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One big problem is that Palm split into PalmSource for software and Palm One for hardware. PalmSource went off to design Linux-based OS, got acquired, and disap
by ianburrell 3y ago
One big problem is that Palm split into PalmSource for software and Palm One for hardware. PalmSource went off to design Linux-based OS, got acquired, and disappeared. Palm One, renamed back to Palm One, made some early smartphones with PalmOS. But PalmOS was pretty obsolete by then, with 16-bit apps running on 32-bit OS.
Then Palm developed webOS, which made some weird hardware decisions and couldn't compete with iPhone and Android. But it could have been a contender, better than Blackberry and Nokia that didn't make jump to capacitive screens.
I think Palm's problem was being too late, but if they hadn't split and made PalmOS successor, they would have missed capacitive smartphones.
- tensor 3y agoWebOS is great, at least it lives on in LG products for now. I far prefer it to android, despite the vastly smaller ecosystem.
- hedgehog 3y agowebOS was really nice, a lot of ideas that didn't come to iOS and Android until much later were present and nicely implemented back in 2010 or so.
- ianburrell 3y agoI had a Palm Pre, and Treo before that. One problem is that webOS needed resources, and Palm chose limited hardware. I think webOS could have been the iPhone if Apple didn't exist. I think they could have taken the second spot from Android if had been earlier, open, and released conventional hardware.