Palm has been a known brand back in the 90’s. My sister bought her first Palm; an M515. In 2005, I worked in a company that did Technical Support for Palm (then known as PalmOne) and they introduced me to Smartphones. I had the SonyEricsson P910i (which was categorized as a PDA-Phone and not a Smartphone) and I immediately switched to the Treo270, then Treo 600, then Treo 650, and finally my Treo 680.
Being in the support line, we often receive information of the new products long before they would be leaked in the news. So we would have a feel of what the next products would be and would immediately be able to answer the customer’s questions if they hear something about it.
That was back in 2005. Now, I hear that Palm was acquired by HP and all I can say is, “great work, HP!”. Ever since Palm dropped their Handheld line, product production has gone from slow to none. After the Treo Pro, it was just the Pre and Pixi and nothing after (Pre Plus and Pixi Plus do not count).
Palm had many bad ideas like the LifeDrive which was eons behind in technology. I mean, the last time I heard people use the Microdrive it was probably in the 80’s (hehe). When the LifeDrive came out, there were already countless other and better storage media like FLASH.
Then Palm had a good idea called the Folio. Who would have thought the Folio would start a trend of machines now more familiarly known as Netbooks. Sadly, they scrapped the idea before it even hit production.
Then, another disappointing feat was when they announced the Palm Pre. I was excited. With the iPhone out gallivanting and sh*t, my Treo 680 needed an upgrade and I swore never to succumb to Apple’s hypnosis (though I am doing this blog on a MacBook Pro.. So sue me..) so I waited for the Pre to come out in the GSM version (it was originally released as a CDMA unit) and I didn’t care how much it would cost. But days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and no sign of the Pre. Then GOOGLE Announced the Nexus One and now, I found my new phone. Sorry, Palm.
The whole “Palm for Sale” debate has been happening for a long while now. Even back in 2005, we’ve already heard of rumors that Palm was being sold. We actually thought that Apple was going to buy Palm for both Palm and Apple had basically the same terminologies for their services. Apple had the Apple Care, Palm had the Palm Care. Both had the Protection Plan and the list goes on and on but it never pushed through.
Now that HP bought Palm, I sure hope HP does a whole lot of good for Palm. I would not want to have another good idea as the WebOS go down the drain. Oh, by the way. the Pre already perfected the Multitasking bit. Not Apple.