Before the Foldable, Apple Copied This Phone
ColdFusion · 2026-09-10 · 18 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hvt-xhS65kVideo summary
Palm Pre introduced swipe-based multitasking years before iPhone, but weak hardware, an 18-app launch catalog, and HP’s retreat doomed Palm.
At CES in 2009, former Apple executive Jon Rubinstein unveiled the Palm Pre and webOS, whose live app cards and swipe gestures anticipated iPhone multitasking and navigation by years. Palm’s roots were in the successful Pilot, which reached 65% of the handheld market in 2000, but a $53 billion valuation collapsed after the dot-com crash and internal turmoil drove its founders to launch Handspring. After Apple’s 2007 iPhone debut, Palm rebuilt its software and launched the Pre on Sprint with sluggish hardware and only 18 apps, against thousands in Apple’s App Store. HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion, then killed webOS after the TouchPad sold just 25,000 of 270,000 shipped units. LG later acquired webOS for its TVs, extending the software’s legacy even as Palm disappeared.
Chapters
- 0:00The rise and fall of Palm: the 2009 Pre introduced webOS card multitasking
- 2:11Palm vs. Apple: Pre’s card gestures arrived years before iOS adopted them
- 4:31The early success of Palm: the 1996 Pilot grew to 65% handheld share
- 6:53Internal struggle and decline: Handspring’s Treo revived Palm, but Palm OS stagnated
- 8:46The race to rebuild: Rubinstein and Duarte created Linux-based webOS
- 11:37Launch and market failure: Sprint exclusivity and an 18-app catalog hurt the Pre
- 13:27Acquisition by HP and webOS on TV: a failed TouchPad gave LG its smart-TV platform
- 15:44Reflections and legacy: Palm’s gestures endured, while Apple’s ecosystem won
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