On the 6th of July 2005, LG Electronics signed an agreement with PalmSource to licence PalmOS worldwide.
Memorable quote from the press release (Source: http://www.palmsource.com/press/2005/070605_lg.html):
“LG Electronics is pleased to have entered into this agreement with PalmSource,” said Skott Ahn, executive vice president of LG Electronics, Inc. “The flexible, open and powerful nature of Palm OS is an ideal match for our industry leading mobile handsets. We believe our customers will appreciate the new Palm Powered phones we will develop and distribute.”
So they announced “Palm Powered phones” about a year ago…. But where are the “new, cutting-edge smartphones for delivery to the worldwide marketplace”, Patrick McVeigh, interim CEO of PalmSource was looking forward to in 2005?
You might say “A PalmOS-Phone made by LG? There’s no such thing.”. Looking at the present and (probably) the future, you’re right. Sad but definitely a fact. But if you go back some years (seven, to be more specific) in the history of PalmOS, you’ll reach the very beginning of Palm Powered smartphones: The pdQ from Qualcomm.
I bought a pdQ a few days ago as an addition to my PDA-collection and discovered a small “LG”-Logo etched into the stylus. Why should Qualcomm order styli from a competitor (Both Qualcomm and LG produced CDMA phones)? I decided to investigate further and disassemble the phone to have a look inside. First I discovered the phone to be on two separate PCBs – one for the phone (made by Qualcomm) and a separate PCB for the PDA-part. To my surprise this PCB is marked with a “LG”-Logo! (You can see some pictures of it here)
Seven years ago, LG was involved in the development of the very first smartphone with PalmOS. Six years after that, LG buys a licence to use PalmOS. They don’t come a dime a dozen and a company like LG would not buy a licence just for fun. So they must have something up their sleeves – they already had plenty of time and experience to develop something big.
Considering what LG was able to develop seven years ago the hopefully coming Palm Powered smartphone could be a killer device….
A final note: I was so impudent to ask the PR staff at LG if an when we will see a Palm Powered smartphone from them. I did not expect them to answer that question…. And they met my expectations 
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The palm phone OS is the best and easiest phone system to operate. It is sad that only
windows is being fucused on. Palm has many issues but it is still the best for every purpose. I have used it for several years to run my 2 my businesses. Sometimes manufacturers ONLY think of them selves short
range, instead of building a firm and secure following to grow at a steady rate every year.
The bottom line only lasts for the short run,where the the steady loyal growing customer is willing to upgrade to new features
when they are avaliable.
Marty
Hi Marty,
thank you so much for your comment – full ack here!
Altough: I think that many manufacturers do these product announce/recall schemes to put pressure on OS sources to offer them the OS for cheaper prices…
Best regards
Tam Hanna
Tam
Do you really think recalls are utilized to pressure OS developers? Never thought of it this way but I suppose it makes sense.
Hi Eve,
why else do manufacturers like Samsung keep announcing and not shipping products?
Best regards
Tam Hanna
Hi, just came across this and wanted to say my two bits. In this day of the Apple iPhone don’t think Palm can expect much sales unless they build on the user experience too like Apple has always concentrated on, which is why Apple does so well even though their products are so overpriced.
Thats great, actually first ive heard of it which is bad for me. I must be letting my game down lol by not being up to date. Finally, lg has more potential than just plain smartphones so its good too see. Maybe they will catch up with nokia and sony ericsson.
I don’t think the iphone will put that big of a dent in palm sales because for one, there are a lot of people that can’t afford the iphone, and for 2, there are a lot people that would rather stay with verizon or sprint and not at&t.
To be very true, I don’t like LG phones because they always prove themselves a dumb asset. Anyhow I am wondered to see this new invention and shall be looking at it.
don’t think the iphone will put that big of a dent in palm sales