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Originally Posted by Azayzel
I agree about the many splits that happened to Palm, along with the various flavors that cropped up as well. I think what ultimately killed Palm and the Clie, was their failure to adapt and grow with the times (I know they are still here, but not really contending). While mobile devices switched over to color and a new UI, Palm rested on their laurels for a while before finally conceding by producing a device that utilized color, albeit in a limited capacity. Their main problem then was they didn't take it further and revolutionize their device.
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I think this can be better understood in terms of money than technology.
The original Palm Pilot
created a market, and Palm devices became must-have accessories that Palm couldn't make fast enough. Jeff Hawkins split from Palm with some associates to form Handspring, and make budget devices running Palm Os. Sony joined the party with the Clie line, and produced a number of models (perhaps
too many, in fact.)
But the PDA market recapitulated the PC market, only an order of magnitude faster. The original IBM PC also created a market, and created a set of standards others could adopt, and did. Competition became intense, price became the determining factor, and margins grew razor thin. It became harder and harder to make money making and selling PCs, and many companies exited the market. (IBM, who began it all, finally sold its PC operations to Lenovo.)
The same thing happened with PDAs. They become commodity products with commodity pricing and intense pressure on margins. Sony exited the PDA business because PDAs weren't making
enough money, and Sony felt its funds could be better invested elsewhere. Handspring and Palm both fell on hard times, with declining revenue, profitability, and stock prices. Palm acquired Handspring to get the Treo, and the Treo is the reason Palm still exists.
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What am I getting at? I believe a technology should evolve at a certain rate, and if it doesn't it will eventually either perish or become superseded by better technology and be left in the sidelines. I'm aware there is still a very large user-base with Palm devices, but I simply lost interest when it didn't change while it had the opportunity and the rest of the world left it behind. In my opinion, Palm could still make a very strong comeback if they put some thought into revamping their OS, throw in some bells and whistles, and continue to have a platform people can/will develop for.
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Technology is a means to an end, not an end in itself. It doesn't matter what technology is in a device, if the device doesn't do something people need.
Palm's challenge compelling new
uses for their devices, regardless of the technology involved, and to differentiate their products based on features and usage, not price.
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Dennis