Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring and the Birth of the Billion Dollar Handheld Industry

Author - Andrea Butter ... [Goo?] [Posters]
Author - David Pogue ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Wiley was reviewed on 24-Oct-2008.

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1) Hardcover Book Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring and the Birth of the Billion Dollar Handheld Industry by Wiley. Andrea Butter worked for Palm. David Pogue is by all accounts a nice guy who wouldn´t deliberately besmirch someone. Thus both may have had understandable reasons for not telling the entire of what has become the Palm and Handspring debacle. At least that´s my feeling: the whole story just isn´t here.

The Palm story, of course, is dramatic. A man with a vision, Jeff Hawkins, started off to implement his idea of a handheld computer. Not a mere organizer, but not a substitute for a full-blown PC either. Keep it simple was the mantra, the so-called Zen of Palm. It wasn´t an instant success story. There were many hurdles to be overcome.

Hawkins teamed with Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan and they fought the battle together. Lacking sufficient capital they sold the company first to US Robotics, a high flier at the time, which in turn sold out to 3Com. Much of the story is about the battle of the trio with management at US Robotics and 3Com.

Pogue and Better paint the story as being the three Davids against the evil Goliaths. Anyone following the industry, of course, knows that is not the truth, the whole truth and nothing else. Hawkins, Dubinsky and Colligan weren´t and aren´t the altruists painted here. Like so many others they had a streak of greed and selfishness. But as is the fashion in Silicon Valley, the players and their companies cloak themselves as saviors of humanity, as entities that want to do only good. (The height of this self-serving hypocrisy is Google´s mission statement of "do no evil."

In reality, Palm, Handspring and everyone else in the industry do what first what benefits them. In the calculus of Palm and Handspring the customer often came last.

Better and Pogue generally ignore this.

However, the story is still compelling. The Palm device and then Handspring did literally invent an entirely new category of computing and have made the lives of millions more productive and, frankly more fun.

Still, considering what happened to both Palm and Handspring, shortly after this book was published is evidence that all was not well at Palm and Handspring. Both companies encountered difficult times and much of the ensuing disaster could be laid at the feet of Hawkins and Dubinsky. There´s no overt hint of that in the book.

I bear no animus toward Palm or Handspring. I use Palm products, wouldn´t give them up, but I also know that neither company was as perfect, well-intentioned and customer friendly as Better and Pogue would want you to believe. This is a good business biography, but veers too much toward hagiography.

Jerry¤

2) Hardcover Book Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring and the Birth of the Billion Dollar Handheld Industry by Wiley. From Hawkins initial vision until early 2002, Piloting Palm chronicles the birth of the handheld industry´s first real success story: Palm. The triumphs and set-backs are re-lived in detail in this page-turner that is augmented by numerous quotes from Hawkins and the others who lived it. The book is more of a chronology, and with the exception of evidencing a very pro-Palm and later pro-Handspring bias (one of the authors worked for Palm´s marketing division previously), the book avoids drawing any conclusions about the companies and their successes and failures.

Insight, however, abounds from the quotes which appear on literally almost every page. The authors´ access to the managers of the two companies is quite impressive; however, the book is little more than a narrative of what happened and doesn´t really comment on how the principals felt that they could have improved on their performance or what lessons can be applied from their struggles to other businesses. In fact, the book talks more about how to build a PDA than a business.

The book will probably be regarded as the definitive history of the companies, but it really doesn´t go far beyond that, and forces the reader who is looking to apply the lessons to search deeply within to extract the gold nuggets that are hidden throughout.¤

3) Hardcover Book Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring and the Birth of the Billion Dollar Handheld Industry by Wiley. This is the story of the handheld PDA and its development. Originally an idea of
Jeff Hawkins, he brought Donna Dubinsky on board as CEO to start a company to develop what became the Palm Pilot. Along the way both struggle to get enough capital to continue to make the product a success. They eventually get backing from
3 Com and while the capital is available, dealing with 3Com management becomes a major issue. Both eventually leave to from Handspring, and the story stops about a year into the new company, with Palm the dominant supplier of PDAs, but seemingly mismanaged, and Handspring´s future uncertain.

