lastly, the Windows Mobile Treo is not the only device Palm will announce this year, and I quote "We'll be announcing more products before the years end".

So, now the two part question is: What is this revolutionary new device, and does it have anything to do with his work at Numenta?

09-28-2005, 11:11 AM	#1
Brian MobileRead Editor Posts: 447 Karma: 84 Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Massachusetts Device: Treo 700p, Zodiac2	Palm's "Secret Third Business" isn't the LifeDrive In a recent interview of Jeff Hawkins by Janet Rae-Dupree, technology editor for the San Jose Business Journal, Jeff Hawkins spoke about a secret third business that Palm is working on: There is a third business that I've been working on but I'm not going to tell you what it is. It's in mobile computing. It's something different and it's in its early stage. We have three businesses at PalmOne. One you don't even know about, which is just a child. Another is the teenager and the other one is the mature 45-year-old. Later in the interview he offers these hints: I'll give you a couple clues. I always think of mobile computing as personal computing. This long-term vision has led us through everything -- first the organizers and now through the smart phone space. It's like everything a personal computer is. Continue down that path. What are the implications of a world where everyone has a super high-speed Internet connection in their pocket and many gigabytes of storage, super-fast processors, audio, visual and multimedia? What are the consequences of that? How will that change computing when you have all that stuff available to you all the time? I try to think into the future. That's how we come up with new products. So I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it's following the consequences of mobile computing. This interview caused a lot of speculation about this "third business", with many people concluding that Mr. Hawkins was talking about the LifeDrive, not another device still under development. I never bought into this conclusion, however, and now it appears that Palm is in fact working on something, and it isn't the LifeDrive. Michael Ducker of Treocentral.com attended an Analyst event at Palm this past Monday, at which time Jeff Hawkins offered this tease, as detailed in this article: Hawkins could not leave without a tease, and so he explained how the the original Palm and the Treo were revolutionary devices, and how everything else released by Palm were sustaining devices. Now, he claims that Palm is working on a 3rd revolutionary device that will keep the company going over the next half decade. Lastly, the Windows Mobile Treo is not the only device Palm will announce this year, and I quote "We'll be announcing more products before the years end". So, now the two part question is: What is this revolutionary new device, and does it have anything to do with his work at Numenta?