Why not breath new life into an older device like the Palm Tungsten C with a bit of tasty Android? I guess I should note that this install lacks WiFi, Bluetooth, audio, and internal storage as the release is booting from an SD card. Plus, take a closer look at the screen and you’ll notice it’s not quite right as the UI doesn’t seem to like the resolution. But at least the dude is actually using the device instead of letting it age in a random junk drawer. → Read More
We hear that former Palm Vice President of Public Relations Lynn Fox has given up on her “Consult Until-I-Find-Another-Job Consulting” plans and landed a permanent gig at video streaming service Ustream. Her formal title will be VP of Corporate Communications and she will be reporting to Ustream CEO John Ham.
Sources say that Fox is the first in a series of new hires at Ustream, hires which should be announced formally in the next couple of weeks. Fox’s first day will be Tuesday, Sept. 7 and her primary duties will be leading all things related to PR, Events and Social Media.
It looks like Ustream is taking advantage of its $75m round of funding from Softbank and other investors earlier this year in order to ramp up their recruiting efforts and attract major talent like Fox.
Prior to Ustream, Fox had to honor of working in the upper echleons of communications departments at both Google and Apple. She left Palm shortly before the HP acquisition in June. → Read More
There’s no arguing that Palm doesn’t have creative ideas and their latest patent is more out-of-the box thinking. The patent covers a clamshell device — a Palmtop device if you will — that among other things, features a detachable handset. It appears the handset is something rather simple, with the Palmtop likely acting as the main device. It’s certainly clever. These sort of patents don’t necessarily state the devices they describe are under production but rather the company is investing into the future. This way Palm, or rather HP after the buyout, covered their basis and now owns the rights to such a device. But if the Dell Streak has taught us anything, it’s that niche products can make it to market and don’t necessarily have to be a blockbuster hit. Will this ever see the inside of a retail store? Who knows. [USPTO via Unwired View] → Read More
Back in June, we heard from a couple of good sources that an executive exodus was about to take place at Palm, as everyone waited for the HP deal to go through. We can now confirm that the exodus did in fact take place, and we have some names to prove it.
We first reported earlier today that Peter Skillman, the Vice President of Design at Palm had left the company. But while he was very important to the company (he was the designer of the Palm Pre) he wasn’t technically an executive. Following the completion of the HP deal, Palm has taken down their executive page. But here’s who was on the Management Team: → Read More
The hits just keep on coming for HP. Hot on the heels of the massive story of HP CEO Mark Hurd’s resignation amid scandal, another high-level person has left the company. Peter Skillman, the Vice President of Design at Palm (which HP officially purchased in July) has left the company, we’ve confirmed.
It’s not clear where Skillman is going next, but he had been with Palm for 11 years. And that’s a big blow for HP as Skillman takes with him nearly 20 years of product design experience. At Palm, he was the man in charge of the design of the ill-fated but loved Pre. → Read More
In season 1 of AMC’s hit show Mad Men, Rachel Menken comes to the advertising firm Sterling Cooper because she wants to give her department store, Menken’s, a makeover, so to speak. She wants to transform it from a successful department store into an elite one. “What kind of people do you want [coming into your store]?,” Creative Director Don Draper asks Menken. “I want your kind of people Mr. Draper. People who don’t care about coupons — whether or not they can afford it. People who come into the store because it is expensive,” Menken replies.
Based on what we’re hearing, HP has been having similarly themed meetings in recent months. They want to transform themselves — from HP, the successful tech juggernaut, into Apple, the sexy one.
When you think of HP, what do you think of? For most consumers it’s printers and sort of crappy, cheap computers that you get at Best Buy. But that’s not what HP aspires to be anymore, sources familiar with HP’s thinking are telling us. They want to be Apple. They want be the makers of high-quality consumer gadgets all connected by way of a digital ecosystem. An ecosystem they own and operate. One tied together by webOS. → Read More
A short time ago, HP applied to the USPTO for a trademark. “Palmpad.” I can’t be the only one who just gets a good feeling from this.
We knew that HP was going to get their money’s worth from Palm when they nixed their Android plans and downplayed their Windows 7 tablet. While reports still have them making the latter in at least some form, statements from HP and Palm indicate that webOS is going to be the focus for HP’s portable computer business. → Read More
Considering the immense fragmentation that characterizes the mobile apps industry, it’s good to see decent research help us try and make sense of what’s going on in that particular part of the digital economy, one that is consistently growing in size and importance across the globe. Hence, I invite anyone with a vested interest in the mobile developer ecosystem to check out VisionMobile’s extensive research report (sponsored by Telefónica Developer Communities) on that very subject, because it’s easily one of the most profound I’ve read to date.
Dubbed Developer Economics 2010, the free research report delves into all aspects of mobile application development, across 400+ developers from around the world, segmented into eight major platforms: iOS (iPhone), Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, Java ME, Windows Phone, Flash/Flash Lite and mobile web (WAP/XHTML/CSS/Javascript). → Read More
As widely expected following the approval by Palm shareholders, the acquisition of the company by Hewlett-Packard for roughly $1.2 billion has today been announced closed.
The price, as previously announced, is $5.70 per share of Palm common stock, paid in cash.
