Palm: Practical and Handy

Palm, Incorporated is an American convergence device maker based in Sunnyvale, California that is best known for its namesake Palm Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs. The company started out in computing back in 1992, having been founded by three computer industry veterans. Its first product was to have been a PDA called the Zoomer, manufactured by the company and sold and marketed by Tandy through its electronic appliance and retail stores, with an operating system from Geoworks, famous for GEOS on the Commodore 64. The Zoomer was not a success, but the company was able to survive by making software for operating systems by still other companies.

The corporation began as a computing company back in the year 1992, founded by 3 computer industry veterans. Its first product was to have been a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) called the Zoomer, manufactured by the company and sold and marketed by Tandy through its electronic appliance and retail stores, with an operating system from Geoworks, famous for GEOS on the Commodore 64. The Zoomer was not a success, but the company itself managed to survive by making software for operating systems by other companies.

In 1995, U.S. Robotics Corporation acquired the company and in 1997 turned it into a 3Com subsidiary, since U.S. Robotics itself was acquired by 3Com. Not satisfied with the way things were turning out, the company's founders left to start up Handspring - which will figure into their history once again at a later date. In the meantime, 3Com made it an independent subsidiary, and publicly traded on NASDAQ from March of 2000. Unfortunately, the infamous Dot-Bomb market crash left the shares at a mere $6.50 each only two years later.

In the latter half of 2003, the hardware division of the company merged together with Handspring, and was renamed palmOne, Inc.; the company trademark became the property of a jointly owned holding company. However, in the second half of 2005 the company name went back to the simpler name they are known for today, Palm.

The intervening years until 2007 saw many different product launches and corporate restructuring. Thus rumors were floating around about a possible sale, until it was announced in June 2007 that they had formed a strategic partnership with a private equity firm that purchased 25 percent stakes in the company. The company left the PDA market a little over a year later to concentrate on smartphone mobile devices, which typically feature many, if not all, of the traditional PDA functions such as daily planners. The company is betting on its exclusive smartphone with specific cell phone provider, which was released recently to the crowds.

There is a legal dispute between the company and another well known organization. The new phone is able to sync up with a program which plays MP3's but the program is only meant to be linked up with products from the same company. The rival company promptly released a mandatory software update for the program that prevents the phone access, which generated another successful attempt by the company to engineer access.