“Speculation that Apple plans to buy handheld maker Palm has been revived by a call from two leading Palm investors for the company to be put up for sale, according to the local paper of both companies,” Clive Akass reports for Personal Computer World. “The fact that Apple has been named as a possible buyer may seem strange to those who recall that one of the most controversial acts of CEO Steve Jobs was to kill off the pen-driven Apple Newton, a pre-cursor of the Palm Pilot, when he returned to the company after a 10-year absence in 1996. Yet the two companies are closely linked. They are near neighbours and several early Palm employees, including co-founder and former company president Donna Dubinsky, previously worked with Apple.”
“Jobs tried to buy the company in the late nineties, according to the Mercury. Neither Apple nor Palm has given any sign that there is any basis for the renewed speculation but there are obvious fits between the two companies,” Akass writes. “Apple’s Ipod [sic] boom can hardly be sustained unless it can head off competition from PDAs and smartphones that can pack music players along with a host a other functions. Palm itself was slow off the mark in adding tricky telephony technology to its products and Apple would have a hard time starting from scratch in the market. Also, for all their vaunted style, the latest Apple notebooks look like antiques beside the latest pen-driven Tablet PCs. The company will have sooner or later be forced to offer a pen interface, and could benefit from Palm expertise in the area – especially as tablets are getting smaller, and may eventually supersede the PDA.”
Full article here.
Mr. Akass, meet Inkwell. To write that Apple’s portables look like antiques compared to Tablet PCs is ridiculous. Apple’s laptops should be compared to other laptops (most of which look like a bathroom scale when close, BTW), not to tablets. Apple’s portables are sleek, modern designs. Stop reading and recycling The Boston Herald’s Brett Arends’ scribblings, Mr. Akass. Apple doesn’t need Palm – Newton’s handwriting recognition is still better than the technology that Palm ships today. And Tablet PC sales aren’t exactly setting the world on fire, either.
“In 2001, Jobs explained: ‘You can’t imagine how many people think we’re crazy for not doing a Palm,’ said Jobs, ‘I won’t lie; we thought about it a lot. But I started asking myself, how useful are they, really? How many people at a given meeting show up with one? I don’t think early cultures had organisers, but I do know they had music.’ – Sydney Morning Herald, May 24, 2005
[Of course, we wouldn’t mind if an Apple-designed, Apple-branded mobile phone+PDA+iPod device became available, but Apple certainly doesn’t need Palm if they wanted to create such a product.]
Related articles:
Apple applies for more touch-sensitive display tablet patents – February 02, 2006
New Apple patents reveal portable tablet device, tablet video game application – January 27, 2006
Boston Herald writer: I earned a fatwa from ‘Appleheads’ over idea that Apple should buy Palm – December 23, 2005
Confused Boston Herald writer: Apple should buy Palm because iPods are not invincible – December 19, 2005
Apple Computer’s search for ‘Handwriting Recognition Engineer’ revives ‘Tablet Mac’ rumors – August 24, 2005
Emperor Gates’ new clothes: the failed mainstream Tablet PC – August 22, 2005
RUMOR: Apple Tablet exists running ‘reduced version’ of Mac OS X – May 24, 2005
Apple granted U.S. patent for Tablet Mac (with images) – May 10, 2005
Apple looking to add wireless connectivity to iPod, rumored Tablet Mac? – August 25, 2004
Apple hints at ‘handheld tablet computer’ with European design trademark filing – August 13, 2004
The Age ponders video Bluetooth iPod; tablet Mac possibilities – January 22, 2003
Apple readying secret iTablet for Macworld unveiling? – January 03, 2003
Tablet Mac watch begins – November 17, 2002
Thinking selfishly for a moment… the first thing I could see happening would be a Treo 750X … obviously running Mac OS X trimmed down. Tell me that a single 700W would ever sell again. Problem is, again, Apple can’t control the whole widget, as they would still rely on a carrier that they aren’t in complete control of. I think his point about how useful are they REALLY is totally valid… but Palm is really antiquated and they seem to have no desire to change that image.
If Apple could make something like the iMate wit a lot more functionality than I would buy one.
Can’t be too hard to do.
Come on Apple show the rest how to ‘do it right’
Leo
Ya know, sometimes people don’t want to have a device that does a billion different things. That’s where the usefulness of a device starts to wear off.
But why not.
Apple can pick up Palm really cheap and probably get some good patents and people.
Did I say really cheap?
Come on Apple. Buy something. It has been awhile since you gobbled up something and make it even better.
Palm has succeeded in making its platform OS-agnostic. Witness MS Mobile 5.0 and PalmOS running on what is basically the same hardware. The company that bought PalmSource (the PalmOS developer) is rumoured to be porting the OS to a Linux base. How difficult would it be for Apple to create a mobile version of OS X for the Treo?
