What is in Palm's future?

The pioneer of PDAs is rumored to be up for sale, according to this story on engadget.com. Of course what is interesting is not that Palm is up for sale, rather who the buyer will be. Lots of names doing the rounds, including usual suspects like Motorola, Microsoft and Nokia. Some even suggest HTC (the phone manufacturer itself).

Question is - what is up for sale? Ever since Palm started shipping phones using Windows Mobile, the Palm OS was dead right there. Hardware is not an issue in any case, because that is already outsourced. What is up for sale then, is Palm brand. The brand itself has taken a lot of beating in last few months and years, and certainly its value has diminished. But it is still a recognized brand.

Probably most of the above mentioned phone makers will not be interested in Palm. In this fixed-mobile convergence, enterprise mobility age, it would not surprise me if a company like HP or Dell might be interested in Palm brand. Remember HP bought BitPhone (mobile device management software vendor), and then turn around and sell complete enterprise solution.