Palm have forgotten their roots and values
I lived in Silicon Valley from 1991 to 2000 and as a fellow gadget lover and designer have followed Palm from their early days to today. The original Palm Pilot introduced vital concepts that guaranteed its success, each intelligently conceived by Jeff Hawkins. a) It was perfectly proportioned for your pocket and your 'palm'. b) The screen featured a 1:1 aspect ratio, based upon some fundamental human factors that say that we view the world in a square and so our screens should be the same way. c) It was easy to use out of the box. d) It had a purpose and therefore an immediate 'how could I live without it' appeal. Fast forward to today, and Palm are not only shooting in thr dark but have given in to the inferior Windows Mobile OS, LOWER resolution screens, clunky visionless formfactors and other mediocre characteristics. With their open OS and design panache, Palm could have leveraged some of their older but better designs, seized the moment and created their own iPhone. But rather than force us into a flashy but limiting garden wall environment (iTunes ringtones, is that really worthy of a keynote?!?), taken the form factor of their excellent TX series, added their next generation OS, a phone, a 3MP autofocus camera and a slide out keyboard, and we would today have the ultimate practical and sexy device - that everyone would want, from Crackberry addicts to music loving students. But we don't. And that's a pitty. The iPhone's limitations mean it cannot become the next Palm Pilot, unless Apple open it up a little. There needs to be something else. Thing is, whose going to be the next visionary to deliver 'it'?