In a land of cellphone giants, Palm is a mouse.
Palm is tiny compared with Apple, Research in Motion, Samsung, Google, Microsoft and Nokia, which are battling to control the future of smartphones, says The New York Times.
Palm invented the category of a Web-surfing pocket-computer phone with its Treo line in 2002. But more recently it lost its way in the market as some of its rivals developed more innovative phones.
Its new management team, heavily laden with talent from Apple, introduced a new generation of smartphones in June with the US$199 Palm Pre on Sprint’s network. The second phone in the line, the $99 Pixi, went on sale Sunday.
Both phones got good reviews for being easy to use and great for Web browsing. But in recent weeks, Google’s Android operating system for smartphones has grabbed the attention of the public, as Verizon heavily promotes the Motorola Droid phone.
