Palm continues to sign up software developers to write applications for the platform, as well as computer companies to bundle it with their devices. On June 1, it signed on Taiwan's Acer , which will build devices for the Taiwanese and Chinese markets. Handspring is a licensee of Palm's OS, but most of its innovation has been in the device itself. Its Springboard modules plug into the Visor handheld, transforming the PDA into, among other things, an MP3 player, cellular phone or global positioning system. The beauty of it is that users don't have to add any software or reconfigure the device.
Palm is the larger company by a factor of almost three, in terms of sales.
There is value in what both companies bring to the market, but it won't be fully realized if they continue independently.