Biology of Business

Palm Inc

Technology · Founded 1992 · Defunct 2010

By Alex Denne

Palm's 2010 acquisition by HP for $1.2 billion ended the PDA pioneer that invented the modern smartphone category. Palm's Pilot and Pre devices were innovative but couldn't compete against iPhone's ecosystem and Android's scale. HP bought Palm for webOS, then abandoned it within two years. Palm demonstrated that creating a category doesn't ensure surviving it.

Key Leaders at Palm Inc

Jon Rubinstein

CEO

Key Facts

1992
Founded