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Handhelds Hardware

3Com Files to Spin Palm Division Off in IPO 88

Posted by Hemos from the ongoing-story dept.
It's been an ongoing story about 3Com and its PalmPilot division. The question, of course, has been what to do with it. Just a few months ago, we covered their original plan for spinning off the division, but now it looks like they are actually putting the plan in motion and we should see an IPO in about six months.
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3Com Files to Spin Palm Division Off in IPO More

3Com Files to Spin Palm Division Off in IPO

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  • I bought a palm pilot a copule years ago and stopped using it after a few months of novel fun.
    Still use the software for contacts on my box, but am wondering - are any of you out there total palm junkies, and do you find them very useful?
  • Never leave home without it. Can I live without it? Yeah, but since I have one, I take it wherever I go. Now I'm never without my phone numbers, appoitments, and addresses. My memory sucks.
  • I use mine every day. I don't know what I'd do without it. Actually, this morning, it fell out of my bag, and landed on the pavement. I nearly had a heart attack. Thats the second time I've dropped my PalmV, both times without any damage. But I think I'll buy a protective case now :)
    --
    Donald Roeber

  • $100 million? (Score:4)

    by DanaL ( 66515 ) on Tuesday December 14, 1999 @08:32AM (#1465599)
    That kind of reminded me of Dr. Evil saying he was ransoming the world for, "One MILLION dollars!"

    Are they just being humble? Unless the stock market comes to its senses in the next few months, I rather suspect they'll get a little more than $100 million (given absurdly high IPOs we've been seeing)!

    Dana

  • With the backing of 3Com, you knew they had a parent company strong enough to fight off the big boys. Going out on their own, though, they're in a marketspace with Microsoft, HP, and Compaq, among others. In some ways, this feels like a stab at making some big IPO money by the folks at 3Com -- spin 'em off, watch the stock go high on the IPO, sell the stock and count your money. I'm curious, and a little skeptical, if they'd continue to help them out if the Palm spinoff starts to run into rocky waters. They've already got theirs, so what's it to 'em?

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • Hmmm, this sounds interesting, but the main question is, are they getting rid of it because it's losing money, or are they spinning it off because, it's gotten too big for them to handle, or because they have other interests they wish to pursue instead? Anybody got more info on this?
  • Do you think this helps or hurts Handspring?

    I suppose the fact that Palm is stepping out bodes well for the handspring folks as they get to go out first. However, the anticipation factor in handspring probably got scuttled a little bit too.

  • Just a note, Palm has been is own entity since USR days. A huge orginizational gap. This will put into name (and dollars) the seperation that is already there. Foo
  • Can anyone honestly say that a Palm IPO would be a flop? They have the name recognition. They have the product. They are beating Microsoft in the PDA market by a wide margin. I predict fireworks on the first day of trading.

    We're all allowed one totally obvious comment, right?
  • I wonder how long it'll be before an independent Palm Pilot company gets bought out by a bigger fish? It's rumored that Apple, in particular, has had its eye on Palm for quite some time now...

  • Palm (Score:1)

    by Inkey$ ( 115300 )
    These things arent really that great in my highly overrated opinion.Cool,yes.A must have,no.Sure,they can make money on 'em by telling people they really need one,like home you need a Pentium III to "get the most out of the internet".Haha,yeah,right...
  • They're not going to make as much as, say, VA Linux or Amazon, because they actually sell something, and they're actually a real business. So, odds are the IPO will flop.
  • Personally, I find the amazing thing is that they didn't spin off the palm into a new company ages ago.

    3Com's big name is in networking... no matter what else they do, they continue to be a network equipment supplier. The Palm, on the other hand, has little to do with 3com's popular image. In fact, some people probably are unaware of anything else 3com does... just work on the Palm.

    By splitting the Palm away from the 3com name, the Palm is left to survive, and thrive, on it's own. The Palm doesn't have a huge impact on 3com's stock, because it is a side game. However, a company dedicated to producing the Palm would probably perform wonders in it's IPO... because the Palm is popular, works well, and generally has a name already.

    Disclaimer: Hey, I could be wrong - I'm a geek, not a market analyst. Technically speaking, I'm way out of my depth.
  • If they really want to cash in on all the IPO hysteria these days, they're going to have to issue some sort of open-sourcy "we play nice with linux" annoucement, won't they? :^)


    By the way, how come they never release the even numberes? I want a Palm VI, dammit!

