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Palm Reveals New Name
dmehus writes "Milpitas, Calif. based Palm Inc. announced Sunday afternoon the new name and moniker for its handheld hardware business. After almost two years in the planning and focus group stages, the company's Board of Directors and executives decided on PalmOne. PalmOne's ticker symbol will change from the current PALM to PLMO. Sister company PalmSource, which will be the operating system business, takes ticker symbol PSRC. According this report by CNET News.com's Ina Fried, the two companies will be publicly traded, but they will also be controlled by a new holding company. In addition, the Spring 2004 line of handhelds will adopt the PalmOne moniker. Devices that run the Palm OS can continue to say "Palm powered." The new ticker symbols and corporate name changes will take affect some time in late September or early October, once the Palm buyout of rival HandSpring is complete."
They didn't even make it fully buzzword compliant. There's no '.' in there or 'e' anywhere... What about 'flex' or 'i'?
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Geez, two years to decide to change your name from Palm to PalmOne. I am soooo in the wrong business.
Stage One of Going Down the Toilet: Split yourself into groups of N, and give each sub-company a new name. That way no one knows who the hell they are dealing with.
Frequently employed when a company's market share or mind share begins to slip, in an irrational attempt to reverse said slipping.
"Sig free in '03!"
Or is the name "PalmOne" almost an invitation to steal the thing?
Download my free songs!
In the graphical form of the name (which you can view on their web site) they :-)
have chosen to use leetspeak in the form pa1mOne which seems to me to be a horrible mistake (it's also
worth knowing that palmOne did not buy the sites pa1mOne.com and pa1m0ne.com: pa1mone.com seems to have be
purchased by an employee of Palm just yesterday and does not take you to palmone.com
The real mistake though is that should we be referring to the company is palmOne or pa1mOne? It's just
confusing for no reason. I mean you don't see Microsoft changing its name to M1cro$0ft just to look cool.
John.
they probably actually paid a marketing company a million bucks to come up with that lame-ass name!
Hell, I would have thought one up for 50 bucks. here's a freebie:
"Shaznasta"
T.
I am more and more convinced that marketers live in a different dimension from the rest of us. One day it is all about "brand name" and talk about it worth in millions, the next day, it is just any old hat. /annoyed
Can I now use Palm myself? It is obviously not worth anything to Palm themself...
...it worked so well for Real. I mean, realOne is just such brilliant, usefull software. Hopefully they don't add the bloat, that what makes them nicer the windows mobile devices (for business purposes). Because I swear to god if my palm starts beeping and buzzing, and I pull the thing out of my pocket so it can tell me "whats cool for August" I'll smash the thing to little pieces.
I don't understand why companies INSIST on doing this? Is this some sort of corporate fear that their brand name is watered-down by ubiquity?
It seems that companies who are so successful that their name BECOMES the product would be happy.
I watched this happen to Digiboard. They were THE standard product in their line but then went & changed their name to Digi International. D'oh.
-Styopa
PHB::According to Johnson's report I see we have market share and brand name recognition. What's our plan?
JOHNSON::Do nothing sir.
PHB::Do nothing? You idiot Johnson YOU'RE FIRED! Cravenstone what do you have?
CRAVENSTONE::Let's change our name sir.
PHB::Excel-lent....
This
Why do Microsoft competitors keep using the word ONE?
Netscape ONE
Sun ONE
PalmOne
Is this synergy, coincidence, or lame marketing?
just = (My)Opinion.toCents();
The Pilot Pen company sued Palm (then 3Com or was it US Robotics at the time?) for trademark infringement - and the agreement was that the name "Pilot" would not be used for the PDAs.
I'll keep calling my Tungsten-W a "Palm" (though my wife refers to it as "your nag".)
Would it not have been wiser to keep the name "Palm"? They don't want any of the two spin-off's to benefit of the name. But doesn't the PalmSource company benefit from the sales that are generated by "PalmOne"? (Note that this assumtions hold true to a certain level the other way around, but not that strong.)
Therefor, i find it a bit silly. The split was made by the board that will control both company's (they did not sell one division as far as I know) and the new controlling company. The controlling company name is irrelevant, as no-one outside the Palm-offices and the financial world will know, or needs to know it.
