Wow! I can’t believe that my last editorial was written back on May 16th 2008! That’s a year and 4 months ago! Anyway, I thought it was time to write another editorial, with the sudden announcement by Jon Rubinstein, CEO of Palm that they were cutting Windows Mobile loose and weren’t going to produce any more Windows Mobile products and concentrate solely on WebOS. Well, it’s about time. And no, I am not surprised by this announcement since I knew early on that this day would come, if Palm ever started innovating again. And it looks like they’re back.

But before I continue, let me take you back in time, about 4 years ago. Gosh, it seemed SO LONG ago but then it’s amazing how much things have changed in 4 years. But then, we’re talking tech.

I remembered the day (Sept 26 2005) when the strangest thing ever happened: Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ed Colligan (Palm) and Denny Strigl (Verizon) all stood together for a photo that no one ever expected: the marriage of Palm and Microsoft with the offspring also known as the Treo 700w. To go back in time and read the official press release, here’s the link.

As a Palm fan who was still very much into the Palm OS at that time, I felt shocked but not surprised at the move. If we recall back around that time, Windows Mobile was gobbling up market share of the PDA space and Palm’s share was shrinking fast. Palm went through the stupid and idiotic break up of the company into PalmOne and PalmSource (remember that?) and wasn’t in any shape to fight Microsoft or do much in terms of stopping it.

In many ways, although Ed Colligan was seen as shaking hands with the “devil” aka Bill Gates, he was also ensuring the survival of Palm the company. And he was right. By providing a Windows Mobile Treo smartphone, which in some ways may and probably will compete with their own Palm OS Treo smartphones, Palm was able to survive the Microsoft battle. Microsoft wasn’t going to be stupid to try to hurt themselves by competing with the Win Mo Treos but instead concentrated on other things, namely Vista, but that’s another story.

Palm, on the other hand, would still make some money on the Windows Mobile Treo even though its not its own OS but at least they’ve got MS off their back. But then, Palm Inc, didn’t own Palm the OS anymore. It was now PalmSource which later was bought by Access and eventually bought back by Palm. The Palm OS at that time was near its end of life. Garnet was so old and rigid that it was nearly impossible to stretch it any further than Palm already has. It wasn’t capable of multi-tasking and was so underpowered for a lot of uses such as Wi-Fi, media and others that it shouldn’t have been a surprise that it was EOL.

It wasn’t that Palm didn’t try to develop their next generation OS. Oh they tried. Remember Cobalt? That “next generation” OS which took years of development never turned out to be much of anything. And then, years later, the Linux based OS for the Foleo which was supposedly some amazing OS also didn’t make it for the public. It almost seemed that Palm was doomed as they had no next generation OS, but thank goodness, their saving grace was Windows Mobile.

No one including me would have thought that Windows Mobile would end up being the saving grace for Palm but it did. If nothing else, Palm Inc at least had something they could announce as their next product roll out, even if it weren’t their own Palm branded device. The Windows Mobile years with the Treo 700wx, Treo 500, Treo 750v, Treo 750, Treo 800w and finally the Treo Pro were some of the most exciting times for Palm Inc, considering that the company were too busy with the process of buying back the Palm OS and bringing it back for the Palm Treo 680, and Centro, stretching the OS to its limits. For a few years, some excitement was brought back with smartphones that did do much more than what most Palm fans only dreamt of. Sure, it was the “dark side” but by then, most were willing to try as the “other side” didn’t look very promising.

During this time, Palm went though a lot of turmoil. Palm was now PalmSource and PalmOne and went through years breaking up only to be brought back together again. The company lost its direction and stopped. They stopped producing the PDAs and started concentrating on the smartphones, only to keep coming up with “special limited edition” versions and different color of the same device. That went on for a few years. Then came up with a similar new model with better specs and that takes up another year or so. It’s not surprising that the competition smelled trouble and complacency and came up with new products to break the doldrum. But it wasn’t just the lack of new products that persuaded Palm fans to leave. It was the disappointment. At least for me, I was proven time and again that all the anticipation of what Palm may come up with wasn’t coming. Let’s not forget the absolute disappointment known as the Foleo which, took up many years of development only to be canned months after it was announced. I was extremely disappointed in it.

It was during this time of complacency that competitors like Apple, Research in Motion and even HTC which made many of the Treos for Palm emerged to be major competitors that grabbed a lot of marketshare from Palm. The Treos, especially the Palm OS versions were sorely lacking in many features compared to what others had: multi-tasking smartphones that has built-in Wi-Fi with WPA encryption, powerful media playback, etc.

Many fans including myself was finally realizing that Palm, especially with respect to the Palm OS or the next generation OS may not be coming. After years of waiting, many jumped ship to Blackberrys, iPhones, Nokia, etc. But just like the phoenix that rises out of the ashes when it looked like it was doomed, it’s likely that Palm may rise again. The arrival of several key former Apple executives, investment by Elevation Partners and the stepping down of Ed Colligan as CEO with Jon Rubinstein taking the helm looks like this ship isn’t sinking but well on a different course.

It wasn’t until the Pre came out that I realized that perhaps there is something there. Although the US anticipation and reception was pretty good, it wasn’t until recently that I SAW the awareness of the Pre with my own eyes. During my recent trip to Vancouver when it was ready to be released, I saw and witnessed many instances where people were asking about it. It didn’t matter which store or anywhere, but I saw people trying it out, asking for it and buying it. That made me take a better look and reconsider my thoughts.

With a loaner Palm Pre in my hands, I also got a much better idea of the appeal of the Palm Pre. My initial thoughts are that I DO really like it! Although the gestures and touch are not something I am familiar with, it is very different but nice. Unfortunately, there is no GSM version available as of yet, but I’m quite sure that once there is, that it can be a very good contender to the iPhone, since the Pre is very much like the iPhone but with a slide out keyboard. Being someone who never really considered a touch device who likes the Pre, perhaps this same sentiment may be shared by many others like myself? Who knows?

So, with the initial success of the Palm Pre, and the upcoming Pixi does it not make sense to throw out the excess baggage (ie. Windows Mobile) and now solely concentrate on WebOS to make it much better? Hey, this is business. Everyone uses everyone else so should it be surprising that with Windows Mobile being of no use anymore that it will get dumped? Seriously, the main names out there now are iPhone and RIM. But, just like history has taught us, things and currents may change very quickly. There’s no doubt that Palm is trying hard to come back and so far, they are making the right steps to do so. Perhaps in a few years time, we can look back and see whether they do.

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