Before Apple, Samsung, LG, and so on, there were brands like Palm and HP who made what could be considered as smartphones back then. However very clearly these brands did not survive the coming of the smartphone era, although it looks like at least one of them will be staging a comeback.
According to a report from Android Police, they have heard from a source that TCL is expected to launch a Palm-branded smartphone on Verizon’s network later this year. For those unfamiliar, TCL acquired the rights to Palm’s name several years ago. The company also licensed the BlackBerry brand ever since BlackBerry announced they would be quitting the hardware business.
That being said, not much is known about the phone at this point in time, save for the possibility of it launching on Verizon. Given Verizon’s history with Palm in the past, it’s not surprising that they might be looking to get with them again. It is unclear what kind of specs we might be looking at, and more importantly what kind of operating system it will run.
These days it’s more or less a toss up between iOS or Android, but could TCL be looking to revive webOS with a Palm phone? Or could we be seeing an Android-powered Palm device? We suppose we’ll have to wait and see, but until then take it with a grain of salt.