It would be better to keep the name for the hardware division. They had a strong name, and I guess that they did a bad move. And two years to come up with "PalmOne"? For crying out loud...
As a sidenote, as a belgian, I guess that I'm not worried, as long as the name change does not influence the taste of a glass Palm beer.
Well, there's goes my bet on what the new Handspring, Palm merged company would be called:
"PalmSprings" of course!
Sure, you laugh now, but their new office digs woulda been SWEET.
more information from including the logo....my favorite quote
"The new name is characterized in two colors - deep red for the word 'palm' and vibrant orange for 'One,' reflecting the subbrand colors for the company's Tungsten line of solutions for mobile professionals and business and its Zire line of solutions for consumers and multimedia enthusiasts, respectively."
Come on, from Pro/Personal, III, V, Zire, Tungston, m, these guys have changed branding more often than their underwear. This is what they want to bank on?
No explanation given for the lame l->1 conversion.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
> After almost two years in the planning and
> focus group stages, the company's Board of
> Directors and executives decided on PalmOne.
I can only chime in with previous posters and express my utter, utter bafflement at this. I can't believe how some people earn their money! (I use the word 'earn' very loosely.)
When is this marketroid-driven insanity going to stop?
Sentimentality is merely the Bank Holiday of cynicism.
- Oscar Wilde
it's probably me, but why in heavens name change name ? What's the benefit, except for companies for MS who have som uch cash they have to find obnoxious ways to hose some (hey, there's an idea for a new poll !)
Reminds me of the company Smiths, not named 'Lays'. Thay had a brand recognition at coca-cola level and yet some execs decided to wipe it all.
I really should have paid attention during marketing classes i guess.
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
Everyone's reading PalmOne like it was pronounced Palm-WON, but it's really pronounced Pahl-MOH-nay, which clearly is designed to appeal to the modern, hip Euro-style elite. Ooh, la la.
You can't get a Visor from Handspring now, and you haven't been able to for a long time. All their organizer-only devices have been discontinued, from the original Visor up to the recent Treo 90. The only way Handspring will sell you a Visor is if you buy a reconditioned unit from them.
My guess is that PalmOne will continue this level of support for the Visor, but I strongly doubt that they'll start the production lines rolling again, especially when the bare-bones Zire and upcoming Zire 21 models are there for people who want a low-cost, monochrome organizer.
Read my blog.
PalmOne's ticker symbol will change from the current PALM to PLMO.
Dibbs on the PALM stock symbol so I can unload millions of shares of my fly-by-night IPO on the uneducated masses!
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
I have the same problem. Gypsies always give me strange looks when I take a tropical plant into the caravan to have my fortune told, and I've been waiting for my hand to produce coconuts for 34 years now.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
"Palm" was easy, simple, and only 4 freaking letters! Plus their ticker was PALM! Hello?! Going to PalmOne is longer, dumber, and not as intuitive, plus their ticker changed...
Bad idea.
OUR BRAND PROMIES IS SO WAL UNDERS2D BY DA MARK3TPLAEC TAHT DA CONCEPT OF ONE IN OUR NU NME WAS IMEDIAETLY COMPELNG11!!11!! WTF LOL ONE IS A POW3RFUL ADITION 2 TEH INSTANT BRAND R3COGNITION AND IEDNTITY OF DA PALM TEH1!!!1 WTF RED/ORANGE COMBINATION IS A BOLD D3PARTURE FROM TEH BLU3 TAHT PALM HAS USAD FOR MANY YEARS AND BUILDS ON OUR NU SUBRANDS AN3RGY ANTHUSIASM POWER AND INOVATION COM3 ACROS MUCH STRONGAR IN OUR NU COMBINATION
OUR!1!1!1!! NU NME ALSO SIGNALS A NU BGINNG AT PALM1!!1!!!! OMG WTF BUILDNG ON OUR MOMENTUM IN TEH HANDH3LD COMPUTNG SPAEC WORLDWIED AND COMPLEMANTNG IT WIT TEH AXPACTAD INT3GRATION OF DA AWARD-WINNG TR3O LIEN OF SMARTPHONES FROM HANDSPRNG WIL GIEV PALMONE TEH BROAEDST PORTFOLIO OF HANDHELD COMPUTARS AND SMARTPHON3 PRODUCTS LAD BY DA MOST AXPAREINC3D TEM IN DA INDUSTRY 11!!1 WTF LOL
(I didn't write this - I got it from a Palm message board. Still funny, though.)
