Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring, and the Birth of the Billion-Dollar Handheld Industry by Andrea Butter and David Pogue John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 353 pp., inc. index 8 pp. photos |
By Mike Cane
Copyright © 2002 by Mike Cane.
All Rights Reserved.
Exclusive to Palm Infocenter.
In the story of Palm, it seems there is no escaping
Sony. Before there was the famous block of wood (which
is finally pictured in this book) that Jeff Hawkins
carved to fit his shirt pocket and carried around as
his embryonic Pilot, he was finding inspiration in a
Sony handheld (probably the InfoCarry) that was never
sold in the United States. In June 1992, he met future
partner Donna Dubinsky for the first time and this is
part of what transpired:
How ironic that Sony should have the future of
computing and not realize it. How ironic that less
than a decade later Sony would license an OS that it
helped inspire. And how ironic that Sony is now
perceived as a "better Palm than Palm."
These sorts of ironies and strange twists of fate are
interlaced throughout the history of Palm, which is
recounted in delicious detail in Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring, and the Birth of the Billion-Dollar Handheld Industry, a fine book by former Palm Director of Marketing Andrea Butter and
well-known technology-industry writer David Pogue.
Before Pilot, Hawkins created the Zoomer, the first consumer PDA with partners Tandy (retail sales), GeoWorks (OS), and Casio (hardware manufacturing). It was a frustrating experience of "design by committee" which doomed the project from the start. And it did not help that Apple touted and then released Newton in the same timeframe. The scathing press Newton received -- including the notorious Doonesbury "egg freckles" strip -- rebounded to the Zoomer, killing any possibility of generating enthusiasm for it and ending all hope for an improved Zoomer II.
Out of such a disaster was born the determination --
indeed, the dire necessity -- for Hawkins to create
the Pilot. Palm Computing had no other choice if it
was to remain in business. And Hawkins had no other
choice if he were to realize his conviction that
But we all know what eventually happened. It's daily
in the palm of our hands.
Yet in-between, it was never a sure thing. Another
irony in the tale is that Compaq could have produced a
version of the original Pilot (iPilot?), but the
contract terms it offered in exchange for its
investment were onerous. It really left Palm with
little choice but to be acquired by U.S. Robotics.
Even guaranteeing that the original Pilot could be
manufactured was uncertain. It would require a type of
RAM that was regarded as passé. Toshiba had the only
remaining plant that manufactured this RAM, and
someone had to twice fly to Singapore to beg Toshiba
in person to keep their plant open and the RAM
flowing.
That someone was Bill MacKenzie, Palm's Director of
Product Programs. He's one of the many heroes of
Palm's history whose names and roles are finally
revealed in this book.
Two others are Ron Marianetti, who worked on Graffiti
and PalmOS, and Product Manager Rob Haitani.
Marianetti is described thusly by co-workers:
[. . .]
His goal was to display an entire workday's worth of
appointments, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., on a single
screen without requiring scrolling. For days, Haitani
struggled; even the calendar programs on the
relatively enormous Apple Newton screen, at 320 by 240 pixels, could show only the hours from 8:00 a.m. to
3:00 p.m. on a single screen.
Ed Colligan came up with a mantra that guided Haitani,
and soon the entire team, in his design decisions:
"Delight the customer." Delighting the customer meant
minimizing the number of steps required to perform
some function, putting the options the customer wanted
right under his or her nose, doing the right thing.
Along these lines, Haitani developed a religion of
counting taps. The idea was to reduce the
number of steps to achieve any function to the
absolute minimum, even avoiding the use of the stylus,
when possible (making a button big enough to tap with
your finger, for example).
"We would be trying to decide if some function should
be a button on the screen or a command in the menu,"
says Haitani. "And the engineers would say, 'Why does
it have to be on the screen? It's only one more step
if it's in the menu.' And I said, 'OK, wait, how is
your own desk organized? You have things on the top of
your desk and you have things in the drawers. Why is
that? Things on the top of your desk you need all the
time. Take your mouse and stick it in a drawer. Then
anytime you need to use it, take it out of the drawer.
It's only one step, but I guarantee it'll drive you
absolutely crazy.'"
"Delight the customer" is a wonderful mission and
goal. One that seems to have been lost in recent Palm
actions (i.e., that "desk drawer," VFS -- ironically,
created by Sony!).
And imagine counting taps! Something so simple, yet so deeply thoughtful. For all of Microsoft's might, for
example, this kind of thinking seems to have been
avoided in creating Pocket PC. (Microsoft's entire
Windows CE effort is hilariously characterized by
Butter and Pogue as "revise and advertise.")
Further, it was Haitani who coined "The Zen of Palm."
There are other delightful tidbits of this sort.
Revealed also is who created the term, "Palm Economy." How paper, which they were trying to replace with the Pilot, seemed with almost sinister intent to nearly kill the company twice. Why Springboard expansion could be so easily added by Handspring. And then there is the ghastly revelation of what ex-CEO (and former Sony employee) Carl Yankowski wore on the day of Palm's IPO. (He should have been fired on that day, on the spot, while on live national TV! He goes on to even greater depths of dumbness later in the book.)