  • For me, very. My desk is semi clean (I just scribbled a note on how to pass/define a function for a app I'm writing, other that that and mouse pad, remotes, etc..) where before my palm i couldn't see my desk. I can now remember passwords, phone numbers, where before I was lost. Could I live without it? Without a doubt. do I want to go back to hunting down numbers in a huge pile of papers? Taking notes I never find later? Not on your life. All I need now if a wireless modem for it for quick updates from the road, and when I'm away from my desktop for 1+ weeks... then I'm all set.

    David

    bash: ispell: command not found

  • Wait a sec... (Score:3)

    by ewhac ( 5844 ) on Tuesday December 14, 1999 @08:40AM (#1465614) Homepage Journal

    So let me get this straight:

    • The PalmPilot is initially developed by a small independent company;
    • Small independent company gets acquired by US Robotics;
    • US Robotics gets acquired by Candlesti... er, 3Com;
    • During all this, Palm products become tremendously popular and earn lots of money for 3Com;
    • 3Com spins off Palm independently again, except this time there's an IPO involved.

    IPOs are typically used to obtain working capital for business development. But the Palm series is already popular and profitable.

    Does this sound screwy to anyone besides me?

    Schwab

  • My Palm with the "My Checkbook" program is very useful... I take it with me wherever I go. With a debit card, it can be time consuming balancing your checkbook with debit transactions, but I just enter the transaction as it happens in the palm and I know at a glance what my balance is.

    Plus it's handy having "paper and pen" in my pocket should I need to jot stuff down quickly.

    Using it to control my TV is pretty fun too.
  • While the underwriters may make a large bundle, Palm Computing only gets the cash that they agree to sell the shares to the underwriters for...
  • Today, Microsoft's new IPO spinoff, Solitaire Inc. opened at $700, up from $1.99. There are rumors of Solitaire buying Corel, but these rumors have not been confirmed.
  • Did anyone happen to notice the way 3COM stock has shot up as a result of this spin-off? Given the absurdity cloud that already seems to be forming around this IPO, it's probably going to do another VA...3COM may be a better bet, if you can't get in on the pre-IPO price.

  • Re:How succesful has palm computing been? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I, with much trepidation, purchased a Palm V about 3 months ago. I was quite concerned that it would turn out to be nothing more then a cool toy that would lie forgotten in a drawer somewhere (like my laser pointer, etc).

    My concern was without merit.

    I take my Palm everywhere I go, and use the phone book, the to-do list, the calender, the memo pad etc. all the time.

    The phone book is great, when I meet somebody, I enter a few key words in the 'title' field, like what they look like, what they do, and so on. Then, when I want to remember a name, or need a phone number, I can just do a search for something I remember about them, and bingo! I have the name and number

    To-do list. What can I say? It keeps me sane at work, my stress level is quite manageable when I'm organized.

    The calender - the Palm will beep when I have a meeting or appointment coming up, It reminds me 5 days before a family member's birthday, That feature alone would make it worth while.

    Notepad - Suddenly all those random ideas I have find a home so that I will remember them for later.

    Of course I needn't mention the add on programs like CbasPad - a basic interpeter for the Palm (I wrote a program to track and plot my weight every day. I know within a day or two if I've been eating too much, so I can cut back before I get too heavy and have to go on a long diet). I also download books and read them with CSpotRun when I have free time (It beats carrying around several books, the Bible, and a greek New Testement). Of course there are games that you can have to keep yourself amused when you're bored (like PocketChess).

    --Jacob

  • Unless the stock market comes to its senses in the next few months, I rather suspect they'll get a little more than $100 million (given absurdly high IPOs we've been seeing)!

    The stock market has never lost its senses! It can see just as well now as it could two years ago, when I enjoyed the little scrapings of fat left on its plate after it had good prime rib!

    Seriously, though. I expect that the market capitalization on Palm will go right into the absurd levels within one month. Over time, that phantom stock value will slowly come to reflect something more realstic.

    I was greatly amused by how they compared it to Linux in the article, because I know some friends who are Linux champions that will pay ridiculous prices for a share of Palm stock for the same reason they would for a share of Red Hat. They will pay any price to support "cool" technology. I have to admit that it is an attractive viewpoint if one can afford to hold it.
    (I am not a Linux crusader, sorry. I like it, but I accept that I cannot get the work I need to do done in a non-windows environment without putting in a lot more work than I currently do.)

    B. Elgin

  • Actually, it isn't all that common for the company to raise in that range on their IPO. Consider that the company only makes the number of shares outstanding times the IPO price, not the market price.

