HP Buys Palm, Buys Me

The news that Hewlett-Packard has bought Palm has rocked the tech world and has even been covered by some of the mainstream media (BBC).  It’s possibly second only to the next-gen iPhone debacle.  But all of this has been adequately covered elsewhere.

I’m a long-time Palm owner.  I started out with a Palm III, buying it in Heathrow’s duty-free shop out of my first pay packet as a business consultant.  I think that was back in February 1999.  Since then I’ve had a further three PDAs (defecting to Sony Palms for awhile), before getting into smartphones with the Treo 650.  I’m now on the Pre, which I like.

This isn’t meant to be a demonstration of fanboy-ism, but rather a reflection that for over ten years, I’ve probably had a Palm device in my hand almost every single day of the year.  It’s become integrated into my life in a way that no other device, website or even person has. It knows what I’m doing, when I’m doing it and who with.  It knows what I’m reading, what I’m playing, what I’m watching, what I’m listening.  It’s my bank balance, my stocks, my shares, my Christmas wishlist.

It’s me.

So while HP might have been buying Palm, it’s also bought me and thousands of other Palm owners whose devices are a daily part of their lives.  Welcome to the family, HP.