{"id":3295,"date":"2018-10-16T13:03:36","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T13:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/tiny-palm-smartphone-baffles-gadget-fans\/"},"modified":"2018-10-16T13:03:36","modified_gmt":"2018-10-16T13:03:36","slug":"tiny-palm-smartphone-baffles-gadget-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/tiny-palm-smartphone-baffles-gadget-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Palm smartphone baffles gadget fans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"PalmImage copyright<\/span>
\n Palm<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n US basketball player Stephen Curry is one of the ambassadors for the new Palm phone
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A tiny Android smartphone designed to be a “companion phone” to a full-sized device has been launched in the US – using the brand name Palm.<\/p>\n

The handset is the size of a credit card and has two cameras but no headphone jack or wireless charging.<\/p>\n

It aims to help people take a break from their main phone, the firm said, despite being a fully functioning smartphone in its own right.<\/p>\n

It has been greeted with bemusement by tech commentators and on social media.<\/p>\n

The device will cost $349 (\u00a3263) and will be available in the US, on the Verizon network only, from November. <\/p>\n

It is described in its marketing material as “a fully connected product that is in sync with your existing smartphone, so all of your connectivity can go where your smartphone can’t”.<\/p>\n

It has the support of US basketball player Stephen (Steph) Curry who tweeted that he was “hyped to bring Palm back”. <\/p>\n

Fashion brand Kate Spade has also designed a bespoke case for the small handset.<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n PAlm<\/span><\/p>\n

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Analyst Ben Wood from CCS Insight said it was “certainly an ambitious move” by the San Francisco start-up, which licensed the Palm brand from owner HTC.<\/p>\n

“Small, so-called companion phones have been tried in the past and have not really captured consumers’ imagination,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n

He said that it differed from other “second” phones because it was not reliant on Bluetooth to connect it to the parent device.<\/p>\n

Mr Wood added that he didn’t think nostalgia for the 1990s Palm brand would be enough to drive sales.<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Science & Society Picture Library<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Palm Pilot digital assistants were popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s
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“The Palm brand is perfectly suited to a product that fits in the palm of your hand,” he said. <\/p>\n

“Beyond that, I doubt there is much brand equity left in Palm other than for uber-geeks.”<\/p>\n

Dieter Bohn, writing for website the Verge<\/a>, described the Palm as “a weird little thing”.<\/p>\n

“So here’s a phone that saves you from your phone. But what saves you from your Palm? Presumably, another even smaller phone….” noted Andrew Orlowski in the Register<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n Skip Twitter post by @RamonesKaraoke<\/a><\/p>\n
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Palm used to be great. But this is off the scale stupid. If there is genuinely a market for \u2018a smaller parasitic phone because your phablet is too big to hold\u2019 then society needs an urgent reboot.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Phil Atkin (@RamonesKaraoke) October 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

End of Twitter post by @RamonesKaraoke<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n