There was a time when the acronym PDA was almost synonymous to the name Palm. Now, the company is desperately trying to cope up with the times as it tries to catch up with the competition that it once kept steadily at bay in its prime.

Ars Technica ran an article discussing how Palm fell from glory with bad management moves and its failure to stay competitive. The article says that the downtrend of the company may have started in 2003. The firm was still at its best shape back in that year, but it was split into two smaller, independent companies: PalmOne and PalmSource. The former was the hardware division while the latter was the software wing.

All seemed well at first, until the age of Blackberry Smartphones was ignited by RIM. These smartphones were powerful devices which combined the functions of cell phones and digital assistants. Palm was able to respond in terms of the connectivity aspect with the addition of Bluetooth and WiFi resources. However, market response was rather lukewarm and the gap between RIM and Palm was widened even more.

In an effort to bring the old magic back, PalmOne wanted to re-unify itself with PalmSource. They had their way, but not without spending almost US$ 80 million first. The large acquisition expenditures may not have been necessary if not for the split four years ago.

Now, the company sees a ray of hope in the Linux operating system. By basing their next OS on the flexible model, Palm hopes to become relevant again. Linux is undoubtedly a good choice, as it is preferred by a lot of Palm's competitors.

Palm may have started it all in the PDA genre, but the field now teems with competition. Whether it can catch lightning in a bottle for the second time remains to be seen. The only thin certain is that it won't go without a fight.