Nokia rumored to be eyeing Palm buy yet again
By Chris Ziegler 
posted November 13th 2009 4:28PM
posted November 13th 2009 4:28PM
We've been around this rumor pretty much since Palm started looking competitive again, so take it for what you will -- but a bunch of fat cats down on Wall Street have been going ape today over renewed "chatter" that Nokia might be taking an interest in acquiring Palm. Palm's share prices are up well over 5 percent on the day, though we wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there was some behind-the-scenes manipulation going on here -- an acquisition would make less sense now than ever with suitors on the hook for $2 billion or more, a hefty sum even for a giant like Nokia, never mind the fact that they've still got two smartphone platforms of their own in the mix. Licensing webOS is being floated as a possible alternative to an outright Palm purchase -- but we're having such an exceedingly difficult time picturing a 5800 running webOS that we'll put this one on ice until we get the joint press release.
Was going to post the same thing.
And reasoning behind this statement is...? Can people stop dreaming about webapps and webOS'es for a change? Essentially web apps are Javascript on steroids plus slow butt internet connection. That's it. Apple showed that great native apps with good design on top of speedy OS is a winner. Apple used 10 years old concept of native mobile apps and this works. Web apps are good for a particular type of tasks but it's not a panacea for everything.
That's about as likely as Sprint buying Nextel...oh wait!
This would be a sad end to palm.. and it would be an odd start to see nokia devices with webOS on it.. and not think of palm.. we need them to stay apart just for the sake of US.. the consumer :)
Dear Palm Board of Directors,
GET YOUR FKING ACT TOGETHER! and SWITCH CARRIERS!
Thanks and regards,
The Consumers!
It is not the carrier. Without the choice of handsets WebOS will simply not flourish. They need some better designed handsets, 2 handsets in how long is hardly a way to push any major way into the market. That has always been the problem with Palm, limited choice and innovation.
Wow this is an interesting one. Even if Nokia bought Palm, WebOS is still in dire need of a massive amount of work to elevate it to iPhone OS or Android levels. Actually nothing at this stage yet can reach the sophistication of the iPhone but to be onpar with the other competing OSs it would take Nokia just as much work as re-working Symbian so I'm not too sure if purchasing Palm would be a smart move.
What's clear is that both Palm and Nokia do need a lot of help lest they end up in the garbage, like WinMo.
Your right they should drop multitasking and not bring flash so it can reach the iPhon'e level of sophistication.
@ glama
Clearly you have no clue what you are taking about.
the iPhone OS runs the same powerful Mach kernel I/O Kit architecture found in desktop and server versions of OS X. Also, the iPhone OS utilizes a scaled down version of OS X's Cocoa dev environment, which in turn is built upon Objective C/C foundation. These two factors allow Apple to leverage and integrate mature, tried-and-true code found in OS X desktop into OS X mobile (iPhone OS). Therefore any technology advancements on the Mac's desktop front can be easily migrated to the iPhone. And remember that Apple has a 10-year lead in developing and perfectioning OS X.
In contrast, WebOS only utilizes web scripting technologies (instead of a full-featured programming language), some web plug-ins and a limited set of APIs to tie and link hardware to WebOS's Linux kernel to its upper layers. This presents a huge problem because, unlike the iPhone 3GS, it makes it impossible for the Pre/Pixi to use Open GL ES. So it's not possible for the Pre/Pixi to have 3D games nor graphics-accelerated advanced apps. This and other things make the Mojo SDK a very weak dev tool.
End result: Eplosive growth of iPhone developers and iPhone Apps. Pre apps, not so much.
I don't think Palm uses a microkernel. It was a intresting idea, but when implemented it became resource hog, or cripled upto a point where all its good points had to be sacrufised for performance.
To my knowledge only apple still uses microkernel, and my guess is that its the main reason for cripling iphones multitasking, as historically microkernels have been pretty slow with task switching. And slow taskwitching means there will be trouble when calling if some other program wants turn.
You are right, Mach mocrokernel has too many problems but I mispoke, Apple does not use Mach but rather the Mach/BSD hybrid kernel (now known as XNU Kernel). This is a fat BSD kernel with integrated components from Mach which Apple inherited from NeXTSTEP. It always had true multitasking integration as well as true multicore integration. Hence OS X's superior multitasking abilities over Windows.
While iPhone OS does multitasking, Apple decided to not allow 3rd party app multitasking. Apple said it would kill battery life but I suspect that's only a symptom rather than something else not completely solved in the OS.
I though Nokia was trying to sell off it's cell phone business.
Lol, What?! They might as well sell the whole company then.
