Palm's iPhone blunder

By David Carnoy on 21 March 2007

commentary Palm was once a leader in the handheld and mobile phone markets. Now it's just another player — and allegedly up for sale. What went wrong?

In the world of TV shows, they have a term for that moment when a popular TV series goes over the top and begins its inexorable decline. It's called "jumping the shark," a phrase that originated with that ridiculous Happy Days episode in which the Fonz literally jumped over a shark on water skis — wearing his leather jacket all the while, of course. I'm not sure what they call it in the world of technology when a company hits a tipping point, but I remember the moment when I thought Palm had jumped the shark.

It was a couple of years ago, and the good folks from Palm had come out to give us an early preview of a new handheld the company was going to be releasing, the LifeDrive. What was weird about the moment was that the LifeDrive was actually a pretty sexy device on the surface. It was sleek looking, and it had a nice, sharp screen, as well a built-in hard-drive and Wi-Fi capabilities. The LifeDrive was Palm's response to the iPod; the only problem was it cost AU$900, it didn't have a mobile phone in it, and it was a year too late.

"This is nice," I said to the Palm reps, "but who's going to buy it?"

LifeDrive and iPhone
The LifeDrive could've been a pre-iPhone iPhone

The LifeDrive, of course, was Palm's last-gasp effort to breathe a little life into the dying handheld market it had pioneered. At this point, the Treo was in full swing and still enjoying rock-star status, so the idea was to get the non-mobile phone side fired up with something more than low-cost, small-margin units. But it didn't take a genius to figure out that Palm needed to pour all its resources into making better, more innovative Treos.

To be fair, Palm deserves credit for the Treo. It's still a popular device, and Palm has made some significant improvements as it's progressed from the 600, to the 650, to the 700; and now to the 680 and the 750. Yet the overall design of the Treo hasn't changed all that dramatically in the last three years, while a growing horde of slimmer and sleeker smart phones, such as the Samsung BlackJack, the Motorola Q, the HTC S710 Vox, the LG Prada, the Nokia E62, and the BlackBerry 8800, have already pulled both mindshare and market share away from the Treo. And now there's the iPhone, which is proving to be the mother of all mindshare suckers, months before it even hits the market.

Now before you go thinking that I pray at the temple of Apple, you should know that I don't think the iPhone is guaranteed to be a runaway success. It's expected to be really expensive, and chances are the touch-screen interface — especially the virtual keyboard — won't appeal to everyone. Battery life may be an issue. And the original version of the iPhone will not be a true 3G phone. In short, for Apple to get everything right out of the gate would be remarkable. And for those who think Apple is infallible, take a look at the darkened — once white — palm rests on the Macbook that I told my mother to buy. You'd think that someone in the quality control department would make sure the plastics Apple used weren't prone to discolouration and absorbing the skin's natural oils. Sadly, that wasn't the case. (Apple has since corrected this problem and she's having the plastic replaced this week — but it's still surprising.)

I digress, however. Palm has jumped the shark. Some might argue that it actually jumped the shark earlier than I've indicated — that it stuck with the Palm V (and black-and-white organisers in general) for too long, that it had no real follow-up to version 5 of the Palm operating system (Garnet), that it lost control of the Palm OS to Access, and that over the years it has lost millions on branding/naming fiascos (Palm Pilot, Palm Source, PalmOne, and finally just Palm). And let's not forget that the Treo itself was developed not by Palm but by Handspring — a rival company started by Palm's disenfranchised founders that Palm ended up acquiring. And Palm's recent adoption of the Windows Mobile OS in some of its flagship products (the 700w and 750) is more or less an admission that its own operating system has serious shortfalls. But let's not dwell on the past. Once you've jumped the shark, what's one to do?

First step, hire a consultant — er, well, a new designer in Palm's case. As rumours continue to swirl that Palm may be on the block, word went out that Palm had inked a deal with Paul Mercer, a top software designer and former Apple engineer. According to the New York Times, Mercer and a couple of employees from his design firm, Iventor, had joined Palm, but that Palm hadn't bought the company outright — in other words, Mercer is most likely a mercenary. He's known as an interface guru, and it seems that Palm — along with other mobile phone manufacturers in the industry — have seen enough of the iPhone in action to realise that Apple can do the most damage by bringing simplicity and elegance to a complicated, feature-rich device. And contrary to what some industry analysts are saying, that also involves hardware and not just software design. Where you put the buttons and how the keyboard is laid out — and whether the phone is a candy-bar or slider — does make a difference.

The one big issue for Palm is that, by the time it brings out its new, revolutionary device, Apple will already be on to its next-generation iPhone, which, as evidenced by the progression of the iPod, will be significantly better. The Motorolas and the HTCs, with their Windows Mobile-powered devices, will also have made their refinements. Once you're behind the curve, it's hard to get out front again — especially when it comes to mobile phones, where the service providers call a lot of the shots and can muck things up. (I can't see Steve Jobs allowing a service provider to dictate to him, but it is a complicated dance for most mobile phone makers).

I hope I'm wrong. I like Palm. I liked the LifeDrive. It just should have been the PalmPhone. But unless the company can get back to innovating — and quickly — it's quite possible that the once mighty Treo might end up as yet another model in the Motorola or Nokia product line.

What was Palm's biggest mistake? TalkBack to me below.

