palmOne, the company formerly known as Palm, will become Palm once more

So palmOne appears to be stealing Prince's moves on this and will now be shedding the palmOne moniker in favor of a return to a simpler, long-ago time in which they were still just Palm. They're forking over $30 million to buy out PalmSource's 55 percent share of the Palm Trademark Holding Company, to be paid out over 3.5 years. PalmSource will retain rights to the PalmSource name and concurrently develop a new brand identity over the next four years (they're gonna be busy). Palm, nee palmOne nee Palm, will be getting a new logo and design treatment, and all products launched from this fall onward will be branded under the monikor Palm. They've also renewed the Palm OS license from PalmSource until 2009, so will continue to develop and market mobile devices based on the Palm OS.

[Craniac @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

So why does this matter? I'm still not clear on why they split their software/hardware divisions. Did it even accomplish anything?

I'm still waiting for Apple to buy them.

[Mike Pacific @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Can anyone shed some light as to why they changed to PalmOne in the first place? Doesn't make much sense to me, seems like a very expensive mistake...

Or, is it just free press to have name changes? Not like they aren't all over the place lately anyways...

[edd:e @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

They originally split their Hardware and OS divisions because, at the time, the OS was appearing on many non-Palm devices (e.g. Sony Clies).

Since that does not seem to be the case anymore, it would make sense to merge them back together. However, I was always under the impression that they were still one company.

If PalmOne is paying $30 million to PalmSource, doesn't this mean that Palm is paying Palm $30 million.

Seems dumb. They never should've split in the first place, really. Acquiring Handspring and splitting their company in two at the same time was just too much work.

[Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Meh, every time I hear Palm mentioned all I can do is yawwwwn...

[Casual Observer @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

More money down the toilet.

Look for the next three offerings to suck rocks after this move.

[www.mygadgetbag.com @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Yup, Palm was so 1990's...

[Pat Horne @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Palm Inc was split to appeal to licensees who would be leary of using an OS and competing directly with the same companies hardware. That would give Palm products a significant advantage. Imagine how Dell would feel if M$ sold their own PCs!

Anyway, they really are two seperate companies, but it shows the inside connections that all PalmOne can buy the name like this. Was it up for sale to the highest bidder?

I wonder if this will be the new Palm logo? :-(
http://www.churchoflivingfaith.com/images/wmpalm.gif

What a iPalm we would have if Apple did buy the whole thing:
http://www.churchoflivingfaith.com/images/ipalm.jpg

[Nathan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

What a waste of money which would be better spent on R&D!

[wewa @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Its sad, really, worse than AOL Time Warner, becoming AOL & Time Warner, again.
Whasa matter wit these corporate types nowdays? Is there some kind of accounting benefit to this that us non-boardroom folks fail to understand?

I have been using my Palm Vx forever, and tried to upgrade to a Tungsten T3, and then later, a Zire 72, and both of them was so disappointing (lockups with my old palm sw, graffiti 2 sucks, and no way to go back to graffiti 1, Zire72 blue paint peeling off, etc.), they all went back to the store.

I called and emailed palmone, er, palm, and asked how to enable graffiti 1.
essentially they said you can't, and that i would like G2 better. yeah, decide for ME, thanks. G2 sucks.

I later read and found out why.
there was an article about how palmone was sued by the developer of graffiti, and was forced to bail from G1. so that's the REAL reason. not cuz G2 is better or anything logical like that.

I looked for shareware or some hack to get G1 on the new units, no way.
The Z72 and T3 was damn fast tho, i'll give them that. but a lot of good when i couldnt even enter a 't' or 'i'.

So there was a deal on a ipaq rx3115 and i have avoided ipaqs, as many people i know say they had to reset it at least 1x/week. yuck.

but with wi-fi, bluetooth, color, and msn messenger loaded, i gave it a try for $299.
And guess what. Its not bad at all.

Especially the blocktext handwriting recognition, which is just like my old graffiti 1, except better! :)

and i have yet to 'violate' its reset hole.

So now I dont even look at palm articles and palm software download sites anymore...I guess I've finally moved on.

