How the Destinies of Motorola and Palm Grew Apart

For much of this decade, the fates of Palm and Motorola were intertwined. Both were early innovators in the mobile phone industry, but neither had had a hit in years.Motorola, which had invented cellphones and found great success with the Razr, and Palm, which pioneered the hand-held computer category, watched more nimble competitors lure away consumers with flashier, sleeker and more functional smartphones.To read this report in The New York Times in full, see:
www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/technology/30moto.htmlAlso see:Will Other Bidders Emerge for Palm?
As my colleague Ashlee Vance and I reported on Wednesday, Palm may not have been able to stay afloat in the smartphone industry as a standalone company. But the company has a strong trump card to keep it from going under entirely.As one of the early pioneers in the smartphone industry, Palm has a treasure trove of patents, industry experts and analysts say.
bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/will-other-bidders-emerge-for-palm-2/HP’s Palm purchase: the analysis
Was it a good idea for Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest computer company, to buy Palm – which now specialises in mobile phones – for $1.2bn?The initial response from analysts has been as mixed as you’d expect – see the comments from Forrester, Gartner, IDC, Informa, and Ovum below – but almost everything depends on what HP intends to do with its new company.
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/29/hp-buys-palm-analysisDid HP buy Palm just for the patents?
OPINION: It has been a long time since handheld-computer pioneer Palm set the consumer or stock markets alight, yet Hewlett-Packard was prepared this week to pay $1.2 billion for it. In cash.Why? What did it think was so valuable? A phone business that will have to compete with seasoned rivals like Nokia and the whizz-bang marketing phenomenon that is the iPhone? A company with handheld-computer ambitions just as that iPad-dizzy sector becomes more uncertain than ever?
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