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Columnist: Apple should buy Palm

updated 10:40 am EST, Mon December 19, 2005

Should Apple buy Palm?

While many analysts expect , maker of the popular Palm-based handhelds and Treo mobile phones. The move would ensure the company's continuing success, help invigorate the currently second class iPod technology platform, and open many growth avenues, according to one Boston Herald finance columnist: "I know Apple doesn�t do takeovers, but buying Palm would be a terrific deal. It would instantly give it a huge presence in organizers and multi-function devices, with its own huge network of third-party software.... The cultures would fit well: Palm is an entrepreneurial, creative, design-led company that hates Microsoft. Palm organizers already work with Macs. And it�s cheap. Palm�s net value today is just $1.1 billion."

by MacNN Staff

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fsauer1
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2002

0

12/19, 11:03am | report spam | close Reply |
Ridiculous

Apple is clearly going after the huge, wide-open digital enterntainment market to come, not the dying handheld organizers market being absorbed by [much larger] cell phone companies. And while Palm was very orginal when it first came out, its OS is badly in need of an extreme makeover. There is nothing there for Apple's benefit, just perhaps a Boston Financia Columnist who missed the Apple stock run-up of the past year.

Alex Duffield
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Oct 2000

0

12/19, 11:20am | report spam | close Reply |
Palm is dead...

Come on!! Even Palm has given up on Palm OS!!

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,105085,00.html

"IF" Apple ever gets into that world, it will use its own system, but I wont be holding my breath.

Feathers
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: Oct 1999

0

12/19, 11:20am | report spam | close Reply |
ridiculous 2 - the sequel

This columnist must have been living under a rock for the past few years, especially since Sony who arguably manufactured the best Palm based handhelds abandoned the market about a year ago? Frankly, I think this writer has been doing something with his palm that's nothing to do with electronics at all!!!!! ;)

stainless
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2005

0

12/19, 11:24am | report spam | close Reply |
Pass the "crack" around

PALM just made a Windows CE version of it Treo (the Treo 700w) and as fsauer1 pointed out the OS is in serious need on overall, for that matter trashed and started over with new! I own a Treo 650 and I can't really use the keyboard as my fingers are to big, I got more use from my Sony/Ericcson T610 with T9 predictive text as I could text a message with one hand.

Now with that, one of the reason Apple chose Intel over AMD was because of the ARM processor that nobody talks about. It is a x86 for embedded use such as Mobiles and is what is used in your HP, iMate, etc phones! Imagine, compiling an application for Mac Intel, Windows, and iPhone as an option for save as application!

mitchcohen
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2005

0

12/19, 11:30am | report spam | close Reply |
OS X on PDAs

I agree with other comments - silly idea.

I'd love to see an OS X-based PDA/phone. Obviously a little trimmed down, but not far-fetched. Apple could buy Palm to get the name, but Apple already has a great name. It might buy some legitimacy in corporate markets who still don't like the Apple name. But on the whole if Apple wants to make a PDA/Phone they can do fine on their own.

itguy05
Forum Regular

Joined: Apr 2005

0

12/19, 11:38am | report spam | close Reply |
ARM x86 Mobile

ARM is not mobile x86. It's a whole different CPU beast than x86.

Lots of companies make ARM CPU's - they are RISC CPU's.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Ltd

Intel does have Xscale, but that's still not x86 compatible.

itguy05
Forum Regular

Joined: Apr 2005

0

12/19, 11:39am | report spam | close Reply |
Would love to see this

Would love to see it and Apple immediately cancel the Treo 700w!!!!

jhorvatic
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2005

0

12/19, 11:39am | report spam | close Reply |
Dumb idea's

The dumbest idea ever as far as buying Palm. Not to mention he doesn't have a clue about the iPod product line.

qnc
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: May 2000

0

12/19, 11:54am | report spam | close Reply |
Slap in the face!!

wasn't palm a cheap, scale down version of the newton that was developed by the newtons developer after she part from her bosses Mac?

That would be a slap in the face buy for a billion what you had an employee do in house years ago.

Ouch that would hurt!!

However a modern iphone newton cross is highly appealing

rkadowns
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

12/19, 11:56am | report spam | close Reply |
Not so silly

Cell phone, handheld. They are converging into a common device. The only thing dying is the 'handheld' moniker.