    For example, I think VA Linux made about 40 million shares outstanding for their IPO. That's a good number for an entire company--consider that the Palm part of 3com is a fraction of their total market cap. I would say that the Palm division would come out at about 10 million shares. VA had a very, very high IPO price, about $30 a share...I expect that Palm would come out at about 12-15 per share, where most are.

    This comes out to about 120-150 million dollars. Even if the stock goes up to 200 (in that case the market cap would rise to 2 billion dollars), 3Com still only takes in $120-150 million.

    Feel free to correct me, I could be wrong.
  • From the article:
    Handspring too is slated to go public early next year, in another highly anticipated IPO.
    So it's very possible that this IPO could help Handspring by furthering the marketability of PDA companies in the marketplace.
  • I'm no Wall Street analyst but I can see from a mile away that this will be big. Palm's got everything going for them. They've got a great product with universal appeal -- everyone from high school kids up to executives have Pilots. They barely even need to advertise - their stuff sells itself.

    Even though the Linux companies seem somewhat shaky, Palm looks pretty sound. I wish I weren't a poor student and had enough $$$ to let e-trade sell me some IPO stock.

  • IPOs are typically used to obtain working capital for business development.

    My thought: they are worried about new palm devices hurting 3com's bottom line. So they spin the palm division off to seperate it from 3com. And if handspring, et. al. start to drown the palm division, only the stock holders of the PDA stock are feeling the heat -- not all of 3com.

    -d9
  • I've been hanging on to my 3com stock for 2 years
    now, watching it do nothing but go down and sit
    at pitifully low prices.

    this IPO announcement brings me hope that maybe
    someday i can actually get my money back out of
    3com.

    w00w00
  • Chances are pretty good that 3Com plans to do interesting things with where the money from the IPO goes. I could be completely wrong, but I foresee:

    "One for you... Ten for me. One for you... Ten for me." -- 3Com at the Palm IPO

    B. Elgin

  • OK....
    Now everybody start coding Palm apps so you can get in on the IPO!
  • Yes they said they hope to raise about $100 million, but then later in the story it says that they are allowing AOL, Motorola, and Nokia as large investors in 3Com to in buy 4.5% but not more than $225 million. By my calculations if $225 million was 4.5% then the total amount raised would be $5,000,000,000. Yes that's right folks, that is nine zeros better known as $5 Billion dollars. Not to humble IMO...
  • PALM's clear profit margin is an obvious liability in "the new economy." Their P/L (price to loss) ratio just can't compete with LNUX, RHAT or the other big boys.

    When will these starry-eyed corporate types learn? I mean, if a company already has a profit margin, then it can't have room for the immensely valuable future growth, right? Right?? ;)

  • Exciting time for the industry (Score:3)

    by MattMann ( 102516 ) on Tuesday December 14, 1999 @09:02AM (#1465634)
    It's an interesting question as to whether PalmPilot makes sense as a standalone company. Does that maximize the value of the technology to its owners?

    Clearly, it's the leading player in the handheld category of devices, and clearly handhelds are where a lot of action will be for the next few years. But equally, handhelds need to be wired, tethered, and tied to existing platforms for awhile to take advantage of the vast networks of data which already exist.

    By being independent, PalmPilot would be free to make alliances all over the place. A company like Compaq, for instance, might not "deal" with IBM as readily as they would with an independent. However, an independent will have problems growing quickly enough to cover all of the opportunities. Here lies the strength of a company like IBM having a division like PalmPilot. Think what the Apple Macintosh might have done had it been an IBM product in the early 80's!

    There may not actually be a way for one player to capture the lion's share of the economic value of this market. Go it alone and you risk being the VCR Beta or the Mac, while turning it into the industry standard like VHS means you are just one of many players. Of course, the Microsoft story shows that it can be done, but I'd think that would be hard to pull off in this market. Back when MS was creating its monopoly, reverse engineering and cloning the PC seemed daunting, but not today. Plus, competitors are much more wary given what Microsoft did. Opensourcing it would be VERY cool... for the customers. Hard to recommend it to 3Com with a totally straight face as it would open them up to shareholder lawsuits.

    Anyway, it doesn't make sense as a division of 3Com, no synergies at all with the sales force, channels, customers, etc. So, how should they dispose of it? They undoubtedly have had an eye on some of the wild IPOs lately and figure that's the best way to get the most money out of it now (watch: they'll tout it as a linux pure-play! :) which might make a pile of dough for them but won't necessarily yield the most successful outcome for the platform.

