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Verizon Plans To Launch a Palm Smartphone Later This Year (androidpolice.com)

Verizon is planning on launch a Palm-branded smartphone later this year, an anonymous source told Android Police. The rumor backs up what a TCL executive said last August, when they confirmed that the company would launch a Palm phone this year. From the report: Sadly, we don't know anything about the phone itself at this time (well, we know it runs Android), but the fact that TCL is working with Verizon is telling. The carrier was a longtime Palm partner, selling most of the brand's webOS handsets all the way through the Pre 2. Verizon had intended to carry the ill-fated Pre 3, but the phone was cancelled by Palm's then-buyer HP before it could be released in the U.S. TCL acquired the rights to the Palm name back in 2015, and it's starting to get something of a reputation for reviving dead and dying brands: the Chinese firm manufactures BlackBerry handsets, which have received a surprising amount of attention in the mainstream press.

45 comments

  1. Palm ? Not if it was free. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was fucked over badly by Palm / Sony back in the heyday.

    Palm sold hardware rights to Sony but did not enforce standards relative to hardware : software compatibility. The result was a clusterfuck which
    had the end result of corrupting the data on both my Palm device AND my mother-ship computer. The data lost was the sort of event you never
    forget, and if you're smart, you never forgive either.

    1. Re: Palm ? Not if it was free. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wait, what? is this an early 4/1 thing?

    2. Re: Palm ? Not if it was free. by PixetaledPikachu · · Score: 1

      wait, what? is this an early 4/1 thing?

      Not sold, more like Sony purchased a license to manufacture PalmOS based PDA, the Sony CLIÉ

    3. Re: Palm ? Not if it was free. by evil_aaronm · · Score: 1

      I liked the Clie. Still have mine in a box behind my chair. That reversible clamshell with the built-in keyboard was righteous. If it had phone capabilities, I'd be carrying that instead of an iOS or Android device.

    4. Re: Palm ? Not if it was free. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still have mine in a box behind my chair.

      Jesus, your place sounds like a fucking mess

    5. Re: Palm ? Not if it was free. by evil_aaronm · · Score: 1

      *looks around* Yeah, pretty much. But I know where everything is. Overall, it's not so bad, but the 'scope cables running here and there get to be annoying when they block me from grabbing something else.

  2. No phones in prison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry Trump traitor!

  3. Palm? by Templer421 · · Score: 1

    Will this one cost $1000 so Lying Executives can play games on it instead of working too?

    1. Re:Palm? by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      Will this one cost $1000 so Lying Executives can play games on it instead of working too?

      Yes and no.
      Yes, it'll be $1000.
      No, they won't be playing games on it.
      It's called a "Palm". They'll be playing with other things.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
  4. WebOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've heard there are some devices like Pi 3s that can run WebOS. I got all excited at first, but it looks like these new devices will just run Android?

    I'd like to see webOS make a come back. I owned a Handspring Visor, Treo, Centro, and Pebble. They use to be devices only nerds carried, and now everyone has one that's orders of magnitude more powerful, with touch screens.

    1. Re:WebOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd like to see webOS make a come back

      Don't hold you breath. I'd like to see an option #3 for smartphones, but it ain't happening.

    2. Re:WebOS by oneiros27 · · Score: 1

      There is. WindowsOS.

      Wait, no ... Firefox OS.

      Symbian?

      --
      Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
    3. Re: WebOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who's is still quite popular....As the sw on all LG smart TVs.

    4. Re:WebOS by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      I wonder if it would be somewhat dated by now. After all, OS/2 was considered 'promising' at one time too.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    5. Re:WebOS by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 1

      There was Blackberry for a while.

    6. Re:WebOS by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      of course it runs android.
      why did you assume something else?

      nobody would port any apps if it ran webos.. might just as well run ACCESS.

      they just slap a palm name on an android phone from foxconn and call it a day.

      why? they're looking at nokia and think that palm name is a big deal, because the execs remember using it. it's not a big deal. it really isn't a big deal. in the usa maybe a small fry deal, so verizon thinks it might work for marketing. outside of usa peopel don't even know the name palm. seriously, they don't know. the brand has recognition equivalent to nothing - even less than ericcson brand.

      and for the record, palm failed because it didn't understand markets where people bought, actually bought, phones. they didn't understand that their phones were too expensive. that's why they only sold on markets where they were tied to horribly expensive service plans and the cost of the phone hidden from the general public.

      people laugh at ngage, but the matter of the fact is that when ngage launched it was on par or above palms phone offerings and after the price drop you could buy 10 ngage phones for the price of 1 palm with phone capabilities. their webos phones we're in a similar boat, they never understood that they would have had to have something for the global market and that their brand recognition wasn't going to do it.

      nobody gives a fuck. but they're looking at nokia selling hotcakes and want some of that easy action too. I mean the method is simple af - just order phones from foxcon with a brand label, that's quite literally what nokia is doing superficially now.

      also what did nokia in was trying to focus on the stupid usa market. trying to conquer usa market at expense of the global market kills mobile phone companies. the list is long.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  5. 100% bottom of barrel crap by supernova87a · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why anyone who has even a little knowledge and self-respect would buy a phone launched by a carrier in this era is beyond me. I will excuse people who cannot afford better or don't know better.

