Saturday 2 September 2017

Palm branded devices set for a return

The reminder of Palm devices will evoke warm memories of nostalgia for a large number of old school phone users. Well, there seems to be a reason to rejoice. According to a new report, TCL has plans to bring back the Palm brand. The devices are to be announced somewhere in 2018.

History of Palm


Launched in 1992, the Palm Corporation first released small mobile devices like the original Palm Pilot PDA (personal digital assistant), which was a precursor to the modern smartphone. It also developed its own operating system for PDAs, the Palm OS. In the 2000’s people started moving away from Pam devices.

The company then changed its course. It started developing fully fledged smartphones with an operating system called the webOS. This, however did not stop the trend of dwindling sales. People were moving to the iPhone and Android was gaining popularity during this time.

Then in 2010, HP bought the company. It tried to launch devices like tablets and smartphones. The devices ran webOS. It was largely a failure. In the end it sold the webOS and content to LG in 2013. In 2014, it sold the rights to the Palm brand to TCL. TCL has made no move to use the name but that looks to change.

TCL already uses the Alcatel name to sell smartphones in the US and other markets, and in 2016 it acquired the rights to design and make phones with the BlackBerry brand.

Future of Palm


TCL will probably look to ride on the nostalgia factor and target the older audience. Chances are, the younger audience will not know what Palm is.  The older audience though will have fond memories of the Palm devices that were the hype before the iPhone and Android devices took over the world. It will certainly be interesting to see what kind of devices TCL will come up with.

 

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