Quote:
Originally Posted by thstone
Hmm. I think that the PP was a technical dead end and mostly an example of how something clever can become a fad. But forcing buyers to learn a new "language" was never going to work. Wireless network or not, it was doomed.
The smartphone was the result of "lessons learned" from the failure of the PP (and many others) and has proven to be a runaway success.
Remember at one point, Palm was valued at $1.5B. The question is whether Tesla represents the PalmPilot or the Smartphone? |
If memory serves you weren't actually forced to learn "grafiti" to type out messages. There was the option of the on-screen keyboard. Interestingly enough I'm doing the exact same thing 15 years late with my Samsung Galaxy Note. When typing messages I can write out the letters in a little box that has amazingly accurate text recognition or I can just I can peck at the keyboard with the S-pen (way more accurate for me than my finger) -- just like I did with the PP stylus. Today, the Samsung Note was the #1 selling smartphone in tech crazy South Korea at time of the Note 3 launch ant the Note 4 has done even better. A "Palm" sized device was such a success that Apple was forced to offer the iPhone 6 Plus to have something to compete with the Galaxy Note.
Without high speed wireless, any mobile smart device was going to have limited use and people would eventually lose interest. Once high speed wireless (at least 1 MBPS) brought you YouTube, NetFlix, audio streaming on Pandora/Spotify/etc, Skype/face time, WhatsApp/FB/Instagram, bla, bla, a mobile smart device would become indispensable to non-techy people. Had all those services been available to the PP on at least 3G-fast network, Palm would without question have partnered with a Sony, LG, Sharp to provide high resolution touch screens capable of playing back video and color web browsing. The PP didn't fail so much as it was ahead of its time or had bad timing depending on how choose to look at it. The iPhone's small size for nearly 7 years really didn't fill the void that the PP absolutely started. The PP was certainly the first mobile smart device that got non "techy" people to get out their wallet. Fast forward to 2014. Apple
finally offers a palm sized phone in addition to their largest regular iPhone ever and the biggest quarter in corporate history follows.
As far as Tesla, their customers love the cars much the way iPhone early adopters loved their devices. That doesn't happen very often. That's usually a sign that someone has refined something to the point where others have to take notice and offer similar products or be left way behind. One minute it was the old thing, the next it's a whole new ball game. Tesla has quiet a head start.