Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Computerworld Editorial on Palm, Inc


I love my Palm Lifedrive, but I'm finding myself longing for an update/upgrade. I've had the device for 2 years. That's my longest time with one PDA. At this time, the Apple iPhone is looking like my next device. It's just hard waiting.
Palminfocenter is one of my favorite Palm oriented websites. It was one of the first I found on Palm devices and I check it almost everyday. PIC recently posted about Computerworld's editorial on the current state of Palm and a bit of looking back at Palm's history. I've taken a look at the article and it does do a good job covering Palm from the beginning to now. I hate saying it, but Palm has seen its golden years come and go. If they don't do something, I do fear that the Apple iPhone and others like it will crush Palm. The Treo is a great device and it has set the standard on many accounts, but it's reign could very well be coming to an end. Take a peek at the article, it's a good overview of what's happened at Palm. BTW, you might want to grab some Pepsi as this is a long article.

"The once-mighty Palm Inc., still successful on paper from the momentum of past glories, is doomed to decline and failure. It wasn't always thus. Here's my preemptive postmortem.

About 12 years ago, I met with a man I didn't know, who worked for a start-up I was unfamiliar with, to see a product I'd never heard of.

The man was Ed Colligan. The start-up was Palm Computing (though it had recently been acquired by modem maker U.S. Robotics). And the product was code-named Touchdown, later to be branded the Palm Pilot.

At the time, I was executive editor of a computer magazine, and Palm was just one of a dozen or so companies scheduled for meetings that week. Most of those meetings were forgotten minutes after they concluded. But the Touchdown one was a revelation. Colligan, now president and CEO of Palm, left me a device to test."

Source: Palminfocenter

2 comments:

Christopher Esget said...

You should seriously look at a Treo, Joshua. If you think the LifeDrive is convenient for ministry usage, I think you'd be blown away by the power and usefulness of the newer Treo units. From contact management, appointments, working with documents, and the add-ons like Bible programs, it is an incredibly useful device. Plus, email and web-browsing. The rumors of Palm's demise are greatly exaggerated!

Joshua Burdick said...

To be sure Palm still has a few years left in their business. I think a lot of their future will ride on their mysterious 3rd business.
I've have looked at the Treo, but it doesn't meet what I'm looking for in a mobile device. Specifically, I prefer a much larger screen then the Treo and I am a wifi user. The Apple iPhone meets both of these needs for me. I hate thinking of switching to a different OS because I've invested lots of money into programs for my Lifedrive.
With the iPhone though, I'm a bit worried about Bible programs for it. Being that Apple plans to control 3rd party apps, it does bother me. There are online Bible sites that could possibly work with the iPhone so that might be a workable alternative, but I would still like to see a Bible program developed for the iPhone.
I still think the Treo is a great device and I've been tempted by it several times. I really want wifi and a much larger screen then the Treo.