Once again, HP repeats that it intends to double down on the innovative webOS platform and Palm’s line of smartphone. The company neatly points out that it has also just bought itself a bag of intellectual property. → Read More
Palm certainly has been working on getting their app store populated. They kicked off a promotion back in February, which is ending soon, and has resulted in over 400 developers splitting up their share of a million dollars. Palm is also trying to increase interest in their applications by offering a 50% discount on the majority of their catalog, starting immediately. The good news for developers is that they will still be paid the full amount, despite the discount given to customers by Palm. → Read More
Now doesn’t this make you feel better? Mark Hurd at HP originally said that there would be no more WebOS smartphones… but now there will be! A Christmas miracle! He said: When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers, and of course, smartphones. We believe webOS can become the backbone for many of HP’s small form factor devices, and we expect to expand webOS’s footprint beyond just the smartphone market, all while leveraging our financial strength, scale, and global reach to grow in smartphones. → Read More
This week at CrunchGear, we’re looking back at some of our favorite gadgets from the not-so-distant past — old phones, computers, media players, toys… those devices that still stand out in our memories despite their obsolescence. Feel free to contribute some of your own nostalgia.
The Palm III was the first truly portable computing device I ever owned. Oh sure, I had a laptop at the time, but it was hardly something that could be considered “portable” in anything but the most literal interpretation of that word. The Palm III, though, slipped in my pocket, and went everywhere with me. Its clamshell design gave it its own protective case for the screen, so I didn’t need to invest in fancy third-party protective gear. The Palm III traveled with me pretty much around the world, and it never let me down. → Read More
I’ve been bearish on Palm as a standalone platform since they launched last May and today the sadness-tinged chickens have come home to roost: Palm is now part of HP and, like the iPaq before it, the Pre and Pixi will slowly be subsumed into the company’s line-up. In fact, I couldn’t be happier for Palm. A recent perusal of HP’s line-up including their new Envy line of laptops show that, unlike Dell, they can produce a beautiful and powerful product at a nice price. Palm, in short, needed out of the hardware business and this gave them that chance. → Read More
HP didn’t just drop $1.2 billion on Palm to simply sit on the assets. There have to be major plans in the works to leverage webOS and slam out some killer consumer devices. This could be huge for not only both companies, but for you and me. → Read More
As you may have heard, HP has just announced the acquisition of Palm for $1.2 billion. It’s a massive move that HP hopes will reshape the mobile industry. I got a chance to talk with Brian Humphries, HP’s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, about the deal just now.
“This is a great opportunity to take two Silicon Valley idols and put them together,” Humphries noted. That’s an obvious statement, but he quickly moved on to the meat. “WebOS is the best-in-class mobile operating system. Our intent is to double down on webOS,” Humphries said. → Read More
Palm right now is a disaster. Its sales are going nowhere, its market share is plummeting, and try as it might, it can’t even find a buyer. Industry sources tell us that a major restructuring and management shakeup is imminent and CEO Jon Rubinstein may be replaced.
This is still a rumor at this point, but it makes sense. Palm is suffering from a ton of unsold inventory, and it cannot keep up with Apple, Android, or Blackberry in the smartphone wars. Palm clearly needs to be bought at this point if it is going to survive, and Rubinstein may not be the right person to make that sale. Rubinstein came from Apple, where he was head of hardware. He was recruited by Palm’s biggest investor Elevation Partners. Rubinstein is great engineer, but not a great marketer. It appears he is having trouble selling Palm, even as a distressed asset. → Read More
Palm has seen better days. Following the departure of senior vice president of software, Michael Abbott (who landed at Twitter), the company has been offering packages to try and keep other executives around. That may not be working so well. Caitlin Spaan, Palm’s vice president of carrier marketing will be leaving the company shortly as well, we’ve learned.
This was likely not an easy decision to make for Spaan, she’s been with the company for 14 years. In fact, she may have been the last of the old school team in place before Jeff Hawkins (Palm founder), Donna Dubinsky (former Palm CEO), and Ed Colligan (also former Palm CEO) left to form Handspring (which merged with Palm in 2003). → Read More
According to a report based on a source from an Asia-based Reuters correspondent, smartphone maker HTC has decided not to bid for Palm after looking at the company’s numbers. The source, which reportedly has direct knowledge of the talks, said there “weren’t enough synergies to take the deal forward”.
That leaves Palm, which has been struggling to boost sales of its new range of smartphones, running out of options fast. → Read More
Last Friday, news hit that Michael Abbott, Palm’s head of software and services, the man in charge of its webOS platform, was leaving the company. The news, which broke via a regulatory filing, made waves because it further highlighted Palm’s vulnerable position — the company’s stock price has been plummeting in recent months and it’s now attempting to find a buyer. The same filing revealed Palm’s plan to get high level employees to stick around: lucrative retention packages in the case of a sale. Apparently, Abbott wanted nothing to do with that. He must have had a good reason. Now we know why.
Abbott will be joining Twitter as the company’s new vice president of engineering, we’ve learned and confirmed with the company. To make room, Twitter’s current VP of engineering, Greg Pass, is being promoted to chief technology officer — becoming the first person to hold the CTO title for the fast-growing company. → Read More
Woof. Analysts have placed a sell rating on Palm and are now valuing their stock, at least in hyperbolic terms, at $0. Quoth CNN:
Shares of Palm (PALM) plunged 19% to $4.59 a share early Friday, a new 52-week low. Investors are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the company’s future and several analysts downgraded their positions on the stock to “sell.” Two analysts even lowered their price targets to $0.
