Their last move with Pre was nice, nut they did not catch the smartphone train on time.

I remember old times when Palm was "the" super gadget that all business men had in their pocket. But It seems that RIM took over this share now.

I agree, but to me "on time" means they were too far ahead. The Palm Treo was in every business man's pocket before RIM began to sell Blackberries. At this time (2001-2002) it was the only decent mobile phone device with email and organizer capabilities.

First of all, I prefer to wait and see (remember that same rumors were running on all medias about Motorola some months ago)

Second, If they fail on Smartphone market I would say that's because of their lack of innovation, it's good to be the ancestors of modern smartphones but it's better to be as modern as others

And third, if someone acquire Palm they would acquire more than just patent as Palm has developed a mobile Web OS for the Pre and the SDK to develop apps on it is getting better every day (maybe they went on Web OS path before the market was ready...)

But once again, wait and see...

I think Palm is exceeded I do not know what will make the company will buy Palm. With all smartphone (iPhone and Android) the Palm has no place. 

I had a Palm IIIc. It was really a great bit of kit. Even the handwriting recognition was pretty good (for the era) and I had the little fold up keyboard for when I needed to do lots of writing.

I would be sad to see Palm go - but I didn't buy a Palm Pre, clearly like many others.

I bet 1 SoftDollar on HTC to buy Palm Company and Palm OS.

And, by the way, Psion should win the PDA/Netbook war in the 2000'... Palm stuff was to bling-bling for me...

This might be a crazy thought but Palm went from the leader in business smart phones to being known as a feminine phone with the PRE, I think it needs to get over it's identity crisis in a hurry, stop trying to carve a niche, and focus on getting it relavent again! I suggest they start handing out free phones to every one that will accept one and earn off of value adds like service, apps, etc. until they command some market share. I'm sure Sprint or some other carrier wouldn't mind taking that ride and paying for the hardware manufacturing. The profits would be horrible but aren't they already? Then you regroup and start offering paid phones. I know dozens of people that would like a free smart phone and gladly pay a few dollars more for service or apps.   

@ Nicolas: You just lost 1 softdollar ;)

BREAKING NEWS: HP has announced that they will acquire all PALM shares so they now own Palm WebOS technology

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2010/100428xa.html

@ Mohamed: Ouch!

I loose 1 $oft, but It's a good news for Palm ;o)

From what I've read, HP is mostly after Palm's numerous patents. I'm pretty sure HP wants to get into the lucrative smartphone market. In fact, there was a rumour that HTC was eyeing Palm as well, hopefully to disentangle itself from Apple's lawsuits.

It's a shame the Pre wasn't a better phone.  I can remember salivating over the commercials.  I opted for HTC mostly because I didn't want to pay out the wazoo (that's a technical term) for an iPhone.  Which is not to say the iPhone is a bad piece of equipment (@Benoit =) )

With HP getting into the mobile game, it will be interesting to see how a new OS might change the way we handle our phones.  HP has been in the business for some time, creating an image of stylish design and smooth efficiency.  Their output should match that model.