Not all tech products succeed once on the market, and some are killed off with little warning. Flashback looked back at failed tech products to see what we can learn by studying their demises.

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#4: webOS

March 26th, 2020 · 73 minutes

With its webOS hardware, including the Pre, Pixi and more, Palm (and later HP) tried to take on the giants of the early smartphone wars. While webOS was hugely innovative, it wasn't enough to break into the most important market in consumer electronics.

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Links and Show Notes

GEOS (16-bit operating system) - Wikipedia
Graffiti (Palm OS) - Wikipedia
Zoomer-List Archives: Graffiti Arrives!
Palm OS - Wikipedia
Apple Reinvents the Phone with iPhone - Apple
Dear Palm: It's time for an intervention | Engadget
Palm Pre CES Press Event - YouTube
What happened to the original iPhone’s plastic screen? - The Verge
Stephen's Thumb on the Pre Keyboard
Palm Pre review, part 1: Hardware, webOS, user interface | Engadget
Palm Pre review, part 2: Synergy, phone, media, applications | Engadget
Palm Pre review, part 3: Data speeds, backup, battery, Bluetooth, pricing, wrap-up | Engadget
Palm Pre Teardown - iFixit
Palm Touchstone Charger Teardown - iFixit
Palm Pre Admaker Defends "Creepy" TV Commercial | WIRED
Palm Pre Commercial Ad Going With The Flow Tamara Hope - YouTube
Meta-tap (Gesture Area + tap) and Copy/Paste | webOS Nation
Daring Fireball: Apple Announces Web Apps for iPhone
HP TouchPad coming June, webOS for PC beta by year's end | Engadget
Palm Pixi review | Engadget
Palm Pre Plus (and Pixi Plus) review | Engadget
webOS 1.4 Lands on Verizon
Review: Verizon Palm Pre 2 | webOS Nation
Quinn's Zune Video
Palm Pre 3 Demonstration - YouTube
Pre 3 for AT&T review | Engadget
HP Veer 4G review | Engadget
The Long-Lived iPad 2 - MacStories
HP TouchPad review | Engadget
Quinn Nelson on Instagram: “Everyone (especially HP), blatantly copies Apple's packaging. ”
The HP TouchPad 1.0 – Shawn Blanc
HP TouchPad: The final $99 offer - CNET
How I got a $99 HP TouchPad tablet and why I bought it - The Washington Post
Quinn Nelson on Instagram: “I'm pretty sure I got the only one left in my city.”
Quinn Nelson on Instagram: “Installing Android on my TouchPad. :D”
Quinn Nelson on Instagram: “Hai there Android. :)”
Quinn Nelson on Instagram: “ICS on the TouchPad? Love it!”
Palm puts itself up for sale | Engadget
Hewlett-Packard Agrees to Buy Palm - The New York Times
Editorial: Engadget on the death of HP's webOS devices | Engadget
The lost secrets of webOS | The Verge
LG Smart TV w/ webOS
A failed experiment: How LG screwed up its webOS acquisition – Gigaom
LG’s Linux-based webOS Goes Open Source, Again! - It's FOSS
The new Palm is a tiny phone to keep you away from your phone - The Verge