Before the Foldable, Apple Copied This Phone

Video summary

Palm Pre introduced swipe-based app cards in 2009, but weak sales led HP to kill webOS before LG revived it for TVs.

At CES 2009, former Apple hardware chief Jon Rubinstein unveiled the Palm Pre, whose webOS let users swipe between live apps displayed as cards. The gesture arrived years before Apple’s card switcher and iPhone X navigation, and reportedly drew a public patent warning from Apple. Palm had once dominated handhelds with the Palm Pilot, reaching a $53 billion valuation in 2000, but internal splits, the dot-com crash and competition from BlackBerry and Nokia weakened it. The Pre launched on Sprint with sluggish hardware and only 18 apps, while Apple’s App Store had more than 5,100; confusing ads compounded the problem. HP bought Palm for $1.2 billion in 2010, then discontinued webOS 49 days after the TouchPad launch, when just 25,000 of 270,000 shipped units had sold. LG acquired webOS in 2013 and turned it into a smart-TV platform, leaving Palm’s software legacy alive despite the phone’s commercial failure.

Chapters

1. 0:00The rise and fall of Palm: Palm Pre and webOS debuted at CES 2009
2. 2:11Palm vs. Apple: Pre introduced card multitasking before iOS
3. 4:31The early success of Palm: Palm Pilot reached 65% market share
4. 6:53Internal struggle and decline: Handspring’s Treo kept Palm afloat
5. 8:46The race to rebuild: Rubinstein and Duarte created webOS
6. 11:37Launch and market failure: Sprint, 18 apps, and ineffective ads hurt Pre
7. 13:27Acquisition by HP: $1.2 billion purchase ended with LG’s TV revival
8. 15:44Reflections and legacy: Palm’s gestures endured, while Apple won the market