Palm Saw the Smartphone Future… So Why Did It Lose?

Palm saw the smartphone future before Apple — so why didn't Palm own it? Years before the iPhone, Palm was already building the foundations of modern mobile computing. The PalmPilot put a computer in people's pockets. Palm created a massive third-party software ecosystem years before Apple's App Store. The Palm VII brought wireless connectivity to handheld computing. And the Treo combined a phone, email, web browsing, messaging, apps and a touchscreen long before the modern smartphone became mainstream. Then Apple introduced the iPhone. Palm had already seen pieces of the future. But when the smartphone revolution arrived, Palm couldn't turn its technological head start into an unstoppable business. This is the story of Palm — from the PalmPilot and its explosive rise, to the Treo, the arrival of the iPhone, the creation of webOS, the Palm Pre, financial collapse, and the eventual acquisition by HP. And the strangest part? Palm's technology survived. Palm didn't. The company that helped pioneer handheld computing eventually disappeared from the smartphone hardware business, while its webOS technology found a second life in an unexpected place. So what actually killed Palm? Was it Apple? Was it poor strategy? Was Palm simply too late? Or did it fail to understand that winning the smartphone war required more than having great technology? This is the story of how Palm helped create modern mobile computing — and then watched someone else take its future.