    Very exciting time for the industry, though.

  • Now if only they find a decent distro of Linux for the palm pilot, their IPO can probably increase 1000% on the release day.

  • I got a palm III at the begining of the year. At first it was the coolest thing and I tried to use it for everything. But I was never satisfied with the pen recognition. It worked, but I was limited to the speed that I write at. Personally I can type much much faster that I can write something. I ended up not using it and eventually got rid of it.

    Now I use an HP Jornada 680 and I love it. I can actually use it for taking meeting notes, working on Word documents as well as all the other personal information I store in it. It's great for the plane flights too because I never have enough room to open my notebook all the way, but with this I can use it easily. Sure its bigger and a little heavier but I don't mind. I just started carring a leather organizer again when I take it out of the office. The voice record feature works great for getting those instant thoughts. On top of all that, it's actually useful for browsing the web when I dial-in from home. I can even use secure pages and check my bank account, email, etc. I love it and would not go back to Palm.

    To sum it up, my personal answer is that the palm computing platform did not work for me. I wanted to do more than it would let me. I didn't mind the increase in size. I can actually use the jornada keyboard like it was a full size one.

    My final point, when I was at Comdex this year I saw people scribbling notes as fast as they could on their palms while I entered the same ammount of information in a fraction of the time on my keyboard. I saw most palm users quit mid-way through sessions while I never had a problem.

  • The Palm is the only 3Com product that I can think of that is sold directly to consumers. Everything else is networking equipment sold into very specific vertical markets. (Maybe winmodems are another exception, but I would imagine that resellers are the majority of purchasers.)

    Perhaps 3Com is worried that focusing on keeping "Best Buy" and other consumer outlets happy and selecting the right fruity colors for the plastic shell is detracting their management from pushing their commercial equipment. IBM stopped selling home computers for a similar reason.

    Of course, what good is naming a stadium after yourself if you have a funny name only sell obscure networking equipment? I guess there really is no such thing as bad publicity.
    --
  • You can see this as a part of a bigger move in the PDA/cellular field. Motorola and Nokia are now seriously teaming up with Palm and around Palm OS and Ericsson will probably be working in close co-operation with Microsoft using WinCE (or "Powered").

    This shows us a clear direction where mobile computing is now headed to: There will be a fierce fight between WinCE and Palm camps over dominance in handheld WAP handsets or, later in the future (not many years more, anyway), powerful handheld mobile Internet-enabled computers.

    No one will be using their cell phone only for talking in ten years (+-5 years, depends on when the 3rd Generation UMTS cell phones start appearing on consumer market) AND no one will be using their Palm X disconnected at that time.

  • If Apple buys out Palm, they'll probably run it like they run all their other computer divisions. Meaning:

    • No more Palm clones (sorry, Handspring, TRG, etc.) Meaning we'll see far less diversity in Palm devices.
    • They won't be able to manufacture systems to meet demand.
    • Interoperability with other operating systems will be not all that great, and forget about a genuine Linux interface. Try installing Quicktime 4 to see what I mean.
    • The interface will tend to stagnate (two mouse buttons is a minimum, for crying out loud!).
    • Prices will stay high because "everyone will want to buy our insanely great product anyway."
    • Chances are they'd immediately chuck the serial interface and you'd be stuck with only USB, or maybe FireWire. In other words, lousy support for legacy users.
    • Lawsuits for everyone!


    I'm not sure what effect Apple ownership would have on overall innovation. Apple tends to be ahead of the curve on some things, but can also be behind on other things. They tend to burn their bridges when they switch technologies, though, hence my comment above about legacy support.

    Jon
  • ...cause it doesn't have linux in the title!

    maybe if they change their name to "3com linux systems"

    :)
  • IPOs are typically used to obtain working capital for business development. But the Palm series is already popular and profitable. It is helpful to remember that although an econ prof might once have taught you that companies go public to access capital to grow, there are in fact many reasons why a company will go public (even this is not all-inclusive):

    The obvious - they want the cash for expansion.

    Publicity - in this day and age, having a big IPO will get you a lot of free publicity.

    Make management of the company a lot of $. In this case, doubtless the staff of Palm is clamoring for the IPO considering their parent's (3Com) stock has been going nowhere for a while now.

    Help attract new management and staff through the ability to give them options for a stock that is already public.

