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Palm’s progress: The rise, fall—and rebirth—of a legendary brand

Long before its revival in 2018, the pioneer of PDAs and smartphones flourished—then foundered.

Palm’s progress: The rise, fall—and rebirth—of a legendary brand

Jeff Hawkins, the genius behind Palm—and Handspring, which later became part of Palm—proudly brandishes the Handspring Visor Prism in 2000. [Photo: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images]

BY Harry McCracken6 minute read

It was a pioneer in two of the most significant technology categories of our time: PDAs and smartphones. It was sold to a company that then sold itself. It went public, was split in two, reunified, and sold itself off again. Along the way, it lost its original team, then got them back. Then they left again.

Oh, and it died. Until this year, when it came back.

Even by the fast-moving standards of Silicon Valley, the history of Palm is a little dizzying. In our new cover story, I write about its latest chapter: The brand has returned, on a new kind of portable gadget designed to help keep you in touch without distracting you too much from the real world. Here’s a look at some of the milestones in Palm’s story thus far–and until recently, who would have guessed that there was more to come?

1992

Jeff Hawkins launches Palm Computing, which helps create the Casio Zoomer, a rival (sold at RadioShack stores) to Apple’s Newton “Personal Digital Assistant.” Palm also devises Graffiti, a simplified handwriting-input system, which it sells as add-on software for the Newton. Acknowledging that he’s an idea guy rather than a manager, Hawkins hires Donna Dubinsky, a former executive at Apple software arm Claris, as Palm’s CEO. Ed Colligan, previously of display maker Radius, joins as VP of marketing, and eventually becomes CEO himself.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Harry McCracken is the global technology editor for Fast Company, based in San Francisco. In past lives, he was editor at large for Time magazine, founder and editor of Technologizer, and editor of PC World More


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