Piloting Palm
by Andrea Butter and David Pogue

In the early 1990s, one man set out to make a new kind of computer and ended up creating a whole new computer industry. Jeff Hawkins was not the first man to create a pen-based computer nor was he the first man to think of handwriting recognition. But he was the first man to create a PDA product that was marketed, used and raved over by reviewer and consumers; the Pilot (later known as the PalmPilot). This book sets out to cover the journey that Jeff made in his quest to create a computer that was small and useful to consumers and does so with lots of fascinating and gripping detail.

Jeff Hawking's first success was with a pen-based product he designed for the business market while working with GRiD Systems. When GRiD did not show interest in designing a consumer-version of his product, he left to found Palm Computing. Working with VCs, he was to hire some of the brightest programmers working in the PDA field and find a CEO who was to be very influencial; Donna Dubinsky.

Palm's first product was the Zoomer, which was to be marked by Tandy and Casio. This was to a turning point in Jeff's career for the final design decisions on the Zoomer was being made by a committee of mostly Tandy and Casio executives who did not share the same opinions as Jeff. They believed that 'more is better' and insisted that many options be included in the Zoomer, putting aside considerations like whether the option was useful or not. From the Zoomer experience, Jeff, Donna and Palm was to come up with the 'Zen of Palm'; less is better.

Determined not to repeat the experiences and mistakes of the Zoomer (which failed in the marketplace), Jeff and Donna came up with the Taxi; a small handheld computer with unusual features; it came with just a few applications (Address Book, Datebook, ToDo and Memo pad applications) and a feature then considered by Palm engineers as "the worst idea they have ever heard": handwritten letter recognition that required the user to write in a certain way.

By the time the product was finished, after lots of problems had to be overcome in its the design, manufacturing and marketing, it was renamed as Pilot, the handwriting recognition was known as Graffiti and it went on to make Palm famous. Thus was the handheld industry born, after a premature birth by Apple's Newton.

Jeff's experience with the Zoomer made him decide that the Pilot would not be produced by committee: Palm would design both the software and hardware. But it could not do it alone as it did not have the resources, manufacturing skills or the time. In the end, despite Jeff and Donna's wishes that Palm remain independent, Palm had to become part of USRobotics and later, 3Com. While being part of 3Com, Donna worked hard to keep Palm as a separate entity. But executive decisions and other problems soon made Donna and Jeff realise that they could not keep this up for long and they decided to resign and went out to set up a separate company: Handspring.

The rest of the story covers the present with Palm now an independent entity, but with Palm, Handspring and the various other technology based companies struggling in an economic downturn by the end of 2001 which is where the story ends.

This books is, of course, biased towards Jeff, Donna and Palm. There is little mention of Apple's Newton or Microsoft's Windows CE/Pocket PC/Pocket Computing products except where they come up as comparisons to Palm's products. But even then, the book manages to cover a lot of territory. It covers many aspects, from the thinking of Jeff, Donna and other initial Palm engineers over the technological decisions they made, to the marketing decisions (and methods used) to give the Pilot to reviewers who gave it an enthusiastic coverage, to the various executives who were to take charge of Palm after Donna.

Despite being a Palm user for a few years and having followed much of the story for a while, the book still gives a lot of fascinating detail, especially the thoughts and feelings of Donna Dubinsky for the future of Palm and of the products Palm would make as well as why she and Jeff eventually left Palm to set up a competing company.

The story of Palm, Handspring, Jeff and Donna are by no means finished. But this book gives a good coverage of the early days of pen-based and handheld computing and recommended for those who want to know just how their Palms got the way they are.

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Piloting Palm by Andrea Butter and David Pogue

Piloting Palm
by Andrea Butter and David Pogue