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An (Ex-) Apple In My Palm (8/27/01)
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Holy yikes, are you still holding out for a new Apple handheld?! Geez, we were the die-hards, and we gave in and bought Palms and Visors ages ago! Eventually you just have to face facts; when there's no hard evidence that a company is working on a product, and then a company bigwig publicly states outright that said company is not working on a product, and then the company's fearless leader even goes so far as to say that the market for similar products is not viable at this time, well, maybe it's time to break down and shop elsewhere.
If you're finally ready to let the dream die, take heart; while Apple still hasn't yet returned to the PDA market it created with the Newton back in 1993 (and, by its own admission, isn't planning to do so anytime soon), at least you can get a handheld with Apple people behind it. We've always known that Palm has had a heavy concentration of ex-Apple employees in the past, but faithful viewer Mark Powell just pointed out a CNET article which indicates that the company is simply lousy with 'em. Today Palm announced that the chief of its newly-split-off operating system subsidiary will be one David Nagel-- the guy who headed up Copland before that expensive and abortive attempt at a next-generation Mac OS was mercifully put out of its misery.
But wait, it gets better: the Chief Technology Officer reporting to Nagel is to be Steve Sakoman-- apparently a former head of the Newton project before he went over to Be. (Don't forget that Be was founded by ex-Apple dude Jean-Louis Gassée-- and that its operating system almost formed the basis for what turned out to be Mac OS X after Apple bailed on Nagel's Copland, but now is apparently going to form a framework for the next-generation Palm OS instead.) Toss in ex-Apple employees Doug Solomon (Palm's "chief strategy officer") and Satjiv Chahil (Palm's marketing czar), and you've got a handheld company that's pretty much being run by former Apple people anyway.
So if you're through with the whole "Apple handheld" rumor but you need a new conspiracy theory to take its place, how about this? Maybe the elimination of the Newton was just a smokescreen, and Apple is infiltrating the PDA market leader with a number of strategically-placed "ex-" employees in preparation for a takedown from within. Hey, it'll give you something to ponder while you comparison-shop for a non-Apple PDA...
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 8/27/01 episode: August 27, 2001: The AtAT staff finally gets to see what all the retail fuss is about. Meanwhile, back-to-school personal computer sales look dismal as kids reportedly remain satisfied with their existing gear, and the Appleizing of PDA maker Palm continues unabated...
Other scenes from that episode: 3266: Feel The Love, Retail-Style (8/27/01) We can now speak from experience: walking into an Apple retail store during a grand opening event is a trip. For us, we mean that both literally and figuratively, since we flew 900 miles from Boston to Chicago the night before, and boy were our arms tired... 3267: I Need A Car For Driver's Ed (8/27/01) Let's face it: we live in a world of dangerously skewed priorities. Take, for example, the hordes of morose children and teens preparing their imminent and sullen return to the halls of academia; as far as we can remember, just about the only good part of the end of summer vacation was the ritual of back-to-school shopping...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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