Topics: apple, iphone, mobile phone, commentary, palm, lifedrive, shark, treo

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Comments (11)

  • khrome commented on 07/10/2008 17:51 Report abuse

    I know my comment comes a year late, but I have to say that the Handspring Visor is still superior to all of these, IMO. With it's interchangable modules, it could be a phone, a camera, a gps - I even had a synthesizer module that I could compose music right there on my PDA!! It was awsome. I was surprised that Palm decided to continue the Treo line and not the Visor when they took Handspring over. I had a Handspring Treo and it was not as good as the Visor, with it's smaller keyboard and screen.

    Since companies stopped making modules for the Visor I upgraded to the LifeDrive, after having tried a couple of Pocket PC PDA's. The one thing that Palm OS has over the competition is that there are tons of apps out there that run on it, a lot of them freeware or shareware. I work in IT and sometimes I have to VPN into my network and Remote Desktop into a server. I can do all that from my LifeDrive. I can run an SSH terminal from it. It can open any office document, multimedia files, and keeps me on track all day. I'd like to see the iPhone do that!

    I know it's not going to last forever, so I'm keeping an eye out for alternatives. Micro PCs might do it, but I doubt they will ever tack a phone onto a Micro PC.

    For you LifeDrive enthusiasts, you might want to replace the drive with a compact flash card. You can still only have 4GB, but access times will be faster, it's less drain on your battery, and it makes the LifeDrive lighter too. Feel free to check out my blog on how to do it:
    http://khromeatplay.blogspot.com/2008/08/lifeflash-mod.html

  • Please make a LifeDrive II commented on 14/12/2007 00:59 Report abuse

    I had a lifedrive but sadly the internal design was faulty - everytime I wanted to change applications I was punished with four seconds of white screen while the internal harddrive did its thing. I just couldn't stand theh delay after using a PalmVx for years and then a Palm Tungsten. I convinced the salesman at the retail store that its was faulty and I had lost faith in the product and I exchanged the LifeDrive for a PalmT5 with a 2GB memory card. That was three years ago and I still use my T5. I will get another LifeDrive when Palm solved the delay.

  • Please make a LifeDrive II commented on 14/12/2007 00:56 Report abuse

    I had a lifedrive but sadly the internal design was faulty - everytime I wanted to change applications I was punished with four seconds of white screen while the internal harddrive did its thing. I just couldn't stand theh delay after using a PalmVx for years and then a Palm Tungsten. I convinced the salesman at the retail store that its was faulty and I had lost faith in the product and I exchanged the LifeDrive for a PalmT5 with a 2GB memory card. That was three years ago and I still use my T5. I will get another LifeDrive when Palm solved the delay.

  • Somedude commented on 15/11/2007 15:21 Report abuse

    The LifeDrive was already old when iphone came out.

  • ntn001 commented on 13/11/2007 16:45 Report abuse

    Am still using my Tungsten T (m550) with graffiti and a nokia n70. Quite cumbersome and now well and truly prehistoric.

    I too have been waiting for the ideal smart phone with all the bells and whistles that i get right now in the two devices.

    My problem is I don't need it enough to get a Blackberry (or similar) but when I do need to leave the office, I need more than just the candy bar and the laptop is overkill.

    Hopefully the new HTC Touch Dual will provide a solution in the short term. CAN cnet please please please review the Dual for Australian conditions - it'll be released here in a week or so.

  • r.brodeur commented on 14/04/2007 22:55 Report abuse

    Just to clarify one thing that you mentioned in your article, you said that Macbooks were prone to "absorbing the skin's natural oils." That has been proven not to be the cause of the discoloration on the palm rest as many people have used the protective plastic covers from the day they got their Macbook and the palm rest still discolored. It's a heat related problem with the plastic.

  • pnetterfield commented on 04/04/2007 10:26 Report abuse

    Hey Jigs-n-fixtures. I agree on graffiti so I now use the application callled MobileWrite on my T5. It gives you graffiti again plus other great features

  • Jigs-n-fixtures commented on 04/04/2007 03:24 Report abuse

    I just ended up with a Treo 700p, because it was what the insurer provided as a replacement for my venerable old kyocera 7135.

    I am very disappointed. Where did graffiti go. I know some people didn't like it. But for me, it was quick and simple, after a little practice, and will always be preferable to tring to enter characters quickly over any tiny querty keyboard. Plus, one of the things I remember from machine design class in school is that the probablility of failure of any device is a cubic function of the number of moving pieces, so why did they add 35 more movign pieces. One of the good things about palm was graffiti. If I had known beforehand that the Treo 700p had abandoned it, I would have opted for the 700w.

    Graffiti was a damned good thing, and what set palms apart. The tipping point for palm came when they abandoned it. Now they are just another pda/phone.

  • spinkle commented on 30/03/2007 06:12 Report abuse

    noting for now

  • Gorby commented on 22/03/2007 10:55 Report abuse

    I've used Palms for the last few years (ending up with a T5) and loving them. The PalmOS is simple and easy to use. I used to carry the Palm and a Nokia mobile phone.
    I wanted something that did both. I ended up getting an i-Mate JASJAM (a Telstra rebranded HTC phone). This phone has the Windows mobile 5 operating system. There is a steep learning curve. Even now - 6 months later- I pine for the Palm days. I had looked at the TREO 650, but didn't like it.
    I do feel that my current phone is not fun, or easy to use.

    Come on Palm! Let's see what you can do!!!

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