PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1998 NOV 6 (NB) -- By Sami Menefee,
Newsbytes. Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins, founding participants in
the development of 3Com [NASDAQ:COMS] PalmPilot, announced Thursday
they have backing from several venture capital firms to start up their
own company, to be called Handspring, Inc.
Handspring will focus on the hand held computing market, peripherals,
memory and storage and possibly new devices, a source told Newsbytes.
The firm has a agreement with 3Com's Palm Computing to license the
platform.
During an event Thursday evening sponsored by Silicon Valley-based
Churchill Club, Dubinsky and Hawkins talked about the history of
palm-sized devices, some of the problems encountered and some things
they would like to see changed.
Handspring's financial backers, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers
(KPCB) and Benchmark Capital, will occupy seats on the new firm's
board of directors -- John Doerr for KPCB and Bruce Dunlevie for
Benchmark.
A spokesperson for the Churchill Club said the speakers did not give
an exact timeline for the products. The official said such devices
usually take from 12 to 18 months to develop, but the spokesperson
did not want to make any promises.
The speakers talked about the market in general and did not talk about
specific products or price points.
During a question and answer session, Hawkins said he would like to
see changes in the existing display on palm sized devices.
Reported by Newsbytes News Network, newsbytes.com . |
