
Palm Said to Put Itself Up for Sale; Bids May Come This Week - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=arvXvuu.DqW4
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megaduck
Whoever buys Palm is getting a real prize. First of all, they get the entire
Palm patent portfolio, many of which Apple is infringing upon. Palm's been
doing the smartphone thing longer than almost anybody, and they've built up
quite a bit of IP along the way.

Palm also has sales channels with the three biggest US carriers (Verizon,
AT&T, Sprint), as well as carriers in Europe like SFR and O2. Bell (Canada)
gets tossed in for flavor.

Finally, there's WebOS. While WebOS launched rather immature, it's been
developing incredibly rapidly. The OS in its current state is incredibly
capable, and a joy for both developers and users. It's more usable than
Android, more capable than the iPhone (even after OS 4), and blows Blackberry
out of the water in almost every respect.

What Palm's missing is solid hardware and enough runway to get developers
online. They won't have all their developer tools up until this summer, and
it's questionable whether they've got enough cash to get past fall.

I hope that whoever acquires them doesn't kill WebOS. I'm an _extremely_
satisfied Pre owner, and I dread the prospect of having to jump to Android or
the iPhone (shudder).

~~~
mark_h
Is WebOS honestly that good? The last I heard that I was paying attention to
was jwz giving up on his for performance reasons
(<http://jwz.livejournal.com/1108212.html>)

I know there's a lot to like about it; I loved (in my brief exposure) the
cards metaphor, and I imagine that development could be quite nice, but have
they solved the issues he refers to?

[disclaimer: I have had a brief play with a Pre, but you can't get them in
Australia. I would have considered getting one].

~~~
megaduck
JWZ had a Pre when WebOS was kind of half-baked. They've made significant
gains in responsiveness since then, and solved most (all?) of the things he
complained about.

That being said, the system doesn't feel as 'instant' as the iPhone or a fast
Android phone. However, you can often get things done faster than competing
platforms because the workflow is so streamlined.

Moving to a 1Ghz processor like the Snapdragon would probably bring
responsiveness up to parity with other systems.

~~~
mortenjorck
One area where WebOS is still miles ahead of even iPhone OS 4 is
notifications. I was actually a little stunned that Apple didn't even address
the issue last week: Notifications in iPhone OS are incredibly primitive; they
exist only as modals with no history. You get one, it interrupts what you're
doing, and if you get ten, you only see the last one and there's no way to
review the other nine.

WebOS, on the other hand, displays notifications peripherally and in parallel,
it consolidates and organizes them by application, and even has two levels of
hierarchy for initial and persistent alerts. It's an order of magnitude more
powerful, yet elegant enough that it would be at home on any Apple device.

~~~
danudey
"You get one, it interrupts what you're doing, and if you get ten, you only
see the last one and there's no way to review the other nine."

Not the case, in my experience. Generally, they pop up one after the other,
right when you're about to tap on one, and then you have to either dismiss
each one separately, or open the application responsible for the most recent
one and hope for the best.

Notifications on iPhoneOS are the single worst user experience, and I can't
understand why Apple hasn't yet fixed this ridiculous and annoying problem
once and for all.

------
halo
I doubt there are many buyers who would want to enter the smartphone business
as the underdog with a custom OS at this point.

