The Early History of Palm Inc

A new tech focused history website SiliconUser is offering guided tours down Memory Lane, with the publication of part one of a new article series detailing the early history of Palm and its founders. Beginning with Jeff Hawkins' early days at Tandy subsidiary GRiD and the birth of his fledgling Zoomer concept, and following through to Palm's sale to U.S. Robotics, the article is excellently written, well-researched and a fascinating read for those not completely au fait with the Palm's history and early beginnings.

It's interesting to compare the early, risk-taking Palm of yore with the play-it-safe, incrementally-upgrading company of today. Back in those pioneering days, success was a do-or-die proposition for Palm: if they didn't aggressively pursue their dreams of a product with "Zen", they were as good as finished - and they knew it. Now, the company that practically defined the PDA market is content to release, year after year, minor updates to the product it acquired over four years ago (the Treo 600), and seems happy to continue milking its rusted-on collection of die-hard PDA fans in the age of the smartphone.

Does Palm still have what it takes to produce a breakthrough device? One can only hope that the energy and enthusiasm that went into Zoomer's development hasn't disippated into the ether and is instead being poured into their new Linux OS.

Via Slashdot.