    As public utilities, history (and experience) shows that carriers are nothing but businesses designed to get their cut of profit on a necessary service, with no sense of responsibility or care about the product, customer experience, or even technical interest in developing anything beyond the bare minimum necessary to carry the basic service without their network crashing (or customers complaining / shaming them above a certain level).

    They are not paid to invest in good products, and it shows. Ever heard of an AT&T or Verizon chief product designer? No you haven't, because there is none.

    And that's why you get phones that are unsupported 1 year after product launch, have the worst user interface ever conceived by humans, are ugly as fuck, and so insecure that you'd be grateful for Facebook to manage the privacy protections. Enjoy sending off emails with the signature "Sent from my 4G LTE Verizon Droid".

    1. Re:100% bottom of barrel crap by Going_Digital · · Score: 1

      It is a simple business model. Find the cheapest Chinese phone and put a once well known brand name on it. Sell to gullible consumers at a huge markup for as long as you can get away with before people realise it is a lemon.

    2. Re:100% bottom of barrel crap by supernova87a · · Score: 1

      The Wall Street Journal, in researching how easy it is to make their own phone, got one built for $70: https://www.marketplace.org/20...

      You can imagine how much care goes into the apps and ecosystem and security when you spend all of $70 on a phone.

  6. Palm Who? by zamboni1138 · · Score: 1

    "What the fuck is a Palm device?", asked anyone born after 1985.

    1. Re:Palm Who? by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 2

      "What the fuck is a Palm device?", asked anyone born after 1985.

      Please, people born after 1985 know what a fleshlight is.

  7. What day is it? by Kohath · · Score: 1

    Early April fools jokes are low.

  8. I welcome 1996 back! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I welcome 1996 back!

  9. Not really Palm by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    They can toss around the Palm trademark if they think it gets them a marketing advantage, but it isn't a Palm if:

    1. It doesn't have a Dragonball (68xxx type) processor.
    2. Won't run for a week or so on two AAA batteries.
    3. Doesn't sync to a Windows PC with an application on the Windows PC where you can zip up the folder and transport the zipfile to any other Windows PC, unzip there and restore to any Palm device by syncing it to the Palm device.
    4, Doesn't have three or four tight apps that do the important PDA functions. Outline, Calendar, Phone Register.

    Palm jumped the shark long, long before they ceased to produce what they marketed as 'Palm devices.'

    1. Re:Not really Palm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By your logic, my Treo 650 (which I still use) isn't a Palm, because it fails your requirements 1 and 2. I disagree. It is definitely a Palm.

    2. Re:Not really Palm by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      I bought one of those, too. Non-removable battery. Nuh-uh. And they are fragile compared to the originals. I still have my Palm 3, working. The newer ones are all dead, unless very actively maintained.

    3. Re: Not really Palm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Say what? The Treod had user replaceable,batteries. I know, I had the 600, 650, 700.

      Granted, they were LiOn and not drug store A As, but you're being disingenuous.

    4. Re: Not really Palm by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      Mine must have been a later version.

      The best PalmOS device I ever had was a Handspring Visor.

  10. lipstick phones and body orifice security scanner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He will need a phone capable of beating the B.O.S.S.

  11. F-Palm? by xpiotr · · Score: 1

    *Face-palm*?
    My guess is a generic Android phone with "Palm" slapped on the back.
    Maybe even a startscreen and wallpaper with the logo!

    1. Re:F-Palm? by Maury+Markowitz · · Score: 1

      *Face-palm*?

      Nice.

  12. Hacker friendly by DrYak · · Score: 1

    You can add hacker friendliness / large indy dev communities to the list.

    Even at the time of Parlm Pre and webOS, although it didn't feature week-long battery life (since back the move to beefier ARMs PalmOS devices)
    and since it was heavily reliant on cloud instead of simple sync (since webOS) and not tightly integrated PIM apps (again since webOS),
    it was still a very open device that you could hack as much as you could want.

