Today sounds almost like an age of loveliness, but there was a time decades ago—not that many actually—when phones were the opposite of what they are now: phones and few they are smart. If you wanted a “smart” device with tools to help you organize your contacts and prevent you from forgetting your cousin’s birthday or your last-minute appointment with the dentist on Wednesday, you had another tool: the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

If the ’90s and early 2000s got you at the right age—with it and enough cash in your pocket—you probably remember it all very well. There was also a time when talking about PDA Almost synonymous with making from PalmIt’s one of those brands that the consumer technology of 20 years ago was hard to understand without it.

Palm is a magnificent example of the accelerated changes technology experienced in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, and incidentally, how some Silicon Valley business chronicler has little to envy about this scenario. game of Throneswith sales, splits, reunions, breaks, golden years and oblivion, disappearances and rebirths.

double pioneer

In the Palm example, one intriguing read remains: it was the forerunner of PDAs and smart phones and its devices are almost conceivable missing link between the two. True, it is neither the first nor the only – Psion Organizer dates back to 1984 – but it has earned an indisputable reputation.

The company’s most complex long history begins in 1992 at the hands of Donna Dubinsky, Edward Colligan, and particularly his true “father”, Jeff Hawinks, who has previously accumulated significant experience within the company’s ranks. GRID Systems. In the early 1990s, Hawkins developed PalmPrint, a handwriting recognition program, and began the Zoomer project with multinational Tandy, Casio, and GeoWorks.

The Zoomer experience was complex, and the device had to battle Apple’s Newton; But that hasn’t deterred the Palm team from the potential of portable digital assistants. After shaping Graffiti and integrating with USRobotics, in March 1996 the company released its first PDA: the Palm Pilot, a product that allowed it to combine its own hardware and software, and would over time make the Hawkins-released brand an almost universal synonym. computer

The Pilot and the first Palm devices were comfortable and practical: they fit perfectly in one hand and can be easily slipped into a purse or pocket. They also had 128 KB of memory (Pilot 1000), a capacity that increased to 512 KB in the Pilot 5000. As Low End Mac noted, they ran Palm OS 1.0 and had a 160×160 pixel display. This mix convinced him, and in its first two months the company was able to sell quite a bit. 10,000 Pilots.

This was the starting signal for the future: In the years that followed the first model, it was followed by PalmPilot Personal and Professional, Palm III, V, VII, VX, IIIc, Palm m100, Zire… In 2000, as Palm rose to fame with the Palm IIIc and more While improving its features with memory, speed, infrared and wireless communication, removable batteries and even color screens, the company developed new versions.

Palm’s products were gaining popularity. The range has been strengthened in terms of features, attractiveness – you may remember the Palm V’s aluminum casing – and even set its price policy, making decisions like cutting costs through a monochrome display and no backlighting on the Zire. It also developed its own system with Palm OS 3. offered to other manufacturers.

But Palm’s offices had as many innovations as in its catalogue.

At the turn of the millennium, Palm became an independent public company, and just two years later, in 2002, it formed a subsidiary to develop and market the operating system PalmSource. The biggest change, however, probably came in mid-1998, when Hawkins and Dubinksy packed up and decided to step down and resign. start a new company: Hand spring. Reason? The decision came after several conflicts over the direction the company took under the management of 3Com, which acquired USRobotics.

Handspring, which would eventually become one of the main licensees of Palm OS, wasted no time in releasing the Visor, a well-received device with two lower-end versions of Palm’s own software and improved PIM software. Two months after its launch, Low End Mac states that Handspring has already taken about 28% of the market for portable devices and went public shortly thereafter.

Competition has developed.

and industry.

At the end of 1998, the Qualcomm pdQ came to the technological market, being the first Palm PDA to integrate a phone. Not long after, VisorPhone and Treo came out.

Times were changing, and in 2003 Palm made two more unexpected turns. Or not. first Palm and Handspring merger. Second, equally important and in reverse, is the decision to turn PalmSource into an independent firm. Hardware and software were divided. And the company relaunched the script that somehow left its mark on Zoomer’s development.

Palm’s efforts to continue improving its products have accelerated with next-generation hardware and Palm OS. Palm Tungsten, Zire, Treo—the Palm brand after the merger with Handspring—followed each other… and the company even took part in a move that still surprises today. As a result of the decision to separate the software and hardware branches in 2003, a Palm was released in 2006 instead of the home operating system. Windows Mobile 5.0 included: Treo 700w.

However, times kept changing and before long, in early 2007 Apple introduced the iPhone and marked a before and after in mobile. Palm got into a fight with Center. Within a few years, the market had reversed. And with it the taste, needs and customer service. Fewer and fewer buyers are interested in the Palm PDA and the features it can offer. In 2008 there were stores where there were no more stores, and at the end of the same year the company announced that it would no longer develop new conventional PDAs.

This device, which triumphed and won public acclaim many years ago, has brought new mobile phones and his growing fan functionality.

One of their last PDAs was the Palm Tx, which was released in 2005 and was in production until early 2009. Was this the end of Palm? No. The company was going to fall into the hands of HP, its branding got the power of TCL and it was revived to offer a small Android device in 2018.

But that’s another story.

Pictures | Albertas Agejevas (Flickr) and Tomás J. Sepúlveda (Flickr)