The PALM PILOT Story — Crossing The Chasm & Business Strategy Lessons
In the early 1990s, a new product category called PDA gained traction among corporate executives.
Most of the companies who launched PDAs saw their device effectively as a handheld PC, capable of handling some of the office-related tasks of a corporate executive. Every basic PDA had an address book, notepad, and an application for appointments. A few PDAs offered many more applications like spreadsheets, word processors, financial management software, clock, calculator, and games.
The ability to transfer data to and fro from a handheld device to a desktop PC was also a significant factor in attracting business people to open up their minds and purses for the PDAs.
PDA Market Existed. But Brands Failed — In the 1990s, seeing the demand, several bigger brands launched their PDAs. Some highly anticipated entries into the PDA category vanished after creating a flutter. Several brands couldn’t even get time to register their names in users’ minds. A few lingered around for a long time but failed to create a dent in the…