Not that they would…
Apple stock is dropping like a rock!!!
WHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????
What is it – down about 20% in the last couple of weeks!
YIKES!!!!
There goes my ivy league school college plans.
It’s funny in 2006 to see someone talking about the Tablet PC as if it were high-tech or snazzy. The Tablet PC flopped more than a year ago, and is almost ancient history now.
Apple won’t buy Palm because Palm doesn’t have anything of value: no good software, no good hardware, and no important file formats or protocols.
Fsck buying Palm. Apple needs to buy Adobe. Stagger Photoshop, etc. releases so that Windows versions are always behind and lacking features – just like Microsoft does to Mac users with their crappy software. Or just cancel Windows development.
Intel-compatible “Adobe/Macromedia” apps would be out sooner and Microsoft would have the fear of Jobs put to them!
I get so sick of these stories. Palm should just shut down and give the money back to the investors.
Apple should buy DirecTV and once and for all do away with stupid “packages” and let people just pick what they want to watch and build their own packages, instead of 200 channels of crap in some language you don’t speak, as if that’s a perk.
Not sure this makes sense. The Newton almost bankrupted Apple so I don’t think SJ wants to go there again. Besides they will face very heavy competition from MS in that space. I also believe that phones will eventually replace PDAs.
I’d rather see Apple acquire a big biz software company or maybe a gaming software company.
AAPL is down to 69.14$ at the moment. What the hell is happening?
“Apple won’t buy Palm because Palm doesn’t have anything of value: no good software, no good hardware, and no important file formats or protocols.”
Palm has the Treo – the only device that successfully merges Blackberry/PDA/Phone functions. you obviously don’t have a need for that kind of a device, but I am very happy to not have to cart around my Blackberry (now a paperweight), a PDA and a separate phone.
And I also use it to store family pics, read RSS newsfeeds, read/edit office docs, listen to music, play Tetris, IM my relatives abroad… just too much to mention.
You see, my phone I always have with me. I can’t say the same for my notebook.
They should not buy Palm. The Apple name is bigger and Palm has gone downhill IMHO. They used to lead the market in producing solid products that were well planned. However they have lost that recently as other products have come on the market to do a better Job. My P900 is far more useful because the sync software works properly with the mac.
Apple created the PDA market and the Newton became by the time of it’s demise a pretty good PDA. Treo’s are not great phones and the phone/PDA combo is the only handheld market that makes any sense. Sure Apple would turn palm around, but why do they need to?
If Apple wanted to buy someone now, they should go for RIM/Blackberry – that is the handheld with the best set of tools to build on.
Apple should buy Adobe. yyyeeesss!
Palm are basically a worthless company in a dying market. Smartphones I can just about accept, but PDAs are dead and gone. I know – I used to be an avid Palm Pilot user in 1999, I still have one now, but I never use it. Why – because as Jobs says, they’re really not that useful.
Clearly Apple at some point will have to merge iPods and phones, but I fail to see what owning Palm will bring to the table here.
Palm is dropping native OSX support, and everyone will have to rely totaly on isync, which is fine, but does show the direction palm is interested in goin in. Palm has also decided to have a windows mobile unit instead of its own palm OS, it looks like its a company that doesnt really know what they are doing.
Apple stock is down due to Adobes lovely announcements.
Rex
I agree. Adobe would make a great acquisition for Apple. Adobe is in the creative space which is right in Apple’s sweet spot and they are in the same area. Adobe is a very succesful company and it would not come cheap however.
Firstly: Why would Apple buy Palm when it owns the superior Newton technology?
Secondly: PDAs were around long before the iPod, and didn’t stop it becoming a hit. What makes this guy think people will suddenly decide they want a PDA? That market is shrinking, being consumed by mobile phones on one side and video-capable iPods on the other.
Okay, screw my “buy Palm on the cheap idea”
Buy Adobe. Lock, stock and barrell.
(not sure what that phrase means)
Apple is both a software and hardware company. I know, they are only a hardware company, well, atleast they use to be.
But Apple’s high end market is graphics and I don’t want Adobe wanking Apple’s chain.
Apple, gooble up Adobe!!!
theoretically, adobe would be a better purchase than palm.
problem is, adobe’s market cap is currently $20b (by contrast palm’s is $2b), and the adobe pricetag would undoubtedly rise on any acquisition rumor, so the simple fact is aapl lacks the cash to do that deal. plus… aapl is showing itself able to compete with adobe’s key products.
so… much as I would like to see aapl buy adobe and cancel the wintel products (a la the Logic), it isn’t feasible.
Wow.
If Apple bought Adobe, they would control Flash, Photoshop and InDesign.
Sweet.
i cant really justify swoping my nano for a vid ipod at mo, but if apple released somekind of pda then the fun would begin
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Every tried to install Palm software and sync address book with your Mac? What a ridiculous joke for software!!
