HP And Palm, April 2010
Ah, Palm: an aging mobile phone pioneer struggling for relevance in an Apple and Android world. With slowing momentum and little more than appreciative shrugs for its Palm Pre and Palm Pixi phones, Palm seemed destined for the scrap heap last year, but then HP swooped in, ponying up $1.2 million to acquire it.
HP is attempting to position itself as an end-to-end networking and technology player, and in that regard, it may not be Palm so much as the operating system, webOS, that HP obtained through the acquisition that gets HP closer to the mobile device catbird seat. Tech observers will get a taste of HP's newfound webOS mobile strategy next month, when media gather in San Francisco for a webOS device launch event Feb. 9.
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