From Palm to Palm

Last Thursday, July 14, palmOne – the people we have to thank for the development of our Treo – changed its name to Palm.  Alongside the name change is a new ticker symbol PALM (formerly PLMO) and also a new logo (here on the right).

This change is extremely important and significant on a number of levels.  At the top of the list is the fact that the company which was founded as Palm back in 1992 can now – after an extraordinarily convoluted tale containing hundreds of twists, turns, burns and churns – finally again be called Palm.

How Palm became Palm again…

In my view the story of Palm is a remarkable case study in business endurance.  The latest rebranding must stand as a proclamation not only of its survival against many odds in the past but also as an important new starting point for its strong resurgence with new category defining products such as our Treo and the recently released LifeDrive.  In short, a Palm that will again grow strong with a renewed commitment to its entrepreneurial “We are going to change the world” roots.

In this last respect, the fact is that two of the three original Palm founding team members are now firmly back in charge – Ed Colligan as CEO and Jeff Hawkins as CTO – and they (plus also other early Palm employees) are palpably bringing back a zest for passion, vision and commitment to the company which they started.

Ed Colligan, the founding member and now CEO, has something to smile about with his new Palm.

There is no doubt that many mistakes have been committed by Palm and its other incarnations in the past but as the saying goes “If you’ve never made any mistakes then you’ve never done anything”.  You could therefore rightly argue that Palm has actually done a lot and that it continues to set the pace today in, for example, the smartphone space.  Furthermore, as the design company IDEO’s motto states, an innovation process often requires you to “Fail often to succeed sooner”.  Notwithstanding these, I would naturally much rather see Palm sailing clear of any further obvious mistakes in the future.

As I complained back in November last year, the confusion surrounding the transition from Handspring to PalmOne had left many people struggling to understand what company they were dealing with.  I wondered then if anyone at palmOne cared enough to do something about it.  Evidently someone did and there is no doubt that a revival of the original Palm brand will prove to have many benefits particularly as research clearly indicates that its brand awareness is extremely high.

Leaving aside the branding theme and focusing on the business issues, I am hopeful that these latest changes will have a cathartic effect on the company and that it will help to imbue the entire Palm organization with a renewed openness to fresh ideas and energy to execute them well – thus bringing us ever better products such as our Treo in the future.  The rewards will certainly be huge if all the right pieces fall into place.

Like Apple with Steve Jobs’ return, I believe that Palm now has the leadership to make its mobile computing vision of the future a reality and I will be one of many championing for its success.

Mobile-computing Leader Adopts New Name [Palm Press Release]
The Engadget Guide to How Palm Became Palm Again
Unofficial, Amateur History of Palm Handheld Computers
Palm Evolutionary Tree
Palm Milestones
Treo: A bit of a marketing issue... [Treonauts]
New Palm Logo

Treonauts demand change and continuous improvement…