Apple would completely own the internet if they bought Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, Golive, Indesign, Director, FreeHand.
What does M$ have to compete against an arsenal like this??
But, even worse, what if M$ bought out Adobe?
“AAPL is down to 69.14$ at the moment. What the hell is happening?”
It’s called a buying opportunity…
NO!
Because it’s dead technology… in 5 years time no-one will be using pdas
Instead Apple should develop their own handheld OS based on OS X which they could licence to mobile phone companies.
Apple also has their Inkwell technology, which should be able to be ported to a PDA device.
“Should Apple buy Palm?”
-No.
“Apple’s Ipod [sic] boom can hardly be sustained unless it can head off competition from PDAs and smartphones that can pack music players along with a host a other functions…”
-The iPod has zero competition from palm devices or smartphones, mainly because it doesn’t try to do everything poorly, just one thing well.
I have used a Treo 600 for two years now and it works well with Entourage. I’m about to switch to Mail – anyone have positive experience?
..”the latest Apple notebooks look like antiques beside the latest pen-driven Tablet PCs” which is why Macs are flying out the shops and Tablets are going no-where – (like most things Windows).
Everybody who’s panicky about Apple stock should dump out now! That’s it! Be terrified of the stock fluctuation and sell sell sell!
(that way, I can pick up more of it in the dip…)
The statement “product X has features that I want” is not equal to the statement “product X is a good piece of hardware that runs good software”.
Features are easy. Almost no feature is actually difficult to implement. Making good software is hard.
Forget Palm.
Buy Adobe if possible.
Not sure it would be allowed. Pretty sure Microsoft shouldn’t be allowed to buy Adobe but Apple might get away with it… guarantee support for Windows for 5 years:-)
Thats about how long Windows would have!
Stockboy and AAPL,
I’ve only got 200 shares and am really frustrated that they’re still falling; not because I think I’ll lose money (I’m convinced they’ll be at least twice the value by the end of the year)- but because I’ve got no spare cash to buy a few more.
I’m seriously thinking about taking out a loan.
As much as I’d like to see it Adobe price tag is way too high (and rightfully so).
Buuuut if it did Apple would not nix the Windows versions of Adobe’s products because that is a huge chunk of Adobe’s revenue (if not nost). Apple didn’t kill FileMaker for Windows when it acquired it so there is no reason to think that Apple would stop supporting Windows versions of any future software aquisitions.
I don’t think Apple should buy Palm either, but it’d be interesting if they did. Then they would have ended up owning both NeXTSTEP and BeOS.
I’d LOVE to see Apple buy Adobe, but I doubt it’ll ever happen. My fantasy list would be Adobe, Tivo, and Aspyr. That would be awesome.
“Stockboy and AAPL,
I’ve only got 200 shares and am really frustrated that they’re still falling; not because I think I’ll lose money (I’m convinced they’ll be at least twice the value by the end of the year)- but because I’ve got no spare cash to buy a few more.
I’m seriously thinking about taking out a loan.”
AAPL is dropping for a few reasons:
1. Adobe’s announcement
2. Apple’s announcement of lower quarterly revenue
3. Related to 2. Slow sales duue to Intel transition
4. Triggered sales at mutual funds etc. This will continue to drive the price down probably for most of this quarter.
I would wait to buy until the stock started to climb. You would still get a good deal compared to the drop.
I guess we won’t be seeing a stock split anytime soon.
Palm’s software sucks, is all I can say. I do consulting work on the side. I had to switch one of my customers to his PC because the palm software on the Mac would always get corrupted and not sync causing the well known lock error. Or it wouldn’t sync and cause his contacts to start duplicating. It’s always the com.palm.hs files. I don’t know why Palm can’t resolve this issue. This would happen at least every two weeks, not acceptable.
So I see know reason why Apple would want to waste there money on Palm.
“Apple didn’t kill FileMaker for Windows when it acquired it.”
Um, your history circuit is in need of maintenance. Apple never acquired FileMaker. Claris did, from Nashoba. Claris was a spin-off company from Apple but your point is still invalid.
Arrrrrrrrrrrrggghhhh!
Down $3.27 as I write this!
Panic.
(Is Steve like maybe thinking of selling Apple to Disney????)
Adobe is a real shot in the shorts…but then Steve told everyone the new Mactels were coming in June 2006 so if Adobe is bringing out the new Photoshop (and every other pro graphic program I need!) in 2007, that would have been only a 6 month wait.
Why (grumble) did Steve bring out the Mactels with not one Pro piece of software ready for them???
whoa is my stock portfolio…
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The only value of Palm is it’s portfolio of patents. This gives two options-
Buy Palm’s patents and license them back to Palm for a minimal price, allowing them to get some $ to go on.
