“HP has just issued an invitation to the press for a webOS event in San Francisco on February 9th. The minimal email asks attendees to ‘Think Big. Think Small. Think Beyond.’ — and that definitely sounds like a multi-product launch to us. If we were betting types, we’d put money on a phone (perhaps rumors we’ve been hearing about the ‘world’s smallest’ smartphone will turn out to be true), a tablet, and lots of talk about the future of webOS. One thing missing? The name Palm. Looks like that brand could be on the way out.”
I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but in the UK HP’s brand is more widely recognised than Palm.
So I wouldn’t be suprised if HP dropped Palm’s name from their marketing.
Well I’d say that overall the Palm brand is more renowned for its PDA than for its smartphones…
Back in the day they were the kings. They popularized the PDA and made it something useful and “common”.
Later the Treo line of smartphones were very good but in my opinion much less recognized than their PDA. Especially after Blackberry came and basically took that market from them.
And finally the WebOS devices. Which didn’t make the Palm name much bigger in spite of the wonderful OS they were running…
When I show my Palm Pré Plus running the wonderful WebOS, people either don’t know Palm at all, or they say “Palm? They are making PDA, aren’t they? Is it a PDA? I thought you were using a phone?!? <puzzled expression>”
So in my opinion, HP dumping the Palm brand may be a shame but surely not a bad move.
It is certainly best for WebOS to get a fresh start with the name of HP rather than under an old brand known for antiquities only.
Well yeah, I know Palms history well.
My point was that most people over here will recognise HP where as only the geeks (like us) will have heard of Palm.
In short, we agree 🙂