As handheld pioneers Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins are on their way back to Palm, Jørgen Sundgot lends thought to the past, present and future of the Palmoconomy.
This week, Palm and Handspring caught just about everyone off guard when the two companies came forward and announced that Handspring would be acquired by Palm later this fall. For Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky, who founded both Palm and Handspring, the acquisition will represent the coming of a full circle - and begs the question of why, and not least what kind of an impact it will have on the market in the time ahead.
The prelude to the upcoming acquisition commenced in 1998, when Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins left their positions with the handheld market leader they had founded in 1992 in exchange for a fresh start. Rumouredly, the influence of the pair had gradually been reduced as a result of a series of acquisitions the company underwent from 1995 through 1998, and could no longer excert the kind of control over the company's direction they felt they needed.
But what exactly is it that has changed, since Dubinsky and Hawkins - as two of Handspring's largest shareholders - have just now agreed to move back to the fold through an acquisition of their new company by Palm? Since the departure of Dubinsky and Hawkins in 1998, Palm has undergone major reorganizations and now stands in stark contrast to the company which Hawkins and Dubinsky departed from in 1998. Combined with Palm's position as a handheld market leader, Handspring's sales numbers having been all but impressive and Palm's lackluster performance in the wireless arena, there is a good chance that the total picture now presents itself in a quite different manner to the duo frequently attributed with pioneering the handheld market.
And one thing is for sure: noone can deny the expertise posessed by Hawkins and Dubinsky when it comes to making handhelds. For years, innovative and rock solid mobile devices have sprung from the minds of the two, and perhaps the increased amount of funds available at Palm was just too tempting an offer to turn down.
For the handheld market, I sincerely hopes this means Palm will continue on the course which the company recently embarked upon with a complete revamping of its offerings. Being left with either combination of just two contenders out of the three major platforms in the market today - Palm OS, Windows CE and Symbian OS - could potentially stifle innovation, and would certainly give customers less choices.
Right now, Palm and Palm OS are both playing a game of catch-up with competing platforms. Wouldn't it be fun if they actually did?
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