    Like I said, there are many more reasons, but these are the ones that seem applicable in this case.

  • Re:How popular are they? (Score:3)

    by Bearpaw ( 13080 ) on Tuesday December 14, 1999 @09:18AM (#1465642)
    The way I understand it, while Palm was a nice moneymaker, it didn't fit really well with the rest of 3Com's business. And the Palm folks evidently felt constrained by having to deal with a parent company, and wanted to be more independent, to be better able to respond to competition in the handheld market.

    It's also my understanding that there was (is?) a large brain-drain going on, as Palm lost a lot of its really good people to Handspring. (Ironic, given that Hawkins and Dubinsky left Palm in '98 to form Handspring after 3Com refused to let them spin off Palm.) Palm may be hoping that the results of an IPO will enable them to afford to keep (and hire) good employees.

  • The Palm is the only 3Com product that I can think of that is sold directly to consumers.

    They sell networking kits, hubs and NICs through CompUSA, Office Max, and probably others.
  • Well an IPO is an initial public offering, and required implicitly in order to be a publicly traded company. Some companies may use them for capital injections, but UPS just had their IPO, and they're certainly not in need of quick cash. Just another business move.
    --
  • ...do you find them very useful?

    Absolutely. I grabbed a Pilot when they first came out, and my life instantly got a whole lot more organized.

    Now I've got a Visor (the PalmOS device from Handspring), and I'm even happier with that. Could I live without it? Yeah, of course ... but I'd sure as hell miss it.

    Now if only someone would just hurry up with a wireless-modem Springboard, I'd be all set ...


  • Sorry, I don't consider networking hubs or cards a normal consumer electronic device (like a CD player, say), even if they are sold into the home office market.
    --
  • Palm has long been underappreciated at 3COM. Considering it's the most successful product they have, it deserved much more funding for new product development. Now as an independent entity, it will have the money to develop new Palms and derivative devices. But it could be too late because the two founders left last year to start Handspring, which licenses the PalmOS from 3COM.

    As always, the success of this company will depend on what it can do next. It won't be an automatic success just because the Palm[X] was successful. It will have a nice stream of licensing royalties from Handspring, and sales of existing products are good, but it will have to innovate in order to thrive. Imagine the irony of licensing Handspring's "springboard" expansion card technology?

    I'm just waiting for a big notepad-sized palm with a color screen that can read regular web pages, has a nice text editor, and costs $300.

  • Looks like Palm is lined up with all the big players, so 3Com is no longer needed to provide "parental support"... kinda like when the kid in college is about to graduate and earn more in a salary than both parents combined...

    Just some names: Nokia, Motorola, Sony

    Handhelds: PalmOS vs. Linux???
  • I used to use my Palm all the time. Lately, however, the problem has been keeping Palm info in sync with my other devices. Since I started using a cell phone, I keep most frequently called numbers there. My phone (Motorola StarTAC 7762) can't sync to my Palm, so I end up having two lists I have to keep up to date. My e-mail software (Microsoft Outlook Express for the Mac) can supposedly sync to the Palm, but I have yet to get it to work (the documentation is terrible and of no help).

    I think some standards for synchronization of various devies (maybe of data formats) needs to happen. Ideally I'd like my palm to be on the net all the time and also work as my cell phone (the PDQ is too big). Maybe some day.

    The tough thing is making a device small enough to make people bring it with them all the time, but with a large enough screen to be useful.
  • I use an AvantGo keyboard with my Palm 3 and love it. I agree with the AC above, but I would rather have a Palm+keyboard setup. Seems to me I have the best of both worlds (clamshell and palmtop). Plus most of the software I use is not available on CE (there may be equivalents though, I haven't really looked).

    -ec
  • No arguements that a mini-laptop like a Jornada 690 is easier to type on. Of course, a real laptop is even easier in my opinion, and has more flexibility. When I need to take notes at a meeting, then I bring my laptop, but when I'm running around during the day, I bring my Palm 5000. I treat my Palm like it's a organizer and the only notes that I make on it are brief, but for real work, I use my laptop.

    A Palmtop is smaller than a mini-laptop - this has all the disadvantages that a small size has... small screen that's hard to read, no keyboard, little or not expansion, etc. But, it is smaller. If you are like me and will only carry something around if it can fit in your pocket, then the Jornada is simply too big. Also a Palm is cheaper. Those Jornada 680's start at roughly $900. This is about 4X the price of a Palm IIIe, and approx. 1.5X the price of a Palm VII.