Buy the company for nothing (or next to) and shut the thing down.
“Palm are basically a worthless company in a dying market.”
Typical fanboi mentality. Just because Palm decided not to dedicate any more of its scarce resources to maintaining compatibility with the Mac it becomes the enemy. It was a pure business decision, yet you fanbois take it all so personally.
The Treo is Palm’s future and it’s going gangbusters. You fanbois may not want that to happen, but it is happening. Deal with it.
effwerd.
My history circuit is doing fine. Thank you. Yes I’m aware that the original name of the company was Claris but it was going to make my message longer and it was irrelevant to my point. The point was that Apple did not kill the Windows version of FileMaker upon acquisition which is a fact.
Down $3.53!
Is there a crash on wall street or something going on???
Or that not so good news about all the iPod problems in the NY Times yesterday?
No and Why?
Palms work great with OS X.
BUT you need to drop an extra $40 for The Missing Sync, which actually gives you MORE functionality than what the stock Palm HotSync software used to give you.
Anyway I just replaced my old Sony Clié with a Palm TX. It’s a great little machine! Big, bright screen. Lots of non-volatile RAM; Dead battery? NO more lost info! It’s got Infrared, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, too! So, it can link to my PowerBook or home network in several ways. I even check my email from Wi-Fi hotspots.
I can use it to transfer files in memory via USB. Or use the SD card slot. You can even play mp3s or use it as a remote control.
I use it all the time. Keep running lists of things to do with BrainForest and sync it with the desktop version. Read AvantGo on the subway. Keep up with events and find my way around with Vindigo. Plus the calendars, alarms, the works.
The Treos are okay, but I’d prefer if they had the bigger screen and be able to use Grafitti or a software keypad. The Treo’s keypads are nasty little abominations.
Yeah, PDAs ARE fading, but stick the Treo’s phone guts into the TX and you’ve got a near perfect mobile device!
Ya know, sometimes people don’t want to have a device that does a billion different things. That’s where the usefulness of a device starts to wear off.
I use to think that way about a camera being part of the cell phone. But now I think it’s a must other wise your going to find yourself out of business. The palm miss the boat when by not being able to down load music.
I hate to say this, but the editors here should not make absurd statements. Those should be left to posters.
The truth is that for those of us who had Newtons, and knew others who did, the handwriting software was considered to be, at best, problematic, and at worst, almost useless.
When OS 2 came out, it got better.
But when I bought my Palm IIIC at the first MacWorld, here in NYC, I could see that Graffitti was FAR superior.
There wasn’t even a race! It wasn’t close. Graffitti 2 is even better!
Let’s not spout nonsence. THe problems with the handwriting was what caused the Newton to fail in the marketplace. If the software was as good as Graffitti, Newtons would still be sold, Apple’s marketshare would probably be in the teens, somewhere, and Scully would likely still be running the company.
I have hair in my Palm.
MW = myself.
“Should Apple buy Palm?”
NO!!!!
Palm is dead. Why buy a corpse?
I just bought my first Palm because my company is using it to make a paperless office. I can currently take a product app completely on my Palm T/X and auto sync it with the home office. Within the next year or two I’ll do the same with other products. I’m exited to say the least. I should also add that with all the time, money and training being invested in this program, I wouldn’t be surprised if my very large and rapidly growing company propped up Palm if the need arose. A few years ago the plan was to use Pocket PCs. The switch to Palm was surprising to some. It has me wondering just what the mutual incentives are. Whatever the case, I don’t see Palm going anywhere soon.
BTW, as someone who’s just put down his Newton to switch to Palm… NewtOS 2’s handwriting recognition is better. Even today.
They could buy Palm, rip the guts out of the thing and turn it into an iPod. The complete face of the iPod would then be touch sensitive but keeping the scroll wheel (in a touch sensitive version). Then you could watch movies on it sideways and have a decent sized screen.
Re my previous post about PalmSource porting the PalmOS to Linux – looks like someone’s beaten them to it:
http://gehennom.net/~tool/tiki-index.php?page=TreoLinuxPics
I just bought a Palm Tungsten E2 to replace my handspring visor. I’ve been holding out for either Apple or Sony Ericsson to put out something I can write on like a tablet, i.e. smartphone or the like, although the P910a and forth coming P990 from SE may fill the bill, but the price without a Service Provider is a bit steep for my taste. Maybe they will produce something that fits my criteria down the road, but right now what’s available from Palm is good enought for now-I just can’t seem to get it to sync using bluetooth:-(. I believe Apple doesn’t necessarily need to buy Palm since they’re more than capable of developing their own device and one that will sync with the Mac perfectly and instantly. Time will tell…
Every Windows sufferer that sees my Powerbook drools with envy. Antique indeed. :rolls eyes: