Palm is back and it is bigger and better than where it left off. It packs in all the features of a great smartphone and yes, you can now even check the resorts online casino app on it!
Here is a look at some of the digital milestones the software has made since it was launched.
1992-1995
Palm was founded by Jeff Hawkins in 1992. During the early days, Palm provided software management information for a company known as Casio Zoomer which was a rival to Apple’s Newton “Personal Digital Assistant” PDA. The Casio PDA was known as the “Zoomer” synchronization software device for HP devices.
However, after the downfall of Zoomer Hawkins was determined to change the whole outlook of PDAs. He wanted to make one which was small and light enough for people to carry around comfortably. To make his idea as practical and effective as possible Hawkins used to carry around a piece of wood which was around the same size and weight of the Pilot.
The Pilot was a good idea but Palm lacked the funds to bring it independently into the market. Therefore in 1995 US Robotics went on to acquire Palm Software. Pilots were manufactured and it was actually sold at a very affordable price. This marked the beginning of a new era.
1996
The Pilot was an instant hit, although if you compare it with the PDAs of today there is a slight difference. The Pilot’s software was able to manage your to-do list, calendar, contacts and memos.
1998
The Pilot died in 1998, and I mean this both literally and figuratively. When USRobotics was “swallowed” by 3Com the new parent company decided never to use the name “Pilot” again. However, consumers never stopped using the word “PalmPilot” for all devices made by Palm.
1998-2003
Things did not seem quite right with the direction which 3Com was taking. Therefore the founding members of Palm: Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan departed to found Handspring in 1998.
Handspring was one of the first licensed Palm OS devices. It went on to launch its own PDA, the Visor. The best feature about the Visor was the Springboard slot which let you add modules to it.
In 2003, Palm rebranded into PalmOne and then formed another part of the company known as PalmSource. The later would sell its operating system to third-party manufacturers such as Sony.
2004
Sony announced that it would discontinue the development of all PDAs. This was a blow to PalmSource.
2005
PalmOne tried to get back to its feet by taking back its initial brand name “Palm.” Therefore it paid out $30 million to PalmSource so that it could rebrand.
However, with the dominance of Microsoft, Palm proved it no longer had a say in the market. This was especially after the new product ” Cobalt” hit the wall.
2007-2010
Apple began to set the bar high for smartphones. Then Google went ahead to fill the market with Androids, the market seemed quite squeezed for Palm.
Therefore in 2010, there was a bidding war between Google, Apple, and RIM to buy Palm. However, HP won the bid. It was through HP that WebOS was kept alive.
2013
HP sold WebOS to LG which adapted it to use in its smart TVs.
2014
Chinese company TCL went ahead to purchase the brand rights of Palm from HP.
2018
TCL–and Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry adopt the Palm to develop a tiny Android device to be used during working out.
We just have to wait and see how things work out.
