Apple Reportedly Placed Bid to Buy Palm, Was Outbid by HP

[fabsgwu]

Funny that Google only wanted Palm if Apple wanted it.

In the end Google and Apple scored Palm's UI design and Notification talent, respectively (and respectively their OSs' weakest points). Palm did a good job pushing the envelope to the end, and maybe we haven't seen the last.

 

[G58]

Thought so.

And in Apple's hands, Palm might have had a future, unlike what will happen now. HP has the money, but none of the brains.

 

[deconstruct60]

Research in Motion is way more problematic for apple, they make nothing, just do patent trolling. At least Google and HTC make something.....

http://www.rim.com/products/

WTF are you talking about ? Sounds like you think you are talking about NTP:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20010083-266.html

 

[3583582]

Research in Motion is way more problematic for apple, they make nothing, just do patent trolling. At least Google and HTC make something, which means there can be mutual respect for patents attacks, but imagine a very very small company that makes nothing, but sues non stop.

Uhm. You don't seem to know who Research in Motion is.

 

[deconstruct60]

Thought so.
HP has the money, but none of the brains.

HP has brains. They also have a bazillion other things going on also. Focus and time are the bigger issues. They also don't have buckets of money to devote to this long term either. Either they manage to spin it up to where it is competitive enough to start some positive cash flow or will have to shut it down in a couple of years.

In Apple's hands, the Palm products would have gotten a swift death and a not so small number of folks in talent pool would have bolted.

 

[cybaster]

Had Apple bought Palm, they might have also acquired a clue or two about proper antenna design.

This was funny a few weeks ago.....

 

[maturola]

Research in Motion is way more problematic for apple, they make nothing, just do patent trolling. At least Google and HTC make something, which means there can be mutual respect for patents attacks, but imagine a very very small company that makes nothing, but sues non stop.

Ok So RIM, the Number #2 in the world for Smartphone marketshare and the number #1 in USA is now consider a "very very small company that makes nothing"???

WOW!.....

 

[TheSlush]

I cannot believe the part about Apple wanting to maintain Palm's operations just to compete with RIM on physical keyboard devices. Such a lack of focus would be very un-Apple.

I'll say it again: MARKETPLACE COMPETITION IS NOT APPLE'S DRIVING FORCE. PRODUCT QUALITY IS APPLE'S DRIVING FORCE.

If Apple saw any value in a hardware keyboard, they would put it into their own products, period. They would not maintain a separate company just to "cover their bases." It's as simple as that. That is the terrible beauty of Steve's glorious arrogance.

 

[kdarling]

Since buying Palm, HP has seemingly backed away from introducing a Windows 7 tablet, and ditto for a WP7 phone.

Everyone now expects (hopes for) a WebOS based slate, and perhaps a new WebOS phone, later this year.

 

[lunarworks]

It would have been quite something if RIM had got it. Palm had some stuff they could seriously use.

 

[backdraft]

I knew it! Though, I'm even more curious to know if Apple made any bids to buy Sun. Now that would have been something!

 

[Obese Lobsters]

This is a sign that apple is coming out physical keyboard or business oriented iphone. Remember apple losing the bid for admob?

 

[Brien]

I'd have greatly preferred a RIM purchase to the HP purchase. BlackBerry's with webOS would have been great, and given RIM a modern touchOS instead of BB OS 5, which sucks.

 

[dethmaShine]

HP buying Palm makes sense:

1. No future of palm under Apple
2. WebOS had to die.
3. Apple doesn't need to buy palm to implement their notification system. A proper team of engineers can do that. (Only if they aren't patented.)
4. HP is a better hardware company than palm and so I hope to see some good phones and tablets in the near future.

Also, I'm not participating in any race, be it iPhone 4 or Android. I'm just waiting for the next Palm phone. I love the ****in operating system. It's probably the best mobile operating system ever.

Cheers to HPalm. I hope they do something good.

 

[maturola]

HP buying Palm makes sense:

1. No future of palm under Apple
2. WebOS had to die.
3. Apple doesn't need to buy a palm to implement their notification system. A proper team of engineers can do that. (Only if they aren't patented.)
4. HP is a better hardware company than palm and so I hope to see some good phones and tablets in the near future.

Also, I'm not participating in any race, be it iPhone 4 or Android. I'm just waiting for the next Palm phone. I love the ****in operating system. It's probably the best mobile operating system ever.

Cheers to HPalm. I hope they do something good.

I couldn;t agreed more with this post!...

Specially - 2. WebOS had to die


I still can't get over what this guys said!... >>>

Research in Motion is way more problematic for apple, they make nothing, just do patent trolling. At least Google and HTC make something, which means there can be mutual respect for patents attacks, but imagine a very very small company that makes nothing, but sues non stop.

 

[EstrlM3]

Apple never wanted Palm in the first place. They only went to bid so that Apple rival would waste money on a dying company thus unable to compete with Apple in the long run because they wasted billion of dollar buying Palm.

wasn't it 1.2 billion? hardly billions.

 

[Jayomat]

Research in Motion is way more problematic for apple, they make nothing, just do patent trolling. At least Google and HTC make something, which means there can be mutual respect for patents attacks, but imagine a very very small company that makes nothing, but sues non stop.

looool.. I think you mixed something up here...

 

[steviem]

I would've loved Synergy on iOS...

 

[Unspeaked]

I think it says a lot that of all the players mentioned, HP had both the least cash and smallest mobile presence and they're the ones that ended up with Palm.

The fact HP ended up the highest bidder says more about the other three's opinions of Palm than anything else...

 

[reden]

Would have been an interesting acquisition. It does make one wonder, though, whether Apple really is ultimately to move away from "traditional" computers (desktops and larger laptops) and become strictly a mobile-computing company.

No.

 

[dethmaShine]

I couldn;t agreed more with this post!...

Specially - 2. WebOS had to die


I still can't get over what this guys said!... >>>

Just so that I know.

Is that sarcasm?

 

[aughsum]

Apple damn sure could have benefitted from WebOS's notification system.

for sure

 

[LagunaSol]

Jobs probably only wanted Palm so he could fire Rubenstein.

 

[Unspeaked]

Just so that I know.

Is that sarcasm?

I think they meant WebOS has to diet.

It was a little bloated on the Pre...

 

[topmounter]

Whatever Apple would have done with Palm would have been more interesting than HP turning Palm into a WAN print server.