Palm's Software Chief Quits

alphadogg writes "Michael Abbott, the head of Palm's software and services team, will leave the company at the end of next week, according to a regulatory filing Palm made on Friday to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. He submitted his resignation on Monday and will leave the company on April 23, Palm said. The resignation came as reports surface that the struggling handset maker is seeking a buyer. Last month Palm reported disappointing results for the quarter that ended Feb. 26. Its Pre and Pixi smartphone lines, which run the WebOS operating system, are up against a growing number of smartphones using Google's Android platform as well as Apple's popular iPhone."

250k for the other principals?

[tivoKlr]

So Palm offers 250k in stock, over 2 yrs for the other principal management to stay. Not the most convincing of offers, and what's that Palm stock going to be worth in 2 years? Anything?

Bye bye Palm. It's been nice knowin' ya.

Re:And nothing of value was lost.

[bhtooefr]

Have you actually used WebOS?

It didn't fail because of the OS. (Well, OK, them dragging their feet on native code didn't help, but the OS is quite good, and probably has the best UI of any mobile OS today.)

Even the marketing didn't do it.

It's the hardware that's absolute crap.

Re:And nothing of value was lost.

[Anonymous Coward]

5. the iTunes compatibility thing. That was rather unethical business by palm in the first place to in essence hack the phone

They didn't "hack" the phone - whatever that's supposed to mean. How far has the world come that it is now unethical, even for a technology oriented forum's standards, to interface one piece of software with another's API. If anything, it is unethical of Apple to lock out every other device out of iTunes API besides their iPods and iPhones.

Re:And nothing of value was lost.

[DAldredge]

"5. the iTunes compatibility thing. That was rather unethical business by palm in the first place to in essence hack the phone to make it look like an iPod"

You mean like COMPAQ did to IBM PC BIOS?

Re:And nothing of value was lost.

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

You mean it's unethical to block out hardware that's not yours and not guaranteed to run on your software platform because you don't know what the hell it's going to do?

You realize this happens every single fucking day? Is it unethical for linksys to lock out buffalo in their drivers even if they use the same chipset?

Next you'll be asking why it's unethical to copy someone else's CS homework because they're locking you out of their software.

Re:250k for the other principals?

[RobFrontier]

I can only assume by your comment that you don't follow markets in general, or Palm specifically. Palm is more than likely going to be purchased fairly soon which will increase the stock price dramatically before the purchase. HTC seems like a natural fit, though the most interesting idea I've heard is RIM. It would be nice if Blackberry's came with an actual OS. WebOS is the best mobile OS available, with Android a close second, so there is plenty of value there. Palm also hold a lot of valuable IP and Patents.

Handspring was Palm

[Rix]

They just sold off (and later reacquired) the rights to use the Palm name.

Re:And nothing of value was lost.

[contrapunctus]

but why does it need my location?

Re:And nothing of value was lost.

[Anonymous Coward]

The original comment and the reply was about ethics, not USB specs. You have said nothing that opposes the argument that it is unethical for Apple to use special full API functionality for iPod and iPhone, and give a crappy one to everyone else. What is their market share for online music purchases? Getting close to anti-competitive behavior at some point in addition to unethical as well?

Re:And nothing of value was lost.

[Tokerat]

WebOS and Android are the same OS

Um....Linux? That's like saying NetBSD and Mac OS X are the same OS - very similar at the core, API/GUI layers are 100% different.