HP bought palm today

[AdmiralViscen]

underdog becomes serious contender 

[Joe Molotov]

Gay Pride?

[recursivelyenumerable]

I don't think I'll be buying a smartphone until the end of this year (that's if I get a job that enables me to do that).  Unless I actually get a job writing WP7 apps, which is a possibility.

[Kestastrophe]

palm was on the verge of bankruptcy, iirc.

Plus look at that share price:
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=PALM+Interactive#chart1:symbol=palm;range=1y;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

It was too bad, because by all accounts the Pre was a great phone that didn't sell

[The Fake Shemp]

Palm came into the market too late. Look how long it took Google to gain traction, and that was before there was any competition.

[Cormacaroni]

Yes, Palm was screwed. HP probably just wants it for its intellectual property, like WebOS, and its engineers. I'd laugh my legs off it they actually started pumping money into it to make it a "serious contender".

[recursivelyenumerable]

HP probably just wants it for its intellectual property, like WebOS, and its engineers.

Isn't that pretty much what a company is?

[AdmiralViscen]

Yes, Palm was screwed. HP probably just wants it for its intellectual property, like WebOS, and its engineers. I'd laugh my legs off it they actually started pumping money into it to make it a "serious contender".

hp has been trying to get into smartphones for years. They are keeping the palm staffon, maintaining them as an independent unit of hp, expanding their phone lineup and putting webos on tablets. How could this be better for palm?

[Rman]

I like WebOS a lot, but I'm not a fan of the handsets.  They need more compelling hardware.

[M3wThr33]

Imagine a tablet running WebOS.

Real Multi-tasking, ADOBE FLASH, NO NEED TO ASSOCIATE WITH A PC, open app market without hacking. Tethering.

Basically everything the iPad lacks.

[Cormacaroni]

Yes, Palm was screwed. HP probably just wants it for its intellectual property, like WebOS, and its engineers. I'd laugh my legs off it they actually started pumping money into it to make it a "serious contender".

hp has been trying to get into smartphones for years. They are keeping the palm staffon, maintaining them as an independent unit of hp, expanding their phone lineup and putting webos on tablets. How could this be better for palm?

For Palm, it's better than bankruptcy, sure! If HP doesn't recognize how far behind it'd be in smartphones at this point, then they'll be pissing their money away. Using webOS for a tablet makes plenty of sense. Betting on Palm to take meaningful share from Apple and Google in the smartphone realm is

[AdmiralViscen]

The Palm Pre was the #7 selling smartphone in the country last year. HP iPaq, not so much.

Palm needed better marketing, better hardware, and more money to expand their lineup. Guess what HP aims to do.

[Cormacaroni]

ok, you're in denial if you think Palm is some kind of market-conquering jewel just waiting to be polished. It's best asset (webOS) is something that the competition (Apple/Google) at worst competes with very well. I don't give fucking MICROSOFT any shot at taking significant market share away from those two, and it has a lot more cash to invest than HP. They'll make some wannabe smart phones that go nowhere much, and some wannabe tablets that go nowhere much, end of story. 

[AdmiralViscen]

Uh I didn't say that dude. I said Palm's 8% was better than .5% that HP has now.

You might be right though, and HP doesn't know shit about consumer electronics.

[Cormacaroni]

yeah, but 8% of that market is worse than 0.5% if you are trying to really make money. You're competing with people who are actually profiting, while you are paying out more in marketing than you are bringing in in revenues in an attempt to catch up. It's a money pit. No matter what HP is saying, I'd bet it's just out to stripmine Palm of its usable assets and dump the rest.

[AdmiralViscen]

Ok