    Still, there's no doubt that you are correct, Palms are for some, and not for others. I tell anyone who asks about my Palm, to buy one from a store with a good return policy.
  • I meant to say I use a Landware GoType keyboard. There are other keyboards available, but for me I am quite happy with this combination. Lots of times I wouldn't want lug around anything bigger than a Palm3.

    -ec
  • I have a Palm V (that I bought for $200) and when it broke (wouldn't turn on anymore) I could not;

    o Remember my home number
    o Remember my wife's work number (she wasn't happy)
    o Remember my home zip code
    o Frequent long trips to the in laws were boring because no games !!!


    I'm totally dependent on this device !!! If you don't use yours send it to me :)
  • Another factor is that 3Com stands to make quite a bit more money by spinning Palm off. As a division of 3Com, Palm's affect on the stock price was negligible. Great announcements like the recent deals with Sony and Nokia barely nudged 3Com's stock valuation. If Palm were standalone, the effect on the stock price from such announcements would have been much more dramatic.
    It's not as if 3Com is just cutting Palm loose. They'll get a fairly huge amount of shares in the new Palm and stand to make quite a bit of change off of Palm's efforts.
    Palm also gets more freedom and "maneouverablility" not living under the 3Com roof. They're not limited to who they can deal with. For instance, it wouldn't look good if Palm - a division of 3Com - were to suddenly write wireless network software to run on Cisco hardware. Strategic decisions don't have to be run past as many committees and managers who may not be as "in tune" with Palm's needs and situations.
    All in all, I think it's a Good Thing(tm) for everyone involved.
  • But, 3Com is still retaining 80% of the stock. They have a huge interest in making Palm work on its own.
  • I can't remember if it was the Palm 4 or the Palm 6 but one of those numbers stands for death in an Asian country (I don't know which one) and Palm didn't want death associated with their handheld...

    In the words of David Pogue: "Here, take a look at my Palm Death!".
  • Like many others who've posted, I find my Palm incredibly useful -- I've been using mine since April of this year, and have settled into regular usage patterns.

    Everything that used to go on bar napkins or post-its or whatever now end up on my Palm, rather than a pile of papers bits (and ultimately the trash).

    The key, for me, is that I actually take the Palm everywhere! If you leave it at home, you can't use it! So I had to find a case I could deal with (originally the Slim Wallet, but I've switched to the hardshell JetPac) that was small enough to fit in a pocket, but rugged enough to protect the device. Now I don't leave home without it.

    And while there are paper pocket organizers, they tend to be bigger that the Palm. And they can't remind you of an appointment or event unless you remember to look at it. The Palm can beep until you have a look.

    On the other hand, I've found that my usage has stabilized down to using the phonebook, the notepad, and memopad. I had assumed that I'd use any number of add-ons, but that tends to be rare with me.

    Now I just want a stable version of the pdQ phone with a cheap wireless net access plan...

  • Palm is banking on their OS being the big seller for the embedded device market, vs selling hardware.. Handspring, IBM, Symbol, TRG, Qualcomm are but a few of the hardware manufacturers that license the Palm OS. With agreements with companies like Nokia and Sony to boot, they are in a very good position for the budding, soon to explode embedded device/wearable PC market.

    Sure a PDA is cool and all, but thats not the Killer App. An easy to use, crash proof(mostly), fast, cheap, handheld window to the infinite resources of the internet.. now thats utility. And I dont really need Windows/Linux/MacOS or any other full figured operating system to accomplish this. Granted there will always be some wonderful open sourcers that shrink a kernel down, but IMHO Palm OS will most likely be the OS thats running on such a device.

    They pretty much have it in the palm VII's (all but the cheap part) I use my wireless palm to read slashdot on the bus to work everyday, check my email, etc. My boss uses his to unlock his car when he locks the keys in (using the infrared port). The value of these devices cant be understated. There is just too many possiblities.

    The whole IPO craze is definitely a little disturbing, brought about because everybody wishes that they had bought some cisco 5 years ago, but IMHO you'll probably wish you had some Palm stock 5 years from now...
  • Unless the stock market comes to its senses in the next few months, I rather suspect they'll get a little more than $100 million (given absurdly high IPOs we've been seeing)!

    I believe that $100 million figure is just for the 20% of the company that will be sold to the public. According to this New York Times article [nytimes.com], the figure is actually a bit under 20%. That said, they're shooting for something closer to a $500 million market cap, though I'd say that still leaves plenty of room for the share price to jump to insanely wild heights in the first few days of trading.