The punches are surely pulled when describing the investors of capital in the business (there were many) - why would the story be so torturous if there had been more belief among the major investors in either the product and/or the management?
Another issue which I read into the story, is the sheer difficulty of working with the vision team that is Hawkins/Dubinsky - each non-Palm manger who is brought in by
3 com to develop the product seems to be confused, visionless or plain wrong. I began to have sympathy for the folks who had to manage Palm during the long-running dispute that led to their departure. From this book´s viewpoint it looks as if only the original team of true believers could deliver the product, the process and the profits. I was not convinced.

Hawkins seems to have developed the operating systems and handprint recognition software that was the basis of the original product. He and Dubinsky argued against licensing this software while at Palm and yet were the primary beneficiaries of such a license when they formed Handspring. Hawkins in particular seems obsessed with the product rather than the system, and this I feel must limit the
Proliferation of the PDA concept - surely the reason that the PC overcame Apples´ first mover advantage was the decision by IBM to license the operating system. Most of the early Palm personnel were ex-Apple, so maybe the lesson was not well learned.
[There is, incidentally, a deliciously vicious description of the failure of the Apple Newton, the first attempt at a mass market PDA]

I came away from the book feeling that Hawkins/Dubinsky were an excellent, driven duo, who can inspire fierce loyalty and overcome challenges to develop a product, but their vision may not be wide enough to make the PDA a ubiquitous system, as opposed to a handy device for technophiles.¤

4) Hardcover Book Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring and the Birth of the Billion Dollar Handheld Industry by Wiley. This book represents a powerful collaboration between industry veteran Andrea Butter and well-liked technology journalist David Pogue. I really enjoyed the book´s engaging, fun, yet substantive style. It doesn´t shy away from describing technical issues in detail without getting overly abtruse. The only possible blemishes are: 1) as others have pointed out, the ending is a little abrupt, but then, any ongoing printed history runs that risk; and 2) the book steers clear of passing any judgments on the various controversies surrounding Palm, Handspring, and the handheld industry. It bends over backward trying not to offend anybody, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your point of view. All in all, a good-natured, well-researched book that definitely makes you look at your PDA with more respect and curiosity.¤

5) Hardcover Book Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring and the Birth of the Billion Dollar Handheld Industry by Wiley. If you have any interest in the handheld industry, this book gives an interesting look at its history. It is mainly about Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky, the main founders of Palm. It treats them a little reverently - they seemingly do no wrong. But leaving that aside it is a good story of start up and the struggles it goes through as they eventually leave to found Hanspring. The only other negative is that the book just kind of ends at the beginning of this year (2002) and the future is so uncertain. Will Handspring´s Treo product be like the original palm in the it completely takes over the market? Maybe the authors should have waited a year to the history is a little clearer.¤

6) Hardcover Book Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring and the Birth of the Billion Dollar Handheld Industry by Wiley. The definitive behind-the-scenes story of the visionary team that launched the handheld industry.

Palm insider Andrea Butter and New York Times columnist David Pogue -- with full, exclusive cooperation of the company´s founders and more than fifty key Palm and Handspring executives -- tell the riveting tale of the start of an industry constantly in the headlines. The origins of this volatile industry began with the tiny team who beat staggering odds to turn the PalmPilot into a billion-dollar market and later took their ultimate vision to Handspring, now Palm´s most powerful rival.

Many of today´s current events relating to the competition in this industry are forecasted in this important business drama. The authors take an unprecedented look at how the visionary founders of the industry led one of the most successful startups in history to succeed against all odds-including a shoestring budget, shortsighted corporate partners, and competition from Microsoft. The roller-coaster ride is full of insight into the bungles of venture capitalists, the allure and pitfalls of partnerships with giant corporations, and the steely determination needed to maintain entrepreneurial and visionary independence. With gripping accounts of the last-minute crises that almost torpedoed the PalmPilot on the eve of its unveiling, and the triumphant, unprecedented reception of Palm in the marketplace, as well as the glimpses into the future of this industry, this book is as entertaining as it is instructional. Key revelations include:

* The principles of business, economy, and product design that led Palm to succeed where billion-dollar corporations like Apple, Motorola, and Casio had failed.
* Important moments in technological development of the handheld such as the secret "Easter egg," a software surprise planted in the Palm software that nearly sank launch plans.
* Unique insight into the showdown with Microsoft, and 3Com´s tragic decision not to make Palm independent that led Palm´s founder Jeff Hanwkins and CEO Donna Dubinsky to take their vision elsewhere.
* The ongoing competition between Palm and Handspring. The new rivals to contend with including Sony.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 21-Nov-2008, 04710896569780471089650, 140-350-560-480-691-001-8

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