    This thing will probably be the run-of-the-mill "No you're not allow to flash LineageOS on it" android smartphone crap.
    With only the "Palm" name slapped on it.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  13. will it be just another android phone? by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    with the Palm branding? those corporations are stupid why spend billions on a stupid brand name, Palm is dead, and its been dead so long there is no flesh left on the bone to revive

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  14. You are a mongoloid morÃn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You've virtue signaled yourself as some tech savant, but yet you still don't know you can easily edit out the default "sent from my XXX" from the email settings? Asswipe.

  15. What exactly is a palm smartphone? by HalAtWork · · Score: 1

    Is it some kind of smaller phone or a different form factor that easily fits in your palm?

  16. Crapware? Verizon says "Hold my beer" by Bright+Apollo · · Score: 1

    A Verizon-exclusive anything will be a personal data sucking machine that would've made the East Germans give a national slow-clap for its audacity.

    --#

  17. I am sick of nostolgia! by jellomizer · · Score: 1

    Guess what life was better when you were the ages of 15-25. That age you have enough freedom to do most things you want to do, while you have little responsibilities that hold you back. Because you do not have to pay living expenses either off of a college loan or still living with your parents. That minimum wage job was enough for you to save up and buy that coolest toy that you wanted to get. Being this gadget you bought with saving up money and working hard, meant a lot to you. And obviously it was the best.

    I have a spot in my heard of the Palm-3. But lets be real. No-Rechargeable battery, B&W Screen, the power of a gaming system already decades old then, crazy user input methods... While an interesting product of its time, not really worthy of renewal.

    This bringing back of Palm and Nokia phones, miniature Nintendos and Commodore 64... All to try to bring us back to the good old day, Where we were on top of the world and had that one device that made us the envy of our peers, even if it was only for about a week.

    But going back is not helping us today. Oh I got use to texting and typing on a touch screen, it is a non issue, I like having full web pages available at my finger tip. Why would I want to go back to a Nokia banana phone?
    If they are bringing back the Palm phone? What is going to make it worth it? Is is going to be one of those cheap Android phones with a Palm name and charged just for the name? Is it just going to be an other Apple iPhone ripoff like all the other smart phones out there?
    I would like to see something new, not a glass square, with different degrees of rounded edges. Sure the iPhone design was innovative 10 years ago, it put other phone makers 2 years back to the drawing board. But that was then.
    What are we getting new now?
    I don't expect to get the feel good like I did when I was 18, with a product. But I do want to see progress, not regression back to our childhood.
     

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:I am sick of nostolgia! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes it beeds to be different. But letsnot forget that TCL did make the keyone blackberry pho e that actually has a physical qwerty keyboard.. Something that is missing on todays so called smartphones... Touch typing is awfull and it always will be

  18. No Graffiti? by rickb928 · · Score: 1

    No Way. Single best feature of the Palm universe.

    Even swiping is imperfect. Gimme Graffiti strokes and I'm more productive. NTM keyboards are so 90s and BBish. But I'm not quite ready to buy a fresh 3310 and go to T9. That's what I would do to punish the FD...

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  19. my thoughts exactly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    my thoughts exactly... whats next.. the windows phone? (personnally i prefer the palm phone)

  20. Oh gebus by Maury+Markowitz · · Score: 1

    > Verizon is planning on launch a Palm-branded smartphone later this year

    Yeah, because \the world needs *another* OS *after* peak-smartphone.

    My kid slammed my iPhone 6 onto the hardwood, repeatedly, until it got the dreaded "Touch Disease". I still haven't bothered to replace it.

    So, good luck with that, Verizon.

  21. call it the HandJob(tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and then give 'em to their congressional and fcc buddies.

  22. Palm name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Palm split into PalmOne for hardware and PalmSource for software.

    This was so PalmOne could consider other OS's (like windows)
    and PalmSource could consider other hardware vendors.

    It did not work. Given the momentum as a hardware/software company, both halves wanted to do both, independently.
    Both companies were working on a new replacement OS written in Linux. And the companies were drifting apart.
    PalmSource was bought by Access, and renamed to ... Access USA. The rights to the name Palm was sold back to PalmOne for 40 million.

    PalmSource, then Access USA, was working on there OS, ALP, with Japanese, Korean, and Israeli companies.
    PalmOne, being then Palm again, was bought by HP, with the development of the new OS, WebOS, continuing with fresh money.

    But this was well after IOS and Android, had swallowed the entire market momentum. Nokia learned this too. The phone brand 'Nokia' is now owned by HMD global. Similar business to ACL, I guess.