Probably the most important revelation is that the
seeds of many of Palm's current perceived shortcomings were planted in the compost of Zoomer. According to a post-mortem survey
Another finding: Almost no one printed from the
Zoomer. So much for the premise that a handheld should be, at its core, a scaled-down PC.
Is it or isn't it?
This is much the same dilemma -- and set of
contradictory impulses -- that Palm, Inc. (hardware)
and PalmSource (OS) face today as they move to upgrade
the entire platform. Is it simply a "connected
organizer" (a phrase devised by Palm's original
marketing team to make sales to retail stores easier)
or does it aspire to be a "Pocket Mac" against Pocket
PC? And what's multimedia doing in an "organizer,"
anyway?
These issues also begin to drive home the hazards in
Palm splitting and spinning off into two autonomous
companies. Palm, Inc., the hardware maker, becomes
little more than a container maker for the PalmOS. And
if Palm, Inc. retains that name, shouldn't devices
then be called "PalmSource-Powered" devices? And why
would an independent Palm, Inc. want to narrow its
focus on making PalmOS devices with so much
competition? "Being the best PalmSource-Powered
hardware manufacturer" is the same mission statement
as its competitors. The future begins to get strange
and tricky.
Easily, this book could have been twice as long and
lost none of its impact. Items that are not covered
but which cry out for elaboration include:
To be fair to Butter and Pogue, they were probably
contractually obligated to a set number of words and
such details had to go. As well, some items may have
been too technical to comfortably fit within the
narrative. But it's a tribute to their masterful work
that one is left asking for more -- much more.
Perhaps, say, in five years they will revisit Palm and
its licensees and publish a revised and expanded
edition? It would be welcomed! (Right now, they are
offering a brief update on the book's site at
http://www.pilotingpalm.com -- adding
pertinent information since the book's November 2001
conclusion.)
In the meantime, this book is for anyone with even a
tiny interest in how Palm and Handspring each came to be. It is not just a story of those companies and
their technology, it is foremost an exciting and
frightening story of a tiny group of passionate and
determined people who persevered against tremendous and even ridiculous opposition to succeed where giants had failed. Just be warned: once I started reading, I didn't want to stop. When I was finished, it was 4:20 a.m.! Plan your own schedule accordingly.
To give her an idea of Palm's direction,
Hawkins pulled out his Sony palmtop -- a handheld
computer that was only sold in Japan. About the size
of a Walkman, it had a pen and a graphic interface;
even in Japanese, it was easier to navigate than any
current U.S. electronic organizers. It gave her the
same tingle of excitement that she'd felt 12 years
earlier at Dan Bricklin's demo of VisiCalc. "That's
it!" she told Hawkins. "That's the next generation of
computing. I'm sure of it!"
"[i]t's inevitable that all computing will be
mobile. [. . .] There are so many colliding things
that say, 'small, cheap, robust, on-your-person is
better than big, slow, clunky, on-your-desk.'"
If Hawkins had not done it, it's doubtful that anyone
else would have. By that time, several high-profile
"pen computing" companies had failed, taking millions
of dollars of venture capital to their graves. The
entire idea was regarded as a fool's quest and an
investor's poison.
"Ron is absolutely brilliant. He's the best
engineer we've ever worked with, [. . .] Probably 80
or 90 percent [of engineers], even given an unlimited
amount of time, could never do what he does. The
problems are just too complex for them to solve. Not
only does he solve them much quicker, but he's capable of doing them, whereas a lot of [other engineers] aren't. That's why so many products are in development for years and years and years. They're beyond the ability of the people trying to do them."
Rob Haitani is now a special favorite of mine, here
being wisely guided by Ed Colligan:
Part of Rob Haitani's task was designing the
user interface -- the actual screens, buttons, and
menus for the five built-in primary programs:
calendar, address book, to-do list, memo pad, and a
database program (which was eventually dropped) -- so that it fit into a space 160 pixels square.
Haitani was a former employee of -- guess who? Sony.
[Zoomer owners] used the $700 computer almost
exclusively as an organizer: the date book, address
book, and memo pad. [. . .]
And yet, when the finished Pilot was ready for launch,
Hawkins and Dubinsky suggested describing it as a
pocket computer. However, years later, in planning the
Palm V (the sole goal of which was its beauty),
Hawkins stated, "I want to prove that this isn't a
little computer."
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RE: Full Disclosure
When Ed formatted the review, I got to see it before it was posted. I saw the amazon link and could have objected -- but this is Ryan & Ed's site and they are not getting rich from it (who is on the Net?). If they want to include that link, I have no objection.
