Palm, Inc.
| Company type | Public (formerly) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Consumer electronics, software |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Founder | Jeff Hawkins |
| Defunct | 2011 (brand retired by HP) |
| Fate | Acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2010; brand retired in 2011; trademark later sold to TCL Corporation |
| Headquarters | Sunnyvale, California , United States |
Key people | Jeff Hawkins (founder), Donna Dubinsky, Ed Colligan, Jon Rubinstein, Stephen DeWitt |
| Products | Personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, Palm OS, webOS, enyo.js |
| Parent | Hewlett-Packard (2010–2011) |
Palm, Inc. was a U.S.-based enterprise focused on the creation of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and software solutions. Established by Jeff Hawkins, Palm was the innovator behind the PalmPilot, recognized as the first PDA to achieve widespread international commercial success. The company also gained prominence for the Treo 600, one of the early widely adopted smartphone models. Palm developed its proprietary Palm OS operating system for its hardware and licensed this OS to various other manufacturers.
In addition, Palm introduced webOS, noted as the first smartphone operating system to support multitasking, along with enyo.js, an application framework built on HTML5 technology. The firm was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in July 2010, which subsequently launched new products based on webOS in 2011. Nevertheless, due to underwhelming sales figures, HP CEO Léo Apotheker decided later that year to discontinue production and support for Palm and webOS devices, effectively retiring the Palm brand after nearly two decades. In 2014, HP sold the Palm trademark rights to a shelf company associated with Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL Corporation.
History
Based in Sunnyvale, California, Palm developed several notable smartphones such as the Pre, Pixi, Treo, and Centro. Earlier models included devices like the Pilot 1000, Palm Pilot Pro, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, Zire, and Tungsten. While most legacy devices operated on the Palm OS Garnet platform, four versions of the Treo smartphone ran on Windows Mobile.
Founding and acquisition
Established in 1992 by Jeff Hawkins, who later brought on board Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan, Palm Computing was responsible for pioneering the original Palm Pilot. Initially, the company focused on developing software for the Zoomer PDA, produced by Casio for Tandy. Although the Zoomer did not succeed commercially, Palm generated income through synchronization software designed for devices by HP as well as Graffiti, a handwriting recognition system created for the Apple Newton MessagePad.
In 1995, Palm became part of U.S. Robotics Corp., which was subsequently acquired by 3Com in 1997, making Palm a subsidiary of 3Com. By June 1998, dissatisfied with 3Com’s strategic direction, Palm’s founders left to form a new company named Handspring.
Stock offering and split into PalmSource and PalmOne
On March 1, 2000, 3Com spun off Palm as an independent publicly traded entity listed on NASDAQ under the symbol PALM. The initial public offering took place amid the dot-com boom, with shares reaching a high of US$95.06 on opening day. However, intense competition combined with the collapse of the tech bubble led to a drastic decline in share price—dropping approximately 90% within a year to US$6.50 by June 2001—making it NASDAQ’s worst-performing PDA manufacturer at that time.
In January 2002, Palm established a fully owned subsidiary called PalmSource tasked with developing and licensing the Palm OS platform. This subsidiary was spun off as an independent company in 2003. Later that year, Palm’s hardware division merged with Handspring and rebranded as palmOne, Inc., trading under ticker PLMO. Ownership of the Palm trademark was maintained jointly through a holding company.
United as a single company
In May 2005, palmOne secured complete ownership of the Palm trademark by paying US$30 million, subsequently rebranding itself as Palm, Inc. in July and resuming trading under the ticker PALM.
Later that year, ACCESS Co., a company focused on mobile web technology solutions, purchased PalmSource for US$324 million.
On 4 January 2006, Palm introduced the Treo 700w, its inaugural Windows Mobile handset, developed through collaboration with Verizon Wireless and Microsoft.
In December 2006, Palm invested US$44 million to obtain an irrevocable license from ACCESS, granting royalty-free rights to use and modify the Palm OS Garnet source code, thereby reclaiming control over its software development efforts.
By June 2007, amid speculation about potential acquisitions, private equity firm Elevation Partners injected US$325 million into Palm in exchange for a 25% equity stake. CEO Ed Colligan described this as the optimal path for business expansion and shareholder value.
On 18 December 2008, Colligan declared that Palm would discontinue creating new handheld PDAs. At CES 2009, Palm revealed the webOS operating system alongside the Palm Pre smartphone, which launched exclusively on Sprint on 6 June 2009. The design team featured Matias Duarte, Mike Bell, Peter Skillman, and Michael Abbott.
Initial enthusiasm surrounding webOS caused Palm’s stock price to surge from US$3 to nearly US$18. Despite favorable critical reception, restricting the Pre’s availability solely to Sprint—a relatively minor U.S. carrier at the time—limited sales potential. With only US$250 million in cash reserves at the start of 2009, this period marked what many viewed as Palm’s final chapter. By 2010, share prices had declined to under US$4.
Acquisition by HP and Demise
On 28 April 2010, Hewlett-Packard announced its intent to acquire Palm for $1.2 billion in an all-cash transaction at $5.70 per share, completing the deal by 1 July 2010.
Following the acquisition, Palm operated as HP’s global business unit responsible for developing webOS software and producing hardware such as smartphones, tablet PCs, and netbooks. In February 2011, HP released new WebOS devices—the Pre 3, Veer, and TouchPad—under the HP brand rather than Palm.
By July 2011, HP restructured the division: Jon Rubinstein was reassigned from senior vice president to a product innovation position and succeeded by Stephen DeWitt. Simultaneously, the Palm brand was retired in favor of the "webOS global business unit" identity.
Due to disappointing TouchPad sales performance, HP halted production and support for all Palm and webOS products on 18 August 2011. The company canceled planned U.S. launches of the Pre 3 and Veer models and initiated a significant price reduction on remaining TouchPads, which temporarily increased demand. These moves, coupled with HP’s $11.7 billion Autonomy acquisition and ongoing threats to spin off its consumer business under CEO Léo Apotheker’s leadership, contributed to a sharp 45.4% decline in HP’s stock value.
After Apotheker stepped down and Meg Whitman assumed the CEO role, HP announced in December 2011 its intention to open source much of WebOS. Subsequently, several key executives from Palm—including Rubinstein—departed.
On 15 August 2012, HP rebranded its remaining WebOS team as "Gram," consolidating what remained of Palm’s assets. In February 2013, HP sold the WebOS division along with associated source code licenses and patents to LG Electronics. LG planned to utilize WebOS primarily for smart television applications while keeping options open regarding mobile device development in the future.
TCL acquisition and new product launch
In October 2014, HP transferred ownership of the Palm brand and its associated intellectual property to Wide Progress Global Limited, a holding company managed by Nicolas Zibell, who serves as regional president of TCL Corporation. TCL is known for marketing Android smartphones under the Alcatel name. The original Palm.com site was redirected to MyNewPalm.com, which featured a "coming soon" message alongside the Palm logo and the tagline "Smart move," a phrase also utilized by Alcatel OneTouch.
TCL officially announced the purchase of the Palm brand on 6 January 2015, revealing intentions to revive the company by assembling a new team based in Silicon Valley and integrating crowdsourcing methods into the product design process.
On 15 October 2018, a Palm-branded startup, financially supported by TCL and NBA star Stephen Curry, introduced a new Palm companion device. This compact, Android-powered gadget functions as a smaller accessory to larger smartphones and was made available exclusively through Verizon Wireless as an addition to both existing and new service plans.