If you were one of the people mourning the death of the Palm smartphones, here’s some news to brighten up your day. Thanks to Chinese company TCL (also known as Alcatel in some markets), Palm is being resurrected back from the dead. TCL has acquired the Palm brand, as well as all the trademarks and logos, from HP and it now plans to revive the name that has long been associated with innovation and a pioneering spirit, especially in the early days of mobile tech.
However, TCL doesn’t just want to re-badge its Alcatel Onetouch phones and start churning out Palm devices. TCL wants to rebuild the brand and hopefully capture some of its former glory. To do that TCL has decided that the Palm community should play a key role in the re-building of the brand. As TCL puts it, to make it “the largest scale crowd-sourced project ever seen in the industry.”
The Palm brand has had a rough time ever since the failing company was bought by HP in 2010. Following the disastrous reception of the HP TouchPad (which used Palm’s WebOS), HP cancelled all of its Palm and WebOS products. Then in 2013 HP sold its WebOS team, along with a license to the WebOS source code and underlying patents, to LG Electronics for use in its Smart TVs.
Here’s hoping Palm fares better in its second outing.
