Palm's Mysterious Third Product Category Still in Development

Over the past year or so, Jeff Hawkins, Palm's co-founder, has made several references to his company's plans to create a mysterious third product category that's neither a handheld or smartphone.

With Palm's increasing focus on its Treo line of smartphones, some have questioned whether this device will ever be released.

That's why Michael Mace, the former VP of Product Planning at Palm, asked Ed Colligan, Palm's CEO, if Hawkins' project is still in development. The answer was "yes," but Colligan would not give any additional information.

What Little We Know

When asked for details on this mysterious product category during his interview last year with the Portland Business Journal, all Hawkins would say was:

I always think of mobile computing as personal computing. This long-term vision has led us through everything -- first the organizers and now through the smart phone space. It's like everything a personal computer is. Continue down that path. What are the implications of a world where everyone has a super high-speed Internet connection in their pocket and many gigabytes of storage, super-fast processors, audio, visual and multimedia? What are the consequences of that? How will that change computing when you have all that stuff available to you all the time? I try to think into the future. That's how we come up with new products. So I'm not going to tell you what it is, but it's following the consequences of mobile computing.

Mace's comments on this product can be found in his blog, Mobile Opportunity.

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Via Palm Infocenter