Apple, RIM, Google All Bid On Palm 117
imamac writes "It seems HP was only one of many bidders for the struggling Palm. The others included Apple, RIM and even Google. You may now commence speculation on why the various companies wanted Palm."
Apple vs. Nokia (Score:2, Interesting)
To jack up the price for HP (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Apple vs. Nokia (Score:1, Interesting)
Nokia may not be a patent angel, but when it comes to patent trolling, Apple and other US companies make the rest of the world look like amateurs.
America. The world's most litigious society blazes the trail as always!
Re:It seems to me (Score:2, Interesting)
Right what's why they went out of business.
Staying in business and having the best product often have little to do with each other.
Re:Patents? (Score:1, Interesting)
This is too easy.
They'd want Palm to keep the WebOS from appearing on a competing phone.
No need to troll.
Re:It seems to me (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think you've seen the Pre / Pre Plus, otherwise, you wouldn't be saying that. And I'm saying this from and Android fan perspective.
HTML/CSS based interface (which means all app scale smoothly, 40+ apps running simultaneous without even skipping a heartbeat (providing real-time snapshots of running tasks with their card system), an awesome notification system, a unified contact system (from various sites, contact lists), and had both a walled-garden/homebrew dual approach.
Unfortunately, too many people are hard up on the iP* products that they don't even bother looking at alternatives. I didn't buy it because the only carrier here that has it is known to be misleading in their prices and I'd rather not support that, and doesn't have the Pre Plus either now that it's out. If it were available unlocked to AWS, I'd get it for several of my family members.
HP *needs* Palm more than the others (Score:3, Interesting)
Because HP isn't in the OS business, yet. Think about it, right now, HP is beholden to Microsoft for stuff to run on their hardware. And right now, it is clear that MS is screwing up right and left in anything OTHER than a desktop OS/Office suite. They have *no* mobile solution. And mobile is the future.
Apple has lead the way, and Google is catching up fast. We're not sure where RIM is, but they have annoucned a Tablet, which means that *maybe* they have an OS for it.
But HP's "slate" will be an abysmal failure, UNLESS they have a killer OS ... something that can take on the iPad and really revolutionize the market. And who has a Tablet OS that's actually good enough to take on Apple?
Why, that would be Palm. Poor Palm, hamstrung by lackluster marketing and so-so hardware, with mediocre sales as a result. Yet, their OS (and patent portfolio) is so valuable, I'm surprised half of Silicon Valley isn't trampling over each other to get it.
A Tablet running WebOS could actually compete with the iPad. *If* if were marketed properly, and *if* the hardware was good too. Ironically, HP is the only company I would trust to make decent hardware, even after the purging of all their good engineers due to Carly. But they have the muscle and the East Asia contacts to make it happen.
In other words, HP could make Microsoft irrelevant in the mobile marketplace... With Google playing catch-up. Now wouldn't *that* be ironic?
Re:Patents? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well RIM really doesn't have a good OS going forward at this point. If they could integrate WebOS with their push email and messenger then use their great keyboard you could have a very hot device.
For Apple it would be to have the patents so no one could use them to defend themselves from Apples patents.
For Google it would be have the patents to defend themselves from Apple and probably Microsoft.
For Nokia it would probably to have patents to use to attack Apple with.
My sneaking feeling is that Palm has a lot of patents on sync. The Palm devices where really the first device I remember that did a desktop sync like the iphone / ipod does. I believe that is why Apple never went through with their threats at Palm. Those patents could mean that Apples iTunes and Microsoft's Activesync are all infringing.
Of course this is all a guess off the top of my head.
Honestly WebOS is great mobile OS. The SDK sucked but they are fixing that. The UI is very good and it is easy to use.
The prefect mobile phone IMHO would be.
The WebOS UI.
With Android's or iPhone's app store.
With RIM's Email, messaging, but with Android'ss gmail and IM support.
Garmin's navigation.
On HTC, Samsung, and or Motorola's hardware.
With iPhone4's battery life.
And with Microsoft's Zune pass.