So like when I switched from Wordperfect to MS Word, microsoft has yet again made it easy for people to transition from the competition.
ipaq color battery life, like all portable color devices, sucks tho. my palm vx would last 2 weeks on a single charge when it was new (now more like a week). thats why my cell phone is non-color. hahaha.

[Desert @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Well good for them. I like Palm much better. Oh and BTW. I've been back and forth between Palm and PPC OS and I'm staying with PalmOS for the forseable future. PalmOS beats PPC in EVERY WAY IMO.

[TheZodiac @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

add:e, that are not getting back together.. Palm1 is just changing their name. Im not sure where you got that idea, but what I am sure is that you had no idea what you were talking about from the second you read the article, to the moment you hit ADD YOUR COMMENTS.

They are two seperate companies.

[SuperQ @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Post #8: AFAIK, the Grafiti 1 case was overturned, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/24/palm_vs_xerox/

there are ways to replace Grafiti 2..

http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=5830
http://palmgear.mykbpro.com/Article_89D78.aspx

[Al @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

Dave Nagel, the (ex)PalmSource CEO who resigned yesterday, just finished his keynote at the PalmSource Developer Conference. It's interesting to read what all the bloggers at the conference are saying:

http://blogs.palmsource.com/devcon/2005/05/blogs.html

[Dan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

The funny:

As I understand it, Palm invented the Pilot, PalmOS, HotSync, and Palm Desktop... then ran out of money before they could sell a unit. When looking for investors, US Robotics said "We'll just buy you, then produce it."

The Pilot 1000 and 5000 came out and I got a job at US Robotics in Skokie IL doing tech support for them. Then 3Com bought US Robotics and I lost my job.

Then some original Palm developers split and made Handspring.

Then 3Com spun off Palm into it's own company.

Then Palm split into PalmSource and PalmOne.

Then PalmOne bought Handspring.

Then PalmOne became Palm again.

So it IS possible that some people worked for 5 different companies without changing job function or desk.

[hobgoblin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

to bad that the next gen palm os isnt getting used as companys are either going microsoft (understandable as the newcomers in the pda market are old x86 pc makers) or worry about breaking legasy apps.

[Jonathan N. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

hobgoblin,

More likely OS 6 isn't even FINISHED! Or is so buggy that no one not even PalmOne would go near it. Contemplate that fact for a minute. PalmOne just came out with the Lifedrive. Why would they not ship OS6 unless it isn't done or sucked *** badly.
Palm is dead. Unless they can somehow pull an Apple in the next year. (e.g. the trans from OS 9 to 10.) they are going to lose the last remaining edge they have against MS. That being the Treo. As I said in another forum I get this image of the T-1000 trying to find a form that fits it while its in the middle of its death throws in that molten iron. Replace the T-1000 with Palm. I mean its pretty obvious when they lay down cash on some small Linux developer in China that they have NO idea what the hell they are doing anymore which is shameful and sad all at the same time. Palm squandered a perfect opportunity with their arrogance.
I still remember the Palm CEO of the year at CES 2001 blatantly stating that users don�t care about audio, or color, or expansion. They care about the fundamentals and that is it. For years I simply thought Palm was being stubborn while PPC shares kept simmering on the verge of bust out growth. I�ve come to the conclusion that it wasn�t that they were stubborn. At this point I attribute it to blinding incompetence. They kept milking the same OS over and over and over from OS version to OS version. The reality is that OS 3 is pretty damn similar to OS 5. Milk it over and over and over adding crap to it but when real competition comes along and takes a swat at Palm what happens? They can�t do squat.
Just before Sony dropped POS I had faith. In fact I was hopeful that OS 6 with a Sony Clie would bring Palm up to speed with the Pocket PC. Then Sony dropped out. Then the mess with OS 6. Faith is gone. The only thing left is to hope that someone acquires Palm in total and brings true innovation to that place because from where I�m standing putting a hard drive in a freaking PDA with a OS that is about as advanced as Windows 3.11 means exactly jack ****.

[Cuba @ Dec 19th 2005 1:21AM]

So what exactly do you want in PalmOS? I have no problems with 5.4.