  • Yes, I know that there's other versions out there (anybody know of good instructions to get it to work with StarOffice?), but I'd still like to see 3com's original program ported over. I'm willing to bet if they announced better Linux support, their stock would go up further.

    John "Dark Paladin" Hummel
    Game news? http://www.pcfan.com [pcfan.com]

  • I actually received a Palm Pilot Professional (old school) as a high school graduation gift from my parents. The first thing I did with the device (after setting the time, date, etc.) was download far too many games and install them on my Palm. It was fun for a while, but as I continued to dump all sorts of apps on my Pilot, it started to freeze periodically and crash regularly. Frightened at what I had done, I hid my Pilot in a dark corner of my desk drawer and forgot about it for more than a year (and after the warranty had ended, of course). Now, a year later! All the news about Palms renewed my desire to be in-sync, so I decided to try using it again. I swore to myself that I wouldn't install any extra applications on it, then proceeded to put all of my address, schedule, and random info jonx on my PalmPilot. I thought I might be deluding myself to believe that the problem had just gone away as a result of my neglect, but the Palm did work for a few days. Then it froze! The only way to get out of its frozenness was to reset everything. After I told my brother about the regularly scheduled freezings, he suggested that I do a "hard reset" and wipe out everything. I tried that and was so excited after 4 consecutive days without crashing that I announced to all my friends that the Palm issue had been solved. Then on the fifth day, as I was trying to retrieve some very important information for one of my classes, it just wouldn't turn on!! Now to make my Pilot turn on, I have to put in new batteries each time. So I decided that after all this time, I should finally let go. I'm suffering from Palm withdrawal, feelings of isolation and helplessness..cluelessness, chaos and the like. But life goes on, and my system of scrawling things on crumpled and torn bits of paper is more expedient and trustworthy anyway. Good luck, users. May you learn from my mistakes.
  • I can't remember if it was the Palm 4 or the Palm 6 but one of those numbers stands for death in an Asian country (I don't know which one) and Palm didn't want death associated with their handheld... In the words of David Pogue: "Here, take a look at my Palm Death!".

    Umm, Japan, I think, and the number is four. There are two/three ways to say four, and one is associated with death. Can't remember which one it is though.

  • > IPOs are typically used to obtain working capital for business development.
    > But the Palm series is already popular and profitable.
    > Does this sound screwy to anyone besides me?

    The small reason: IPOs are called "liquidity events' by venture capitilists.


    The big reason: Chambers (Cisco CEO) was a keynote speaker at the Palm developers conference. He hinted that there are big deals that would NOT happen if Palm had remained strictly a 3Com captive division.


  • I pulled the price off of HP's direct sale's web site. Most often these are slightly more expensive, but in this case, I guess HP is ripping off it's direct sales customers.

    Go here:

    http://www.hp.com/jornada/products/680/overview. html

    And click "Buy Online" to see the $900 price that I mentioned.

    $680 is much better, but it's still too much to spend on a glorified organizer. But each to their own.
  • When the palmpilot first came out, I saw it in Staples and instantly fell in love with it. Of course, I immediately got one (and one for my mother, too) and use it constantly. Now I've got a Visor [handspring.com] and love it even more.

    The great thing about the palm for me, is the ability to have all the information you could want with you at all times. For class, I have

    • a copy of the book [promo.net] that we're reading in class
    • AvantGo [avantgo.com] for reading the news when class gets insomniating
    • the todo list for writing down homework assignments
    • the memopad for taking notes (well, classes other than math and physics)
    • date book for keeping track of meetings with teachers or consultant work after school
    Of course, I always seem to find another use for it (tv remote and flashlight come to mind :-) ).

    A note on graffiti: it's great for what it was intended for, quick jots while holding the device in your hand without having to unfold or setup anything. Meeting someone and taking down their number/setting up an appointment is really what the system was geared for. It doesn't scale up very well, though, for something like taking extended notes in class or working on a paper. So, I now am anxiously awaiting This really cool folding keyboard [thinkoutside.com].

    I have gotten to play with a WinCE (I refuse to call them by their new name) device (my dad's HP Journada). Save the battery life (s'posedly 10 hours) and possibly the price (~$900) I see no reason to buy one of those things. True, it can do all the things that most people want from a laptop (ms office stuff, web access, email) but in that case, why not just get a laptop? As for using them as a PDA-type function. They are a bit smaller than a laptop, but not small enough. One of the major things I enjoy with my Visor, is that I always have it on hand. During class, at work, at a consulting job, and at home. You just can't just stuff a jornada in your front pocket (well, I probably can [mmm, big pockets. plenty of room for visor, RJ-45 crimper, penguins, etc..] ;-) but it's still not very practical).