If I were Jon Rubinstein, I would shut down Palm and give the money back to the shareholders.
nokia stay the hell away!!!
What are you gonna do, file a restraining order? =P
Palm needs all the help it can get.
WebOS powered E series devices...I can dream, can't i?
The logo kinda works both ways, though... 'Cuz Palm would really be Killed In Action.
Nokia is useless at usability and software, unless the webos team is run independently then you can be certain forget the speed it needs they will ruin it.
As for Nokia hardware this being a US centric site I have my doubts about how much exposure some of the fanboys have to Nokia here. Being a contrarian for its own sake is pointless. I have used Nokia right from 6600 to N95, yes even the 8GB version, so I know what I am talking about when I tell you the build quality is average to bad-cheap plastic keypads and bodies anyone N73 is a good example, the ram is always crippled, the OS is laggy and outdated and apps and installation especially with Symbian signed is not for the faint hearted.
These are not smartphones, they have the hardware but screen size and keypads ensure they are little more than glorifed phones that add to Nokia's profiteering. Believe me forget web use even email and sms is a challenge with a keypad. Now with Android, iPhone and Palm folks finally can look to the future. Nokia doesn't have a clue.
If Nokia buys Palm, they'll force Palm to switch all their devices to GSM, and you'll never see a Palm phone on Sprint again.
I think RIM should buy Palm. I mean imagine webos with blackberry push e-mail service!
So, Nokia dumps off Symbian for Maemo, and now wants to embrace WebOS?
What's that I hear? Why, it's The Rise of the Android Army.
I dont see the point. i would think nokia would try to scale maemo down to devices with all screen sizes( at least all smartphones). Until then porting QT to symbian should be sufficient to have the common app platform.
Well "if" Nokia were to buy Palm perhaps that would force them to go all capacitive screens and Palm would actually get some solid hardware to go with that slick WebOs. Then again, maybe not.
I also bought a Palm this year but nobody cared. What makes Nokia so special that it's worth a news to engadged?;)
ditto
Nokia + Palm.
What a great idea.
Double up the number of clowns.
Sinking to obscurity twice as fast.
And to think they once were at the top.
Let's throw in Finland and call it a deal.
The Nokia or RIM ideas make no sense to me. What makes sense to me is a Manufacturer who wants to step up their game, or a Carrier who wants to broaden their portfolio and cut out the middle man buys Palm and uses the OS.
I honestly think someone like HTC or another multi-national manufacturer who's got big ideas would be the better fit. Take the OS and shove it onto hardware that's lacking an OS.
I don't really see a carrier like Sprint or T-Mobile going out to buy Palm and getting dirt cheap native phones out of it.
I say HTC / Sony Ericsson / Motorola? Or maybe one of these.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_phone_makers_by_country
Personally I would like to Rimm Buy Palm. I think they would make the ultimate combination of froven sturdy hardware with what is the mega OS Star which is Web OS. I mean the palm pre already smokes the iphone hardware and os is so many ways but with Rimms reach and marketing they would be able to develop a great app community. it would be a perfect mrrieage.
The usability of Palms Webos delivering rock solid business apps to its business customers while having the feel needed to appeal to the casual fun user.
Since it's all better than apple iPhone then they would just have to educate the market and wake them up.
With all the beeter phones out today made by companies with better service, nobody should buy an iPhone anyway.
Of course the name Rimm-Palm might need to be changed a bit.
Nokia would do well buying Palm I think. Symbian IS showing its age when compared with other mobile phone OSes like Android, WebOS and the iPhone OS.
But Palm may do even better if they license WebOS. Would love to see the WebOS on other devices.
Better yet, make WebOS completely open source (gasp!)
Sorry you all hate it. Ill try again later and post it some where else. :-(
(I was looking for construstive critisam, not people telling me its s***)
that would be good for both..actually i'm always worried about palm,particularly the web os that looks great
I am not sure this is the best thign for PALM, but hopefully, if Nokia were to buy Palm strictly for the OS.. the WebOS would pop up on a lot more phones on a lot more carriers quicker.
I think it makes sense, if for no other reason but to buy the contract of the man that turned Apple around. Sure he didn't do such a great job with Palm, but in his defense, Palm was/is much further gone than Apple ever was.
Just to be clear, I am not saying that Nokia needs to be turned around. They are the market leader when it comes to smartphones. They are slipping though, and I don't think this could hurt (too much).
Nokia should buy Palm and use this name to brand its products in USA and Canada. Palm's name is much more known there.
Honestly, I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet but I think it would be smart for Apple to invest in Palm.