Windows Phone Thoughts: Reading Palm's Future: Pundits Look Into the Palm-Handspring merger

"With its recently announced acquisition of Handspring, Palm says it plans to focus on its software platform licensing business and beef up its line of handheld products and services. But some industry experts question what impact the buyout will have, pointing out that it's the operating system and price--not just the hardware and brand name--that make a handheld successful in the long run."

This article analyses the possible impact that the Palm/Handspring merger will have. I think this line says it all:

"The new company will subsequently be divided into two units: handheld computing solutions and smartphone solutions."

Palm will continue to go head to head with Pocket PCs, and Handspring assets will compete against the Microsoft Smartphone and Symbian platforms.