WSJ Confirms Palm layoffs amidst Rubenstein reorg

In a piece carried by the Wall Street Journal detailing the Jon Rubenstein-era shake-up at Palm, we get the first confirmation of Wednesday's layoff rumor. According to the WSJ, "Yesterday, Palm made some reassignments and staff reductions." The article does not cite specific numbers. Regardless, our hearts go out to those who received this unfortunately timed news. Given Palm's long, steady trudge towards obscurity, couldn't this have waited just a few more weeks?

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[why not the LS2/LS7? @ Dec 13th 2007 3:42AM]

Given the company seems to be mostly dead weight I have to ask, how did they decide who to NOT lay off?

[Nate @ Dec 13th 2007 3:52AM]

What a shit company. Take a lesson from Motorola, you can't keep living off of a phone made 3 years ago. You have to constantly innovate, and Palm is doing everything it can not to do that. Time to short sell this gem.

[Azayzel @ Dec 13th 2007 8:21AM]

I totally agree! Palm has been resting on its laurels for far too long by failing to innovate. I'm actually surprised they lasted this long, but I suppose it's simply due to the mediocre cell-phone integration. They either need to do some major code-scrubbing or start over from the ground up. They should have taken the cue when they were able to integrate with the cellular market and make some major updates, but instead they simply went with a tired OS and stayed afloat a little longer.

They should start with a clean slate and get rid of all the prior software engineers that failed to drive this company forward or all the managers who failed to listen to the cries of "We need to do something different!" that I'm sure were being fielded quite often from the programmer's ranks.

[Carl @ Dec 13th 2007 5:00PM]

"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone," Ed Colligan apparently laughed about with John Markoff last Thursday morning. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in." - Nov. 21, 2006, Engadget.com

Whoops, turns out Apple DID put out a decent product...

[xbit @ Dec 13th 2007 3:52AM]

I assume they're firing the managers responsible for Palm's lack of innovation over the past three years and not the poor lower level employees?

[why not the LS2/LS7? @ Dec 13th 2007 4:00AM]

It's good to see such naivete.

But more seriously, crappy managers often hire bad engineers. So even though the managers are primarily to blame, there's a good chance there are some engineers who should get the boot because they weren't good enough to actually be hired in the first place.

[Nate @ Dec 13th 2007 4:01AM]

The Foleo sucked, the centro sucked, your old ass palm pilots sucked and were overpriced, Your decision to shun the Android O/S sucked, You paying 50 million to license some shit source code for a dated and bad O/S was stupid. Talk about a worthless company. Engadget tried to tell you, but you just didn't listen.

[bdarma @ Dec 13th 2007 4:49AM]

it used to be the winning company ...

[Prokanda @ Dec 13th 2007 5:48AM]

and right before Christmas too... that's just adding insult to injury.

I call LAME on this one.

[ferris @ Dec 13th 2007 7:06AM]

After years of making terrible product decisions, with equally bad execution - out of nowhere you receive a get out of jail card - the Android - and you pass? You morons. This is going to be a game changer. Cell phone usability sucks because its a bunch of capable hardware working with mediocre software. Google has the mass to bust the doors open and enable change and usability finally - and you say no. This company deserves do be a zero. Ok im going to look into my crystal ball and see whats next - oh there it is looks just like the iphone.

[Herman Manfred @ Dec 13th 2007 8:36AM]

> ...out of nowhere you receive a get out of jail card - the
> Android - and you pass? You morons...

The story has yet to be entirely told.

PALM said they're going to concentrate on core initiatives. That could mean they're dumping their own internal Linux stuff for Android and concentrating on trying to differentiate it instead.

We don't yet know.

[Robert @ Dec 13th 2007 10:14AM]

I want my Palm back. I want the company that gave me my Treo 180 then my Treo 600 when there was nothing like them in the world.

I hucked my 680 when the iPhone came out. Make me want to e-bay my iPhone for a Treo 900 running Android. If any of the heart of Palm is still there it is possible ... look at the comebacks of Apple and Tivo - it is possible.

[John Cleary @ Dec 16th 2007 8:05PM]

Um.. Robert, Palm didn't build the Treo 180 or 600.

They were bought by a little company called Handspring. :) That's why they were good. :P

Then Palm bought Handspring during one of the many times they almost went broke. What I don't understand is how Jeff Hawkins can be so off the money nowadays. He founded both Palm AND Handspring. And then the Foleo.

The Pam story is almost as complex as the Apple one. The only question really is whether there will ever be another chapter. I still believe that the Palm OS smartphones are the 3rd best in the world (behind Nokia Series 60 at the top, and iPhone second). Update the OS, give it 3G (i never understood why there is no 3G Palm OS device) and it's a a serious contender still. They have the best hardware for a 'smartphone' - qwerty is still the killer layout (not iPhone) for serious power users.

C'mon Palm. Release me a Treo 750 hardware device with Series 60! [a guy can dream can't he? ;)]

John

[Robert @ Dec 13th 2007 6:35PM]

True, but I think the heart of the original Palm was held at Handspring at the time :)

Question is, does Palm still have it?

[Jigar @ Dec 13th 2007 3:18PM]

I think Engadget should start a Palm DeathWatch like the one they had for TiVo. It makes sense at this point for Palm to head towards obscurity.

[Benson @ Dec 13th 2007 6:44PM]

Cue strains of "If We Make it Through December"