The PalmPilot elegantly tracked contacts, notes, to-dos and events, all synchronized to your desktop computer using the included cradle. It was a general-purpose computer used for specialized applications, and was small enough to fit in a shirt pocket.
The PalmPilot was the first wildly popular handheld computer. Its success helped bridge the previously separate worlds of the electronic organizer, the PC, and later, the mobile phone.
The PalmPilot succeeded by redefining the handheld as an accessory to the personal computer, not its replacement. Winning features included seamless one-button synchronization with the PC, handwriting recognition that really worked, easy-to-use organizer functions, fast responses, pocket size, and an affordable price of $299.
Jeff Hawkins tested the PalmPilot’s design with this model, using a chopstick for a stylus. He took pretend notes in meetings, and counted the steps it took to perform common tasks.View Artifact Detail
Would PalmPilot users really want to enter text with a pen? Palm designers weren’t sure. They tested this keyboard-based design as an alternative.View Artifact Detail
The Bumpy Road to Success
Some Palm predecessors, like the Psion and HP’s LX series, were modestly successful. But several well-financed and much-hyped attempts at pen-based handhelds, including Apple’s Newton and the EO Personal Communicator, failed in the marketplace, costing investors about a billion dollars. Palm’s own first handheld, the bulky Zoomer, also flopped.
It wasn’t a good time to seek funding for a new attempt. Palm had money to develop the PalmPilot, but not enough to launch it, so the company agreed to be acquired by US Robotics. PalmPilot’s surprise success changed the handheld category forever.
1. Just Have to Ship the Product
2. Troubles Raising Money
3. The Pen is not the Point
1. One Button
2. Dialing by Name
Envisioning a Handheld Computer
After designing the first commercially successful tablet computer at GRiD systems, Jeff Hawkins founded Palm to create the simple, hand-held version he was convinced consumers wanted.
Hawkins’s original passion, however, was neuroscience and machine intelligence. After a 25-year detour designing portable computers, he returned to his first love.
Palm Computing was founded by mobile computing pioneer Jeff Hawkins (right), who recruited Apple veteran Donna Dubinsky as CEO and Ed Colligan, formerly of Radius, as head of marketing.View Artifact Detail
Zoomer was a joint project of Casio, Palm, GeoWorks and Tandy. It had a touch screen, a graphical user interface and support for third party applications. But it suffered from slow speed and high price.View Artifact Detail
Palm's leaders, frustrated with the unwieldy Zoomer, for which they were developing software, complained to investor Bruce Dunlevie. He responded that if they were so sure what consumers wanted, “why don’t you…go do it yourselves?” The successful PalmPilot was the result.View Artifact Detail
The founders chose the name “Palm” referring to the palm of a user’s hand, not the tree. So the early tree logo was a visual pun.View Artifact Detail