Description of how the handheld pilot computing giant lost billions of dollars to the thriving competition. A wonderful work by André Brant, Adrés Olea Juanne Zhao, and Petros Sakkas

1. Palm Computing: the Pilot Organizer
MGMT-S5016: Management of Technology and Innovation
Harvard Summer School
July 15, 2013
André Brant, Adrés Olea
Juanne Zhao, and
Petros Sakkas

2. Overview
Who is Palm Computing?
 Brief history of the company
What is the Pilot Organizer?
 A handheld personal digital assistant “PDA”-shirt-pocket sized, extremely
user-friendly and easily upgradable
 A third devise that is more than a cell phone but less than a PC
 A replacement of the traditional pen and paper organizers
 Capable of scheduling, to-do lists, and organizing personal directories

4. A replacement of the traditional pen and paper organizers
the third device that is more than a cell phone but is less than a PC

5. Product and Market Analysis

6. Target Users
Every consumer who has the need for organizing their
personal and professional life

7. Market development
End of 1996, US market only: 360,000 Pilots vs. 112,000,00 PCs

8. The Company Strategy

9. How did Palm fail? – In the PDA Maket
Frequent changes
Corporate
Palm Computing Inc. (1992), US Robotics (1996), 3Com (1997),
Handspring (1998), Palm Inc. (2000), PalmOne (2003), HP (2010) and
finally Gram (2012)
Management
Strategy against competition
(software, PDA or smart phone?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm,_Inc.#Logo_evolution_gallery, accesed on July 5, 2013

10. How did Palm fail?
http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1180&c=palm_i705, http://www.blackberrys.ru/review/4037.html , accesed on July 5, 2013
RIM BlackBerry 5810
3/2002
RIM Inter@ctive Pager 850
12/1999
Palm i705
1/2002
US Robotics Pilot Pro
3/1997

11. How did Palm fail?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springboard_Expansion_Slot, http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1159&c=handspring_visor_prism, accesed on July 5, 2013
Handspring Springboards
(cameras, wireless/WiFi, GPS)
Handspring Visor Prism
10/2000

12. How did Palm fail?
Product differentiation
Rely on its early success and played the old school
Graffiti the only innovation (for how long?)
Radical or Incremental innovations?
Graffiti, cradle, seamless/quick PC connectivity, SpringBoard
Phone capabilities, WiFi, apps development/market
Using Windows OS and iTunes!
Late mover
Graffiti vs. keyboard

13. How did Palm fail?
Marketing strategy
 Too much focus on Graffiti
US is the only market?
Target groups
http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2010/01/18/input.php, accessed on July5, 2013.

14. Saver Kit for the Company
Commitment
How committed was the innovation team?
full time entrepreneur (24/7) instead of part time
Move faster than their rivals
Funds raising
Stay with Palm Computing and search for funds?
Go through acquisitions?
More focus
Product functionality
Advanced technology
Majority users needs

16.  Palm Pre: big expectation vs small innovation
How did Palm fail with its
Smartphones?
 Too long agreement with Sprint
 Failure design and poor hardware

17. How did Palm fail with its
Smartphones?

18.  Palm was just to slow. Lost momentum, they needed
to hurry up and then the 3GS happened
 Palm didn't let developers make WebOS apps until it
was too late
 Palm didn't have the equivalent of an iPod touch
 Palm's had serious marketing issues
How did Palm fail with its
Smartphones?