

Withered Palm: The Decline and Fall of a Technology Giant - tptacek
http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/money-trail/2009/12/13/withered-palm

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jbrun
The point concerning building an ecology of products is key.

Part of the persistence of the blackberry is accountable to its adoption in
the business world which is very hesitant to change, especially in IT.

Apple, in many ways, is trying to tie down consumers as RIM does with
blackberries. iTunes - iPod/iPhone - Mac is a (nearly) black box solution that
is hard to extricate yourself from, especially for the average user.

Palm started too late with too little resources and simply cannot swim fast
enough upriver. Shame.

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ilamont
An interesting possibility for Palm is an acquisition by Microsoft, which has
been struggling with Windows Mobile.

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gaius
It's hard to see how that makes sense. The selling point of WinMo is that you
can "take all your Windows stuff with you", and that developers already
familair with desktop Windows can easily reuse their skills. Microsoft is all
about spreading the Windows ecosystem all the way from the datacentre to the
living room to the pocket. Why would they introduce an incompatible product
into the mix?

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pkulak
From what I've seen, the Pre is a great phone and webOS is a very nice
operating system. So, it pains me a bit to agree somewhat with the author.
People want apps these days, and Palm is never going to be able to get
developers with a niche device, even if it is damn nice.

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allenbrunson
it's commendable that palm was willing to think so far outside their
established boundaries when creating the pre. they completely scrapped their
existing offerings and started over again.

but i'm guessing that, at this late date, they don't have the resources to
pull it off. if they were sitting on a stockpile of billions the way apple is,
they might be able to give the industry a real run for its money.

