Palm Firms Get New Names

Palm is giving up its name soon to mark its formal separation into two companies: the operating-system company, already known as Palmsource; and the hardware company, currently the Palm Solutions Group, which will be known as PalmOne.

The name change will take effect when Palm completes its spinoff of Palmsource, says Page Murray, marketing vice president of the Palm Solutions Group. That step is expected to occur sometime this fall.

"Each company has to take their piece of Palm and move forward," Murray says.

The new PalmOne business will also incorporate Handspring. Palm is in the process of acquiring its rival vendor of personal digital assistant devices.

Blended Identity

The new PalmOne logo is now appearing on the new PalmOne site, which will have the support and information previously available on Palm.com. The logo, which will begin appearing on products in 2004, will incorporate the color scheme already used for the latest Palm handheld lines, Murray adds.

The first four letters ("palm") are in the deep brownish red used in packaging for Tungsten-branded corporate handhelds. The last three letters ("one") are in the bright orange used in packaging for the Zire line of consumer PDAs.

The name change is necessary for Palm's hardware business to create its own identity, says Kevin Burden, an IDC analyst.

"That's the main reason for doing this," he says, noting the Palm medallion logo appears with the words "Palm-powered" on devices produced by other companies that license the Palm operating system.

The OS will belong to Palmsource. However, Burden says a new holding company, whose name is not disclosed, will control the Palm medallion and other intellectual property shared by PalmOne and Palmsource.