Palm Responds to the iPhone Hires Ex. Apple Software Engineer

[newtonjack]

Palm Responds to the iPhone
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By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: March 9, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO, March 8 ? Palm Inc., the maker of hand-held computers, has hired a top Silicon Valley software designer as it seeks to respond to the challenge posed by Apple?s new iPhone.

The designer, Paul Mercer, a former Apple computer engineer, began work three weeks ago at Palm on a line of new products, a company spokeswoman said, but she declined to comment further on the project.

Mr. Mercer, 39, joined Palm with two employees from Iventor, the independent design firm that he headed in Palo Alto, Calif., but Palm did not acquire the company, said the spokeswoman, Marlene Somsak. Palm is based in nearby Sunnyvale.



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/technology/09palm.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

[Tastypeppers]

Aaaaah. Yes. This is a good sign. There is some attention on design -- design skills at the top level imaginable (because Palm wouldn't hire someone of average skills).

Let us hope that this guy doesn't pull a Bangle. (See the way BMW designs went to poop after Chris Bangle was hired). I hope the guy realizes that he is there to make a beautiful, useful tool. He is not at Palm to be an artiste.

 

[samkim]

Great news for Palm. Sadly, we probably won't see his contributions for a long time - unless he'd already been working as a consultant prior to being hired.

As for Bangle, I love his work. Cool sculpted looks. He also solved the problem of all the models looking exactly the same.


eta:
Here's a good article about Mercer. He worked on the Newton.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/technology/27mercer.html?ex=1173589200&en=181baf485e5302e0&ei=5070
The article closes, "Mr. Mercer said he was still dreaming about a personal device that offered complete access to information and media."

 

[esatyawan]

Palm should hire apple's ex hardware designer as well NOT just their software engineer

Apple should hire palm's ex software engineer

 

[Camel]

Palm should hire apple's ex hardware designer as well NOT just their software engineer

Apple should hire palm's ex software engineer

Agreed.

Palm should also really consider to get someone to fix all the problems with the 700p.