Week 4 Assignment: Palm Inc.
William Ragnow
University of Phoenix
MGT 540 / Management of R& D and Innovation Processes
August 18, 2008
Jessica Keyes - Facilitator
Executive Summary
“Palm Inc. is the handheld market leader in areas such as mobile business, healthcare, education and government and will continue to extend that lead by delivering compelling business and enterprise mobile information-management solutions, business-focused hardware and software products, robust service and support, and innovative market-leading alliances with developers and solutions providers.” Palm Inc.’s products are distributed through a network of wireless carriers, retails and business distributors worldwide. (Palm 2005)
Measurements of Innovation
Traditional measurements of innovation include R&D spending and the impact to the bottom line, in Palm Inc.’s case, the two just do not add up. Ten years ago, Palm Inc., captured the imagination of road warriors everywhere with the first Pilot connected organizer, a mighty 5.7-ounce combination of calendar, contacts, to-do lists and notes. The original Pilot organizer, which sold for $299, owed its success largely to two breakthrough features: Its ability to synchronize easily with a computer and its unprecedented ease of use. Innovation followed the success of the Palm Pilot, due in large part to the Palm Inc., operating system. The most recent offerings from Palm Inc., are the Treo products. Handspring, a spin-off from Palm Inc., created the Treo 600 and handed it to Palm Inc. The Treo 650 and Treo 700p are trivial updates to the Handspring design. The Treo 700w, Treo 700 wx and Treo 750v are likewise trivial updates to the Treo 600. The bottom line is Palm ...