Why Google should buy Palm

With terrible sales and no signs of improvement, all Palm prospects boil down to one thing: takeover. Former Apple employee Phil Kearney sees Google as a buyer who, in his impending war with Apple, needs Palm as much as Palm needs Google.


Looking at the upcoming battle between Apple and HTC, it’s interesting for me to watch everyone who asks when Google will finally intervene. I think Google will still have to intervene, and this is exactly what Apple is counting on. I worked at Apple for 7 years in the development of wireless equipment for the home and the department of innovation, and I can tell you first-hand that the guys at Apple are very skillful, calculating and thoughtful. People are absolutely right, believing that Google will have to intervene if only because some very decent lawyer on HTC has signed a contract with Google, in which Google is committed to helping, and Apple knows this.
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Even if Google had no obligation to HTC, the Apple / HTC patent war affects Android and Google more than anyone else. Apple does not want a patent agreement with HTC due to the fact that HTC has a relatively small number of patents. Apple has more than $ 30 billion dollars in the bank, so they hardly want to sue HTC money. So what makes Apple sue HTC? I agree with those who assume that this trial is intended to discourage device manufacturers from using Android in their new products. After thinking about it, I see one of the options for the struggle for Google to buy some good patents. Looking through the Apple / HTC conflict articles, I found a couple that reference older Palm articles and a possible patent war between Palm and Apple. Interestingly, the Apple / Palm battle never took place and, given the recent announcements of Palm about the cuts, the thought comes: why wouldn’t Google buy Palm, don’t even have to think about it!

I understand that someone thinks that it is too expensive for any company to buy Palm only for the sake of its patents. But if you look closely, Palm is a fairly cheap acquisition, even with an optimistic current price of $ 800 million. With a capitalization of over $ 180 billion, Google could spend less than 1% of this amount on Palm, and get much more in return than patents. Nokia and Motorola could also easily buy a Palm, even with a premium, just to get their patents, and that would be a great investment in the business of these companies. For me, the price seems fair, and the payment for not buying Palm is too high for any of them, including Google, which wants to compete on equal terms in the post-computer space of the second decade of the 21st century and beyond.

There are a lot of other reasons why it is so important for Google to buy a Palm, and the oncoming patent war with Apple simply pushes for such a decision. Let's think about the benefits that Google will receive from the purchase. Google will get everything that it lacks now for successful and long-lasting competition with Apple in the market of smartphones and other gadgets.

First and foremost: Google will get all the patents of Palm, and as we know, the Palm patent collection is very large and extremely useful. Palm has been doing this for about 20 years, having developed many patents, including some old patents, overlapping any patent that Apple may file. Most likely, the reason that we have never seen any direct panet conflict between Palm and Apple is that Apple lawyers, looking at Palm patents, found that Apple infringes as many Palm patents as Palm infringes with Apple . So a direct conflict is clearly not the best idea.

If this is true, then the acquisition of Palm for Google may be much more important. Apple’s attack on HTC for looks like an Austro-Hungarian attack on Serbia or the German invasion of Belgium, which led to World War I. Like the beginning of the war, the court of Apple / HTC can lead to a much more extensive conflict, especially since the front of Nokia / Apple is already open. Even without considering anything other than patents, Google should buy Palm. But in addition to patents, Google can get much more tools that they need if they hope to defeat Apple in the future in the smartphone market.

Google can also get an excellent WebOS development team, many of whom have developed the first version of the iPhone OS and were able to participate in the creation of many iPhone patents. In addition, if you look under the hood of WebOS and Android, we see that they are brothers in terms of architecture and implementation. Both operating systems have grown out of Linux and are quite similar. And this means that people who have developed WebOS will be able to easily switch to the Android core development team. And, for example, Android and WebOS could be merged into a single OS, which Google could officially license for all the hardware developers who are now going to use Android on their devices. Using the webOS command, Google could add all the webOS chips to Android and get an even better OS for its own devices and for licensing.

But buying a Palm can provide more than just software benefits. Having a WebOS command at its disposal, Google will get ready-made special forces to fight Apple. Yes, all the guys from WebOS will help Google to develop Android, but let's not forget about the key figures who left Apple after the release of the iPhone OS and migrated from Cupertino to Palm. They clearly had a reason. Something they did not like about Apple, and they will definitely be ready to help in the fight.

In addition to supporting the Android development team, buying a Palm will also give Google a whole new opportunity. Google will have the opportunity to develop their own devices. Now Google has to rely on partners like HTC for this. Without an own hardware development unit, there is no chance to compete with the iPhone. The fact that even Motorola and Nokia realized that they could not do without their own software and hardware. To compete directly with Apple more or less successfully for a long time, companies need to control all stages of production. Palm has a team of designers and designers, some of whom came from the same Apple. Google needs a development team of hardware for future products on Android, and Palm hardware from Palm is perfect for this. I know that someone got Palm phones with defective screens or keyboards, but let's not confuse poor development with bad production. Palm engineers seem to be good enough for me, but manufacturers from China could not pay enough attention to quality control of components and assembly.

Google can also get other business units, which are often forgotten by people who have never developed mobile phones. Firstly, this is the Palm department for working with operators. Having a whole department of people with years of experience working with operators such as AT & T, Verizon, China Mobile, and Vodafone is a great thing to think about seriously and seriously. If Apple had such a team when developing an iPhone, perhaps now the entire US market would belong to it, and not just AT & T subscribers.

Secondly, the technical support service and all the necessary infrastructure for this, which Palm has been building for years for each operator, teaching them to support each new Palm product. I heard a few horror movies related to the support of the Nexus One. And if they are true, then Google definitely needs all the help that Palm can provide to it in training and organizing support services for each operator who wants to sell Android phones.

I have many friends in both Apple and Palm, so I don’t want you to think that I’m just trying to tarnish Apple or whitewash Palm. I really want my friends at Palm to have everything beautiful. But I do not believe that I was the only one who had the idea of ​​buying a Palm. I even think that there are teams in Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola and even Apple that do the same thinking. And it even seems to me that they all came to the same conclusions. Buying a Palm can give a lot to any smartphone company and make it a serious player in the market over the next decade. But it seems to me that only Google is now in the best shape for a purchase. Palm will give Google everything to make Android smartphones real competitors for the iPhone. But will it happen? We will see.

Phil Kearney is a geek who developed AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, and Time Capsule while working for Apple. He got the first Apple II computer in 1980, when he was 13 years old. Since then, he has been a fan of Apple. Now he is in great shape, sips good wine, eats great food and, they say, plays good poker online