Jonathan Rubinstein, the former Apple Inc. executive who led the development of the Palm Pre, has been named CEO of Palm Inc., the company announced Wednesday.
Rubinstein replaces Edward T. Colligan, a 16-year veteran at the Sunnyvale, Calif., company who has been CEO since 2005.
Colligan will take some time off, according to a company press release.
After that, he will join Elevation Partners, the venture capital firm that has invested $425 million in Palm and owns about a third of the company.
Rubinstein, who conceived of the iPod for Apple, came to Palm in October 2007, a year after he left Apple on friendly terms. He has held the title of executive chairman since then.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs had brought Rubinstein to Apple in 1997, the pair having worked together earlier at NeXT Inc, the computer company started by Jobs during the period he was away from Apple.
In addition to his key role in the development of the iPod, Rubinstein also helped develop the iMac and the iBook.
At Palm, his assignment has been to revive a company that was a leader in the smartphone industry until its phones were overtaken by Research in Motion’s Blackberry and by Apple’s iPhone.
According to reviewers, the Pre, which went on sale Saturday, reflects some of the design values - elegance, efficiency and innovation among them - that were a feature of Rubinstein’s work at Apple.
The phone has a touch screen as well as a slide-out keyboard. Initially, it will be available only through Sprint, but there are reports that Verizon may acquire the phone later in the year.
Neither Sprint nor Palm released specific sales figures for the Pre. However, Sprint reported that the phone set a new weekend sales figure for the company. Analysts pegged that figure at between 50,000 and 100,000.
The Pre has been a tonic for Palm’s stock, which had fallen to $1.14 a share during the last year. The stock closed at $12.70 Wednesday.
Palm has had little time to celebrate, however, as the Pre was upstaged somewhat on Monday by Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 3G S.
A faster version of the iPhone 3G, the new phone goes on sale June 19 and features video recording and increased storage.
The 16-gigabyte 3G S sells for $199; the 32-gigabyte model for $299.
Apple also retained the 8-gigabyte 3G model, dropping its price from $199 to $99. The 8-gigabyte Pre sells for $199 after a $100 rebate.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment