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Palm Devices Are Coming In 2018 Without WebOS, Says Report (slashgear.com)
According to a new report, TCL will be manufacturing palm-branded devices next year. SlashGear reports: The Palm brand has been in limbo for the past half-decade, moving in and out of HP-connected devices then on into relative obscurity. The Palm operating system was acquired by LG and continues to be used (in some form or another) in LG smart TVs to this day -- as such, it won't be coming with the Palm phone set for next year. On the day when gesture controls for the next iPhone just started to look like the last phone version of Palm OS, word appears of Palm's resurgence. Sadly, this resurgence almost certainly wont include Palm OS. Word comes from Android Planet that TCL Marketing Manager Stefan Streit confirmed that they've finally gotten to a place where they can make a Palm phone. TCL acquired the Palm brand all the way back in 2011.
What made Palm great was a usable keyboard. Love them, hate them, defend them to death, but their OS was primitive even by Windows Mobile 2002 standards; their hardware was obsolete even by Pocket PC standards; they truly had the pulse of the dead user down.
Their keyboard was another matter. It was ergonomic. It was fast. It felt good. You could use it with two hands.
If Palm wants success... give us the keyboard. Android, IOS, whatever. The keyboard.
If Palm wants to be a failure, keep giving us phones. It didn't work for Nokia (Microsoft put its shil in to kill it) and it didn't work for Microsoft (microsoft mobile phone is dead). It won't work for Palm.
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WebOS itself was pretty great. The problem is Palm handled the release of its phones very poorly.
For example, the first edition of the Palm Pre was a Sprint exclusive. The second release, the Palm Pre 2, was a Verizon exclusive. That's a huge "screw you" to people who want to upgrade since they have to switch providers too.
Also, the tech in the phones failed to keep up with competitors like Apple and HTC.
A great concept that had a lot of potential, destroyed by bad management.
Palm's problem was that they were two years late to the party. I think that they easily could be in a similar position to Apple now if they had launched alongside Apple or even shortly thereafter like some of the big Android devices of the time instead of being caught with their pants down. The company sat on their hands for entirely too long and had nothing to show for it when the iPhone changed the game. The fact that the Pre ad WebOS were as good as they were at release showed that the company still had some serious engineering and design chops.
PalmOS, and later WebOS, is what made Palm devices unique.
No, Graffiti was what made Palm devices. It was so intuitive that with very little training, you could take written notes in the dark or under a table without looking.
Secondary, calendar functions coupled to Graffiti. Appointments with notes on the go didn't exist back then, and with iOS/Android, it's much more work. On the Palm, you hit one designated button, and it woke up and immediately displayed what you needed.
Also, exceptional battery life. As in going a week or two without charging with daily use. Try that with your smartphone.
I also miss LCD screens that worked in direct sunlight. I take that over colour any day.