Apple could benefit from bringing in Palm however for 1.1 billion I don't think the Treo would be worth it even if 'Palm on Linux' or Cobalt was already to market.

rok
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 1999

0

12/19, 12:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
who benefits?

the point the columnist fails to understand, though, is that the only company this deal would help is palm. palm needs a makeover... palm is cheap for the property... palm is losing ground against other organizers and cell phones. seriously, what will apple get out of this deal? the palm os is now officially the longest running joke in the past 5 years. their "design" is still stuck in 1999... glom on AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE into one product and hope somebody likes something enough to buy it. let's splinter the hardware line seventy-eight different ways while we're at it. that's SURE to bring in sales. what do you mean "we'll have inventory bloat of unpopular models taht won't recoup their r&d budgets?"

look, i want palm to succeed, just because palm is one of those old-school companies that was really innovative back in the day, and took some good ideas at the time (newton), and brought them screaming into the daylight quickly with improved features. problem is, they didn't see that there is a limit to how much information someone needs to store and have access to. you can probably hold every contact you have ever known IN YOUR LIFE in 16-32 MB of ram. so what happens after you've run out of that market? well, like i said, you start adding features and HOPE someone likes one (camera, telephone, etc.)

good luck to them, but apple ain't the company to do it. maybe apple MIGHT buy up the intellectual properties after they go under...

blue_november
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2002

0

12/19, 12:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
2nd class what??

this guy is truly a moron- for that comment anyways. Plam is the stupidest company in history, and i would love to see it happen, but apple cant lose focus, not now- we got em on the run baby!! whoo-hoo mac! 2 friends of mine are gonna be switchers after macworld. my brother is next up. back to reality- the pda market is quite dead. treo is the only thing keeping it alive- the livin groom is whats hot in the next year, and smashin gmovie file compression rates so that i can become well adpaoted and expand that sidde of the business. get with divx to have them cross liscence or something...well, maybe not- lol. but if apple will make it, people will come.

i don thave any space left in my pockets for an ipod, psp, and anothe rdam handheld. die palm die!!!!!!!@!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TailsToo
Mac Elite

Joined: Jun 2004

0

12/19, 12:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
HMm..

The author must own some Palm stock, and is trying to raise the price before he bails.

kw99
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2001

0

12/19, 12:54pm | report spam | close Reply |
Dumb

Apple can do alone (better) what it would gain by buying Palm for a billion dollars.

The author makes the long abused and still irrelevant comparison of the current iPod situation to the Mac situation of the 80's. And I don't understand how this point, even if relevant, supports Apple buying Palm.

And he calls iPod technology "2nd class" because other players have a built-in radio. The fact that iPods have no radio is a choice, not a limitation of Apple's technology. And I believe that there is no Apple PDA or Apple phone yet because THAT is a marketing decision. Apple has been very smart in the most recent decade about not releasing a product until the market is ready.

ronjamin
Baninated

Joined: May 2002

0

12/19, 01:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
Why It Aint So.....

Apple already has a PDA: its called the iPod. Stores calenders, phone numbers, photos, etc. But it cannot really do "input" as does the Palm. Not that anyone would want to bastardize such a work of art as the iPod with stuff that really isn't necessary anyway.

The secret is that OSX will be running on many of those really super-small WindowsCE type devices, although it will be an Apple-branded handheld.

I used to love my Palm Pilot, but lets face it, the platform is dying, in part by the onslaught of Windows CE, but also because the system/handheld has become sub-par. I bought a Kyocera and a Palm Treo. They constantly need restarts. They freeze. My latest, and most likely last, is my Tungsten T5. Lovely hardware, but the software is junk, crashes all the time, and frankly, if I'm mainly using the thing as a mobile calender and contact management system, Ide rather use my Motorla Phone and my iPod.

Palm acquired by Apple: No. Apple using microPC forms for OSX? Yes. Watch and see.

ADeweyan
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2004

0

12/19, 01:42pm | report spam | close Reply |
I think we can all agree.

Apple could make an awesome handheld (shoot, it already does).

But Steve called it several years ago, and events have confirmed his prediction. In the long run, handhelds are attractive only to a small slice of the public.

Adding more PDA features to the iPod would destroy its simplicity, which is the core of its success.

hughlang
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2005

0

12/19, 02:11pm | report spam | close Reply |
ludicrous

To columnist: Just under the wire to be added to the dumbest ideas of 2005.

Bring back Jeff Hawkins as Palm CEO and maybe the company could turn around. Otherwise, it still bears the stench of 3Com, which fumbled the network switch market, home networking market, and the PDA market.

libraryguy
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Jul 2002

0

12/19, 03:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
BeOS

Didn't Palm buy out the BeOS? I suppose Apple might be able to use that for something but then again they didn't buy it out before so I doubt they would want it now. Personally, I wish Apple had bought Alias and taken over Maya but for some reason they didn't.

technocoy
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Oct 2002

0

12/19, 04:17pm | report spam | close Reply |
1 billion

if apple is going to spend a billion dollars on something they better be buying out creative and putting to rest all this patent BS. h*** yeah!

Armas
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jan 2002

0

12/19, 04:29pm | report spam | close Reply |
Brilliant idea?

That was a pathetic article. Some kid, with what, a script which re-runs various Apple doomed lines? My favorite, is "as usual Microsoft gets it"! OMG!!! Their MP3 players are...not selling. WM stores? All losing millions... Yeah, they "get" the consumer market...haha!!! How come billions on WMP, WinCE, MS Music Store, with years head start - have all been unnoticed? Icing on cake, iPod Video becomes ONLY Media PC successful ever - QT on lots of PC's now...

