Gee, Palm is quiet about something? You mean like the sound of their stock price plummeting through an empty mine shaft?

How is Apple 'Palm's most lethal; rival in the smartphone market'? I guess you forgot about companies like RIM.

That's bad news. Jobs will shoot bolts of lightening at Palm. or perhaps give them his silent stare...

I agree with the poster above. Although the iphone has been well recieved, I would hardly call Apple 'Palms most lethal rival in the smartphone market' Care to tout apple anymore giz?

My guess is that they had to pay them quite a bit to jump ship. So where are the groundbreaking products that created the Palm name in the first place? Their latest offerings are boring evolutions of the same products they've been selling for a few years now. Rumors on other Gawker sites show the new Treo to be a nice upgrade, but nothing market-altering.

Their current OS is long in the tooth. Their new OS is woefully behind schedule. They're barely hanging on to a few loyalists.

Come to think of it: they're just like Apple circa 1996. Let's hope they have the same sort of comeback.

@ARP: yeah- that could happen.

@Captain Angry: HTC?

@ARP: "Their latest offerings are boring evolutions of the same products they've been selling for a few years now."

That could be said of Apple too. The only thing Apple has a dominant position in is iTunes, and that is all set to dry up. They are high-priced also-rans in everything else.

Of course, it's also hard to imagine Palm doing anything revolutionary at this point. But these guys jumping ship may have more to do with freeing themselves up to dump their Apple stock than anything to do with their contributions to either company. The fat signing perks probably made these moves a no-lose proposition (for the execs) for a couple of years.

Is it illegal for Palm to hire Apple employees? I'm wondering what it is Apple could sue them over?

@ ARP: You say Palm is looking like Apple (1996) however it took Apple what 5 years (2001?)? To BEGIN to bring out great devices and gain popularity. Now I look at Palm and I ask can they even LAST 5 years to pump out new and popular devices?

@ Macbeach: While Apple has been just refreshing past devices, they also have been introducing new devices that catch peoples attention (iPhone/iPod Touch are the most recent) what was the last device that Palm made that made people say "Wow thats new and different!" the Treo 650?

ELLIUTATAR it's probably not illegal, but Top Execs at Apple know many internal projects that Apple has on the table and they may be able to hold up in Court the idea of Palm using that to gain a market advantage.

Imagine Apple exec knows that Apple is working on a new type of product which has no real competitor as it's completely new, he jumps ship to Palm, tells Palm what Apple is working on, Palm works to create similar or better product and release it before Apple or around the same time, El Jobso in disbelief and angry, Fire and Brimstone falls from the sky.

@Rizzuh: This is Valleywag, not Gizmodo. Welcome aboard!

@RicoRich196: ...Palm works to create similar or better product and release it before Apple or around the same time...

Palm couldn't release their way out of a wet paper bag.

Never in the course of history has one company, with so much promise, done so little, with so much, for so long.

Yeah, a few of the guys I know who worked on iPhone are at Palm now. They're up to something. Something good enough to pull people away from Apple's booming stock price, I guess.

@ianloic: FYI: AAPL has lost $70 in it's $200 share-price in less than a month. I'm not sure the word 'booming' is what i'd use to describe it.

I don't know, I guess I hold a lot of faith in Palm.
I think a slightly weaker consumer might start turning to iPhone alternatives. Assuming of-course the product.
(Unlike the ill-fated 'Folio') acctually exists.

On a related note. Does anyone know if the rumors of AAPL threatening to sue Palm to ensure the Folio was pulled ever materialized?!?

am I the only one who read that and thought it said that Palm hired a 16-year old?

@aphex: I'm afraid not *shame*

"AAPL has lost $70 in it's $200 share price in less than a month..."

True, but the entire market has tanked as well. It's been a lousy correction for everybody. (Being up over 2500% in less than 5 years = WAY TIME for a correction for AAPL - everybody's selling it to come up with the cash to get them thru this hideous credit crunch - same with GOOG).

And if you go back a year to get some perspective - AAPL is still up 46% - and PALM is DOWN 64%! OUCH.

I have to say it takes alot of guts to jump a ship like the SS Jobs to go to a floundering company like Palm. Maybe it'll work for them. Palm certainly could still stun us with something new.

I noticed Palm just announced that they are closing their branded stores as a cost cutting measure. Sounds a bit like what Gateway had to do. Apple has been incredibly successful with their stores. I wonder what the difference was?

Let's see... I am an engineer or manager at AAPL where the stock has maxed out and I can now cash out and go to a company where the stock is at $5 with the potential to go to $100 with a hit product and they give me 5-10K options... That's a $400 to $900K payday in what could conceivably be 18 to 24 months... PALM should be able to attract talent from AAPL all day long... makes a lot of sense. PALM will be back...