But it is as Ed stated: that PIC might have an affiliate link to the book on amazon had no influence on my review. I asked them if I could review it, asked Wiley to provide a reviewer's copy, read it, wrote the review (all in Graffiti, for those who like such trivia! -- with the excerpts OCRed by the QizCom Tech QuickLink Pen -- there's *my* plug!), got permission from Wiley for the extensive excerpts, and now it's posted.
If the formatting of this message is funky, it's because I'm at
the NYPL and the branch I'm at is using that piece of crap,
Netscape, which does not handle the Net well at all. (Far be
it from me to tout MS, but MSIE is the superior browser.)
RE: Full Disclosure
Great...
RE: Great...
RE: Great...
----
Jeff Meyer
RE: Great...
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 by JBH.
All Rights Reserved.
Exclusive to Palm Infocenter.
I respect rights of reproduction as much as the next guy, but does everything Mike Cane writes here really need to be copyrighted? Whatever.
JBH
RE: Copyright
All Rights Reserved.
Exclusive to Palm Infocenter.
I think we should all retain copyright © privleges to our postings. I hear Ed wants to rip us off and publish them all in his new compendium, "Wisdom From the Palm Infocenter Message Boards."
RE: Copyright
All Rights Reserved.
Exclusive to Palm Infocenter.
Hey, Ed can do whatever he wants to do with my thoughts. Ed is cool.
JBH
(JBH is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ed in any way. Any use of the word "Ed" is for discussion purposes and is a registered trademark of Ed.)
RE: Copyright
RE: Copyright
RE: Copyright
No, it's hubris.
RE: Copyright
RE: Copyright
JBH = Just Brainless and Hairy?
Kind of fitting...
RE: Kind of Fitting
An example of the kind of inside info that this book provides is the story behind the famous Taxi Easter Egg, which was created on the day that Palm decided that their first device would be called the Palm Taxi. The name had to change for trademark issues, but the taxi easter egg remains.
eBook
I never purchased an eBook from Peanut Press before, but I thought they would be a LOT cheaper than the actual printed book.
Looks like Amazon wins my money. Glad to "donate" some to PIC too! :)
RE: Kind of fitting...
My preference is towards the ebook, regardless of price, because of the convenience of not carrying around the "bulky" book along with my PDA.
There's pros and cons of both.
RE: Kind of fitting...
"Punch in this week's Promo Code GENIUS to receive a 10% discount off each eBook that you purchase."
Thanks for the review. I am in the process of reading this on my m515.
Mike
Missing Content in the eBook
For those that would argue about file size getting too large with photos, remember that eBooks can now be stored on SD/MMC/MemorySticks, and they could always make two versions of the eBook available: one with full content, and one without.
It might be a minor item, but for a price that's identical to the hardcover, I'd at least expect the same content to be in both editions. For what it's worth, the eBook makes the following statement on "page" 6, "This title is also available in print as ISBN 0-471-08965-6. Some content that appears in the print edition of this book may not be available in this electronic edition."
Too bad you don't find that out until *after* you've purchased the eBook...
RE: Missing Content in the eBook
RE: eBook
Don't forget that there are publishing costs, even for an ebook: it has to be reformated in the appropriate PDA formats.
RE: Missing Content in the eBook
"The decision on including pictures in the eBook version is made by the publisher. Some of the books that we sell include all of the pictures that were included in the print version, but other publishers choose not to include pictures or artwork. In some cases the publisher may not even have the rights to distribute electronic versions of the pictures. We always encourage publishers to include as many pictures as possible, and we have made it as easy as
possible for them to do so. In the future we expect more publishers to take advantage of this feature."
RE: Kind of fitting...
Can I use other ebook reader such as iSilo or CSpotRun?
I can't change the font size in Palm Reader, and the font is too small, I can't read at all.
RE: Kind of fitting...
Palm Reader Pro also allows you to use custom fonts, apparently.
RE: Kind of fitting...
If ebooks were half the price of a paperback then they'd be good value for the money, but until then they're playthings for people with too much money to spend in the first place.
The publishing industry needs follow the recording industry in getting their heads out of their asses and start producing something of value for money instead of simply looking at ways of making money for money's sake. And these people wonder why piracy is "rampant" in their industry. 8-(
interesting questions
- Why there's no Flash ROM in Visors
- The successes and failures of Springboard licensees
- How and why Sony chose PalmOS
- The machinations of the purchase of Be Inc's assets
- Who invested $50 million in Palm and why
ok can someone answer these questions so I can save some money buying the book ?
RE: interesting questions
I like my Palm!
RE: interesting questions
RE: interesting questions
RTA
"Items that are not covered but which cry out for elaboration include: "
... everything you asked.
ITANCBWCOFEI
honestly your RTA comment is very annoying. you could choose to shut up if you don't feel like replying.
RE: RTA
RTQ / RTP
RTQ = Read the Question
RTP = Read the Post
RE: RTA
RE: interesting questions
RE: interesting questions
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Not a bad review...
I think the i705 is pretty cool looking.
But then again, this is a REVIEW, so you have to take the opinions expressed in it with a grain of salt.
Click here for the full story discussion page...
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