Last week, I explored the
five most disappointing Palm OS handhelds
. This time, I'm going to give you my list of the top five most influential models that use this operating system.
In a sort of echo from last week, I want to start off by saying that I'm not trying to list the five
best
devices running the Palm OS.
This would be silly, as the most recent models released are far more functional than ones from the past. Face it, as much as you loved your Palm Vx, a low-cost Tungsten E2 can do three times as much.
Instead, I'm going to talk about the models that, for one reason or another, had a profound effect on the Palm OS as a whole.
Also, you should be aware that I'm going against convention by listing the most influential devices first and going down from there.
1. The Pilot
It should be obvious to everyone that the most influential Palm of all time is the first one. Without it, there would have been no successors.
Before the Pilot, every PDA had failed miserably. The conventional wisdom was that any company with the temerity to launch a handheld computer would fail horribly.
Then Jeff Hawkins came along with the Pilot, and suddenly everything had changed.
This
handheld wasn't huge, expensive, or clunky. It was small, cheap, and easy to use.
With one device. a single company created a successful market segment. And nothing has been the same since.
2. Handspring Treo 600
A few years ago, Palm came out with a couple of cellular-wireless handhelds. Although vaguely close in design to some much more successful models, these devices utterly bombed.
As a result, when Handspring came to Palm with a design for a Palm OS-based smartphone that was clearly better than anything that had come before, Palm decided to buy the company.
Since then, the Treo line has grown to dominate the Palm OS, at the same time that former Handspring executives have come to dominate Palm, Inc.
It's as if the tiny minnow, instead of being swallowed by the shark, turned and devoured the much larger fish instead.
You have to admit, it's not often that a single product has allowed a smaller company to take over a bigger one. But it happened with the Treo 600.
That's why it's near the top of my list of the most influential Palms of all time.
3. Palm V
Even years after it was discontinued, there's a model that is still the gold standard in what a handheld out to look like: the Palm V.
It was so sleek and professional looking that executives who had previously dismissed Palms as "geek toys" went out and bought them in droves.
Heck, plenty of people are still using their Palm V or Vx. I saw one just last week.
Since the introduction of this model, many companies have sought to create devices with the pure visual appeal of the Palm V.
The Visor Edge (which I talked about last week) came somewhat close. And the looks of the iPAQ h1940 were certainly influenced by the Palm V. None of these has been completely successful, though.
But I'm sure companies will keep trying. That's what makes this handheld one of the most influential Palms of all time.
4. Handspring Visor
The original Handspring Visor changed the Palm world forever. It showed that it wasn't just Palm, Inc. that could make a successful handheld; it's licensees could, too.
In the following years, other companies would put out their own Palm OS devices.
Looking back, I think we are going to regard the brief period when Palm, Handspring, and Sony were all aggressively putting out new models as the Golden Age of the Palm OS.
And this was all started by the Handspring Visor.
5. Sony Clie PEG-N710C
For far too long, Palm, Inc. ignored multimedia in its handhelds. At a time when virtually all its competitors were offering devices with support for audio and video, high end Palms had silly piezoelectric speakers incapable of anything but boops and beeps.
Then Sony released the Clie N710C, a device that threw down the gauntlet to the other makers of Palm OS models.
Unlike all previous devices running this operating system, it let users watch video on the first hi-res screen and listen to music on headphones.
After the release of the N710C, any high-end Palm that didn't offer these features was roundly reviled.
Because it broke new ground in so many important areas, the N710C deserves a place on my list of most influential Palms.
In conclusion, I want to say that these five models aren't the only great Palm OS models ever made. But there can be no doubt that all of them changed this platform forever.
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