    So, I always have my Visor, and am thusly never really bored (games, books, news, work). The next step is to go for total integration: wire the visual output directly to my brain and have the unit tickle my visual cortex so that the screen overlays whatever I see. After that, thought recognition and after that make it have some sort of temporal shifting capabilities so it knows what I want it to do, even before I tell it (hrm... reminds me of some certain elevators ;-)).

  • Buying some COMS could actually be a very good idea if you want a piece of the PALM IPO. What's going to happen is, on the day of the IPO they'll split the COMS shares into two entities. There will be some equation to determine what fraction of the old COMS share value was PALM and what fraction was the rest of COMS.

    They'll take however many shares of COMS you own as of some date, run it through the calculation, and give you X shares of the new PALM and X shares of the new (rest of) COMS. After that, the shares trade basically independently and you can buy or sell as you like.

    I have no idea what the date you have to own COMS is, for all I know it alrady passed. I also have no idea what the calculation is going to be or how to determine if it will be beneficial to you. Consult your financial advisor. YMMV, IANAL and IANASB

  • No, I don't think that claim is ridiculous. The person who buys networking equipment is most likely not the "end user" (meaning the person who is actually using the NIC/Hub). It's the person who is paid to worry about such things.

    (You and I may have home networks for our personal use, but that's an exception to the rule.)
    --
  • I use mine every day. I don't know what I'd do without it. Actually, this morning, it fell out of my bag, and landed on the pavement. I nearly had a heart attack. Thats the second time I've dropped my PalmV, both times without any damage.

    Lucky bastard. :-) I was riding my bike back from class one day, and something happened (hand slipped or something) such that I fell off. My PalmPilot Pro was in the front pocket on the side I landed on...c-r-a-c-k. :-(

    I was still able to sync my notes out of it, though, and got a replacement for $100. As part of that process, 3Com "screwed up" somewhere and ended up sending me a Palm III as a replacement. I called them to verify what should've happened...they said I could keep it, or if I was really set on another PalmPilot Pro, I could send it back and they'd send out the "right" product. I think it's pretty obvious what choice I made. (Let's see...double the RAM and infrared...what would I do with those? :-) )

  • so what ?

    many companies have ipos, who cares ?
  • Funny, but only about three weeks ago 3COM sold the manufacturing plant in Salt Lake City that makes Palm Pilots & USR PCMCIA (Megahertz division) products (www.manserve.com).

    I also worked in that facility for a bit (6 months ago). And I got some impressions that 3COM corporate have different expectations than the realities of the USR/Megahertz PCMCIA manufacturing process, when compared to PC LAN cards (very small form factor, LOTS of parts count vs. lots of room, almost no parts).

    It may also have to do with problems managing divisions/products that are too far removed from the 3COM core products that they are used to and understand. This way they don't have to worry about how to manage a product that isn't their forte'

    Remember that 3COM probably bought USR so that they could cover more computer data COM bases. Palm Pilots are not directly associated with that racket, though they do use that kind of stuff.

    It may not be the only reason, but could be a factor. And yes, make some bucks along the way.
  • I was just wondering, will the IPO be available for non-US investors...? IPO's seem to have capture the hearts of many investors, and as I really kicked myself when I missed RedHat's I'd like to not miss this one...

    What I wish: Why can't there be an IPO listing service? or am I just being stupid and not paying attention?

  • Apple has been interested in re-entering the PDA space for some time now. If they push in with their own entry they are likely to fragment the market and pull some of the steam out of Palm since anybody who is sticking to Windows CE at this point has a brain that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft.

    Palm makes a great product but they don't have very good mac specific features (though it used to be worse). With Apple growing in market share, this is a bad thing for Palm. Hopefully, Apple will buy up a stake in Palm and use that to influence the company to at least license the Palm OS out to Apple.

    DB
  • I have no problem with Apple licensing the PalmOS, I just don't want them to OWN it! By all means, let them produce a Palm OS widget so long as its software remains interoperable with the other Palms.

    Jon
  • Hmm..I think you have me mistaken for someone else, considering that this is my first time posting and I don't have an internship at any Microsoft WinCE things.

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