One big exception would be RIM, whose own software is looking increasingly
dated. They might see Palm as a way of getting a whole new OS on the cheap,
together with the talent and patent portfolio to go with it.

~~~
mikepurvis
I would love to see RIM adopt WebOS—the current BlackBerry OS is a disaster,
especially in the apps layer. How would this work out with the QNX
acquisition, though? I don't know enough about QNX, but is it primarily the
kernel?

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jsz0
I think Dell or Lenovo are unlikely simply because neither has previously
shown any interest in developing their own operating systems. Both are
probably more comfortable selling Windows Mobile/Android handsets. HTC makes
sense as a company with experience developing their own software but I wonder
how WebOS fits into their crowded line-up of Android & Windows Mobile devices.
I wouldn't be surprised to see RIM get involved. They seem to be struggling to
modernize BBOS. Hasn't hurt their sales too much yet but you gotta figure
eventually it will. They're probably one of the companies most capable of
quickly absorbing Palm. Time is a major factor given the growth of Android,
continued strong iPhone sales and WM7 lurking around the corner. I could see
RIM getting squeezed if they don't make a move.

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mbreese
HTC is one of the obvious buyers, but they are so in bed with Google and
Android, I wonder if HTC could pull the trigger on that one. On one hand, HTC
is trying to position itself as a top tier manufacturer, independent of
carrier branding. On the other, it has Android and WinMo handsets already...
is it going to try to add WebOS to the mix?

I doubt it. If HTC goes for Palm, it will be a patent play.

However, what if Google bought Palm _for_ WebOS interface? I've always seen
Android's interface as a little clunky. And Palm has some great design
people... so if you married Android and Palm, then you'd have a better chance
of unseating the iPhone. If it was just HTC, then I fear you'd just get a
jumbled mess of handsets.

~~~
feverishaaron
Has anyone considered that Apple is also a potential buyer, if just for the
patent portfolio?

~~~
dagw
Given how aggressive Apple has been in the mobile phone patent space as of
late, that would actually make a lot of sense.

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barrkel
I wonder if it would be worth it for HTC for patents etc.

~~~
mortenjorck
Given the bargain price of Palm right now and how much it could cost fighting
a legal battle for years, HTC could probably end up saving a lot of money
simply by buying Palm right now.

Apple was deterred enough by Palm's portfolio that they made little noise even
as Palm launched their platform with features clearly covered by Apple
patents. Engadget had a really good look at both arsenals last year:
[http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/apple-vs-palm-the-in-
dept...](http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/28/apple-vs-palm-the-in-depth-
analysis)

If HTC suddenly had those onboard, I think we'd see Apple drop their suit in
pretty short order.

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smallhands
I am never a big fan of Microsoft.But i think it make a lot of business sense
if they buy plam.It is a lot better competing in that market than fight google
in search market.i think the only company that can compete with google in
search is facebook!

~~~
patrickk
Microsoft buying Plam may not make a whole load of sense given they have an
exciting new mobile platform coming on stream soon. It's a similar play to
them buying Yahoo to compete better with Google in the search space.

I don't see exactly how Facebook competes in search, all I see it as is an
increasingly spammy social network that I could easily live without. Google on
the other hand, is indespensible. The very sight of Bing makes me want to
punch the monitor (when I'm not using my own PC).

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jackowayed
Hmm. I could see something great coming out of HTC buying Palm. Palm seems to
make decent hardware (with some cool features like the builtin mobile
hotspot). HTC makes wonderful hardware. I also hear WebOS is very nice, though
it hasn't gotten much traction.

I'm not sure exactly what they'd do, but it definitely has a potential. I can
tell you one thing: I'm currently on the fence between getting the 4th-gen
iPhone and a Nexus One. If I could get a Nexus One with a builtin mobile
hotspot (and no extra monthly charge for that), I'd do it in a second, and I'd
even be fine with switching to a network I like less like T-Mobile or Verizon.

~~~
randall
Honestly, if HTC hardware meets WebOS, I'd be in heaven. I'm a Palm Pre owner,
and the hardware is really weak. The OS is exclusively gesture based, which I
find as really intuitive, and combine that with HTC's hardware prowess, and
you've got a really good device.

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javery
Maybe Adobe will buy them and give Flash a true mobile outlet (and maybe use
some of those patents to work out a deal with Apple).

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heyrhett
I remember when palm was worth more than 3com, even though 3com owned 95% of
palm.

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jbrun
Frankly, RIM should buy them. The blackberry is getting woefully outdated and
WebOS could help it jump into the 21st century.

~~~
samuel
What about Nokia? They smartphones also sucks, and they have already sued
Apple for IP infringement.

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mrkurt
There aren't enough words to describe the happiness I'd feel if HTC bought
Palm and made more WebOS phones.

