PalmPilot’s captain has left behind an illustrious legacy
1 min read 29 May 2023, 11:09 PM ISTThe PalmPilot was one of the first devices to foster a thriving ecosystem of third-party applications. Developers could create and distribute software for the Palm OS platform, leading to a wide range of productivity tools, games, utilities and other applications.
PremiumApple Inc. is widely credited with transforming the world through the introduction of the smartphone in the form of the iPhone in 2007. In fact, the Pew Research Center bases its classification of “Generation Z" on the introduction of the iPhone. Pew Research says (rb.gy/kf4dn) “what is unique for Generation Z is that…..the iPhone launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen Zers were 10. By the time they were in their teens, the primary means by which young Americans connected with the web was through mobile devices, Wi-Fi, and high-bandwidth cellular service. Social media, constant connectivity and on-demand entertainment and communication are innovations others adapted to as they came of age. For those born after 1996, these are largely assumed."
Well, 1996 was the year that the PalmPilot was introduced by Palm Inc., over a full decade before the iPhone made its debut. In the realm of mobile computing, the PalmPilot holds a special place as an iconic device that brought significant advancements to the market. The PalmPilot featured a pocket-sized design with a monochrome touchscreen display and a stylus for input. It prioritized simplicity and ease of use, with a focus on personal information management.
The PalmPilot offered a unique user interface known as “Graffiti", a simplified handwriting recognition system. Users could write characters on the screen with the stylus, making it easy to take notes, manage calendars, and store contacts. The PalmPilot was one of the first devices to foster a thriving ecosystem of third-party applications. Developers could create and distribute software for the Palm OS platform, leading to a wide range of productivity tools, games, utilities and other applications. This ecosystem laid the foundation for app stores and paved the way for the flourishing app ecosystems we see today on modern smartphones.
The PalmPilot primarily relied on its built-in infrared (and later, Bluetooth) port for wireless data transfer, enabling synchronization with computers and other Palm devices. An iconic commercial for the device showed a young man and a young woman, both evidently corporate executives, passing each other on a crowded subway platform. They struggle to exchange phone numbers in the few seconds they have before catching trains headed in different directions. At the last moment, one of the young executives remembers the built-in infrared port on his PalmPilot after he boards his train, and “beams" his contact information over to the other executive who is still standing on the platform waiting for her train, clutching her own PalmPilot. The rest, of course, was history.
For a short while, Palm led a growing market for portable computing devices where previous attempts such as Apple’s Newton failed. (Yes, Apple’s first attempts in this category failed. The Newton became popular in some industries, notably the medical field. However, the debut of the competing PalmPilot substantially reduced its market share. Apple struggled to find a new direction for the Newton, and when Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997, he killed the product line.) Most of Palm’s PDAs and its mobile phones ran the in-house Palm OS software which was later also licensed to other OEMs like Android is today.
Last week, Carl Yankowski the legendary chief executive of Palm Inc. who took it public, passed away at the age of 74. He had joined 3Com to head its Palm division. In his first year at Palm, he became CEO after spinning off the division of 3Com into a public company with a billion-dollar initial public offering (IPO) and market capitalization of $30 billion in March 2000. At one point, despite the dotcom crash, revenue at Palm Inc. rose for five consecutive quarters to over $1 billion. Palm’s market value briefly soared to above $50 billion. The Wall Street Journal, in its obituary, notes that Yankowski gained notoriety for his appearance on a TV interview on the day of the Palm IPO, in which he wore a bespoke suit embroidered with gold pinstripes. Perhaps he was influenced by Indian garments with “zari" work on them.
Palm’s stock was wildly volatile in the days following its IPO, leaving many small-scale speculators badly burned. In its defense, its price held above the IPO price for a while. The shares traded as high as $165 on the first day, more than four times the offer price of $38, before retreating to slightly more than $95. At that price, the market was still valuing Palm at $53.3 billion, far more than the value of its parent, the 3Com Corp, which still owned most of Palm. Palm’s market value at the time was higher than that of many far larger companies, including General Motors and Chevron. But competition and the end of the tech bubble eventually caused Palm’s shares to lose 90% of their value. About 10 years later, on 28 April 2010, Hewlett-Packard announced it would purchase Palm at $5.70 a share for $1.2 billion in an all-cash deal, completed later that year.
Yankowski had also wanted to take over Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, then a much smaller rival player. BlackBerry was also edged out of the market by the iPhone and other smartphone devices based on Google’s Android. That said, the PalmPilot’s impact cannot be understated, as it pioneered the concept of a portable digital assistant, third party app stores, and easy connectivity. It laid the foundation for future hand-held devices and influenced subsequent smartphone designs. Carl Yankowski, rest in peace.
Siddharth Pai is co-founder of Siana Capital, a venture fund manager.
"Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights!" Click here!
