Apple Inc. is widely credited with changing the world in 2007 through the introduction of the smartphone in the form of the iPhone. 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 to Generation Z is that ….. the iPhone was launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen Xers were 10 years old. By the time they were in their teens, young Americans The primary means of connecting to 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 that others have adapted over the ages. 1996 For those born after, it is largely assumed.”
Well, 1996 was the year the PalmPilot was introduced by Palm Inc., a decade before the introduction of the iPhone. In the field of mobile computing, PalmPilot holds a special place as an iconic device that has made significant strides in the market. The PalmPilot features 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 introduced a unique user interface known as “Graffiti”, a simplified handwriting recognition system. Users can write characters on the screen with the stylus, making it easy to take notes, manage calendars, and store contacts. PalmPilot was one of the first devices to foster a thriving ecosystem of third-party applications. Developers can 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 the App Store and paved the way for the flourishing app ecosystem we see on modern smartphones today.
The PalmPilot relies primarily on its built-in infrared (and later, Bluetooth) port for wireless data transfer, enabling synchronization with computers and other Palm devices. An iconic advertisement for the device featured a young man and a young woman, both apparently corporate executives, passing each other on a crowded subway platform. They struggle to exchange phone numbers in the seconds before they catch trains headed in different directions. At the last moment, one of the young executives remembers the built-in infrared port on his PalmPilot after boarding his train, and “beams” his contact information to the other executive, who is still standing on the platform waiting for his train. has been clutching his own palm pilot. The rest, of course, was history.
For a while, Palm led a growing market of portable computing devices where previous efforts such as Apple’s Newton had failed. (Yes, Apple’s first attempts in this category failed. The Newton became popular in some industries, notably the medical field. However, the introduction of the competitor PalmPilot significantly reduced its market share. Palm struggled to find a new direction, and when Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997, he scrapped the product line.) Most of Palm’s PDAs and its mobile phones ran the in-house Palm OS software, which was later renamed Palm OS. Today it was also licensed to other OEMs like Android.
Last week, Carl Yankowski, the legendary CEO of Palm Inc. who took it public, died at the age of 74. He had joined 3Com as head of its Palm division. In his first year at Palm, he became CEO in March 2000 after turning the 3Com division into a public company with a $1 billion initial public offering (IPO) and a market capitalization of $30 billion. At one point, despite the dotcom crash, Palm Inc. revenue exceeded $1 billion for five consecutive quarters. Palm’s market value briefly exceeded $50 billion. wall street journal, in his obituary, notes that Yankowski achieved notoriety for his appearance in 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 the Indian costumes that had “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 remained above the IPO price for some time. Shares traded as high as $165 on the first day, before retreating slightly to $95, more than four times the offer price of $38. At that price, the market was still valuing Palm at $53.3 billion, which was far higher than the value of its parent 3Com Corp., which still owned a majority of Palm. Palm’s market value at the time was higher than that of several large companies, including General Motors and Chevron. But competition and the end of the tech bubble eventually caused Palm’s shares to lose 90% in value. Nearly 10 years later, on April 28, 2010, Hewlett-Packard announced that it would buy Palm at $5.70 per share for $1.2 billion in an all-cash deal that was completed later that year.
Yankowski also wanted to take over Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, which was then a much smaller rival player. BlackBerry was pushed out of the market by the iPhone and other smartphone devices based on Google’s Android. That said, the PalmPilot’s impact cannot be overstated, as it pioneered the concept of a portable digital assistant, third party app stores, and easy connectivity. It laid the foundation for future handheld devices and influenced subsequent smartphone designs. Carl Yankowski, rest in peace.
Siddharth Pai is the co-founder of Sienna Capital, a venture fund manager.
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Updated: May 29, 2023, 11:09 PM IST