OK, with iPod, Apple didn't even USE Newton source code, patents, ( Yeah all Newton guys left to form Palm - a less complicated PDA - for under $699 - that did a few things well..... < what happened?> I have a Teo650 - but Palm doesn't even own the OS now...or did they buy it back again...??? Palm Source owns OS - So what does "Palm" have? A single design for hardware - no software - in a shrinking business - losing $$$ - and the worst, Managed like h***! Yeah, Apple is done with r***** Managers! Like Skully giving Gates a License to copy Mac OS - but didn't know, and didn't ask Legal to look it over.... Newton, Various billion dollar OS plans never to ship....like MS!! See, bad management kills!

So, since Apple paid for Pixo OS ( a cell phone OS ) slapped NeXT File viewer in Aqua on top - Why would they use a creaky Palm OS? Mac OS 9 was creaky... BSD, Mach, Next replaced it... Also designed, and shipped iPod in 6 months! Now own Pixo I think....all employees anyway...

So, to the writer; Apple is earning profits on iPod sales, 1,000 3rd party Cars, cases, add-ons, also growing & earn $$$. Palm has ( Source or the Hardware one?) lots of products - losing money, in shrinking market, without OS updates since 1996 ( Isn't it Mac OS system 6 almost?) They are a mess. Management is so clueless - yeah LOVE to have clueless managers back at Apple again....missed em since Steve came back?

MS just gets it... Hahaha!!!!! Hilarious!

Oh, another gem, "Apple's iPod is too big compared to rivals, some the size of your thumb with a radio" ( Shuffle sized? See update in a couple weeks! Nano? iPod Video is smaller than anything.... ) So, he's comparing a 128MB flash MP3 - w cheap radio ( $.99 @ drugstores) with a 60 GB iPod - umm.... even if your dumb, research a bit.....

Well, since no iPods are selling.... and instead MS get's it, so we all have $700 WinCE phones instead (?) X-Box is hot....250 Watts = overheating IBM can't supply PPC chips it promised...LOL!!! I guess he's right. Apple should also cancel iPod, recall it, license Windows CE & buy Palm hardware, and jab sticks in their eyes for fun.....yeah!!!

Not the best content I've seen.....sheesh!

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

12/19, 05:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: 1 billion

Or they could spend that billion dollars upgrading the QA department so they could actually catch the defects in their products before they hit the street. You know, those white spots on the powerbooks. Those exploding capacitors. The scratches on the iPods. The outrageous fan noise in the 'windtunnel' G4s. Those crappy iBooks and their motherboard issues.

You know, find the stuff before they release it so they don't face all the bad press about their quality. (Not that anyone is allowed to say anything bad about apple, because they all get shot down as being trolls and all, or looking for page hits).

gdwaynewarner
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jul 2002

0

12/19, 06:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
Buy Palm? Why?

Didn't read the article (the comment about "invigorating the iPod's second class technology" in the summary was enough for me).

As for the Newton, I think Steve J. will be true to his word, and there will be no new pda's from Apple.

Fortunately, there's the Einstein Project:

http://www.kallisys.com/newton/einstein

Keep those Treos and etc. handy ...!

--gdw

MacnnGregor
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2004

0

12/24, 02:01am | report spam | close Reply |
Yes, buy Palm

I have a Palm. It is old. I want a new one. The iPod doesn't do everything that I want. I want to keep track of expenses and I want a little more options for input (but not a blackberry keyboard) and Apple needs to get into the businessperson's handheld market!!

So all you other snobs .... give it up. It is a NEW gadget, not ruining the iPod... cripes!!!!

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Columnist: Apple should buy Palm

updated 10:40 am EST, Mon December 19, 2005

Should Apple buy Palm?

Ridiculous

Palm is dead...

ridiculous 2 - the sequel

Pass the "crack" around

OS X on PDAs

ARM x86 Mobile

Would love to see this

Dumb idea's

Slap in the face!!

Not so silly

who benefits?

2nd class what??

HMm..

Dumb

Why It Aint So.....

I think we can all agree.

ludicrous

BeOS

1 billion

Brilliant idea?

Re: 1 billion

Buy Palm? Why?

Yes, buy Palm

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Columnist: Apple should buy Palm

updated 10:40 am EST, Mon December 19, 2005

Should Apple buy Palm?

Related Articles

Recent Articles

Ridiculous

Palm is dead...

ridiculous 2 - the sequel

Pass the "crack" around

OS X on PDAs

ARM x86 Mobile

Would love to see this

Dumb idea's

Slap in the face!!

Not so silly

who benefits?

2nd class what??

HMm..

Dumb

Why It Aint So.....

I think we can all agree.

ludicrous

BeOS

1 billion

Brilliant idea?

Re: 1 billion

Buy Palm? Why?

Yes, buy Palm

Login Here

Register for our weekly email newsletter:

Connect tools:

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10 Most Read

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