Android Police broke the story earlier today that TCL will launch a Palm branded phone via Verizon sometime in the 2nd quarter this year. And surprise…it runs Android.
Sadly that’s all we know for now.
It’s taken TCL a long time to do anything with the Palm brand. We first talked about it 3 years ago. It started as an unveil of sorts at CES in 2015 when they announced they had purchased the Palm brand and they’d be crowd-sourcing from “Palm’s very own community” what to do with it. No idea what they meant by that… They even launched a website placeholder that directed palm.com to mynewpalm.com. Both of which are no longer doing anything. But trust me when I say I’ll be hammering the refresh button for the near future on palm.com.
Fun fact: This topic was also the fourth to last article written on the now silent webOSNation.com to give you a reference for how long it took TCL to do something!
At any rate, I’m glad the wheels are turning and I’ll hold judgement until I see what they release though the carrier exclusivity announcement makes my eye twitch. But I agree with Mr. Bohn.
The fact that TCL is partnering with Verizon to make the new Palm-branded phone is too much.
Literally the carrier that put the dagger in the heart of webOS by pulling support is going to get a nostalgia bait money grab device likely filled with bloathttps://t.co/R5QOz656tU
— Dieter Bohn (@backlon) March 28, 2018
Even former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein knew carrier exclusivity aided in the death of webOS and the remnants of Palm. “I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight.”
TCL can use hindsight for historical evidence though. Hopefully they’re crunching the numbers…
#PalmForever
