Apple's'Podfather' Now Aims to Revive A Wilting Palm
In mid-July, as Palm Inc. was putting the finishing touches on its new $99 Centro smart phone, the gadget's development team received a stark message: It wasn't good enough. — The warning was delivered by Jon Rubinstein …
Context & Ripple Effects
2007 has been a year of forced reinvention for Palm. After the iPhone landed, the company issued a public response to the iPhone in March, then in June sold a 25% stake and overhauled its board under new investor pressure. By August, even enthusiast media was publishing an open letter calling for an intervention.
The WSJ report adds the missing piece of that arc: Jon Rubinstein, the executive behind the iPod, is taking a leadership role at Palm and personally pushing the team behind the $99 Centro — telling them in mid-July the device wasn't good enough. The story traveled widely the same day, with Silicon Alley Insider framing it around how Palm could beat Apple.
First-order effects
- Rubinstein's arrival puts an Apple-grade hardware bar inside Palm immediately — the Centro team was told mid-development that the $99 phone fell short, signaling quality review rather than ship-on-schedule.
- The Centro becomes the first test case: a budget smartphone that must carry Palm's credibility with carriers and consumers while the company rebuilds.
Second-order effects
- Rivals at the entry-smartphone price point — RIM, Windows Mobile licensees, and Nokia's low-end lines — face a competitor whose new leadership is explicitly benchmarked against Apple's playbook.
- Carriers backing the Centro get a higher-stakes bet on Palm's revival, raising pressure on Palm to deliver follow-up devices beyond a single low-cost handset.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, struggling consumer-hardware firms will keep recruiting proven Apple-era executives as a turnaround strategy, making top design talent the scarce asset in mobile.
- Palm's trajectory — investor-forced governance change followed by a marquee hire — points toward consolidation pressure on second-tier smartphone makers unable to match vertically integrated rivals.
The trend: Mobile hardware is consolidating around Apple-caliber integrated design, and distressed players are responding by importing Apple alumni to lead their turnarounds.