Of course the real reason for the change of name to PalmSource is that they've discovered 80 lines or so of C code in PalmOS that matches code in the heart of the Linux kernel, no, the edges, no, the utilities, and they've decided to take a leaf out of SCO's book and sue IBM, no, Linus, no, everyone who even mentions Linux to try to prop up a dwindling market share.
Quick everyone, buy Palm shares cos they're about to shoot through the roof!
...I have decieded to rename myself GeoffreyOne.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
He had valid reasons for it - his label was in control of the name "Prince" and was being bitchy about it. That's why on that triple-CD set he has "slave" written on his cheek. So he changed his name so he could release music during the dispute, and after it was settled, changed it back. I don't know why he didn't just tell people that, but I figure there were legal reasons.
Palm, on the other hand, are simply dumbasses.
c-hack.com |
You would definitely be struck down by National Beverage Corp. on that one since "Shaznasta" is clearly just a feshizzle nizzling of their Shasta brand name.
PalmOne - a unisex fragrance for geeks from ClavinKlein
Glad to see that the marketing group who came up with "New Coke" finally got another client.
It's a good thing they didn't just take one year to come up with that name or else it might have sucked!
You can use the phrase "they're trying to PalmOne off on us" now.
...when someone ascends to a high enough position that they CAN change a name, they DO change the name. It's a way of assuring themselves that they're actually in charge.
It's simple: if you only issue orders that have a rational reason, you can never tell whether your subordinates are obeying them because you actually hold power, or simply because the orders make sense.
On the other hand, if you issue orders that are irrational, you can tell whether or not you actually have power, but if people obey them it will hurt the company which, in the long run, could affect your career.
The only safe way to demonstrate your authority is by issuing an order that is _arbitrary_ and has no significant effect for better or for worse.
Of course, there's always a cover story about how the new name, color scheme, typography, etc. "projects a more contemporary corporate image." (In the case of a magazine, whenever a new editor takes over they always revamp the typeface and the amount of whitespace around things, and the stated reason is always "to help you find information faster.")
See Antoine de Saint Exupery's "The Little Prince"--the part where the Little Prince visits the tiny planet with the king who can command the sun to set, but only after checking an almanac to make sure that he issues the command at the right time.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Is BeOS still under the wings of Palm? Why don't they use the thing, or simply open the source?
When Palm bought Be, Inc. they promised there would never again be a BeOS release. They refused to license the IP or allow anyone to work on it ("Omigod, they killed the BeOS!" "You bastards!"). :P
However, a German company (yellowTab) which had wisely started negotiating to work on BeOS long before the sale (during the period where Be was "refocusing on Internet Appliances") and somehow had the rights to work on a BeOS, or something. Their version of events is here.
For some reason, none of the Be sites is linking to them, and googel does not like them either. I had to find the old slashdot article to find them at all. They also seem to be calling the OS Zeta instead of BeOS. Perhaps the people at Palm have the reverse midas touch w/r/t brands and anyone who has a good brand but associates with them loses it altogether. By the way can you tell I hate the new name and wonder why in the hell they would change the most recognized name in PDAs? Perhaps this is bad karma for trying to crush BeOS on purpose.
Still if you want you can buy zeta from yellowTab and it does come with lots of software, apparently...
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Upon closer inspection it appears from their logo that the new name will actually be pa1mONE. That's the number 1, not the letter l. Wonderful. If that isn't cause for a DDOS attack, I don't know what is.
Not to start a flame war over the incorrect use of irony, but isn't it ironic that their name, which is meant to show their solidarity and dominance, uses a term for "one" twice?
And if you disagree with my use of "irony" as a word, please replace "ironic" with "hilariously coincidental," pretend I said it the whole time, and don't flame me for it.
Isn't it odd that we get uptight about the use of "irony" but we allow people to write "lol" in posts and get away with it. "lol" isn't even a word. Without capitalization or periods, it's not even a proper acronym, but it's totally acceptable.
Well, there's another post that's gonna be modded down for being off-topic. Damn my train-of-thought writing style!
-=-=-=-=-=
I'd rather be flamed than ignored.