Todd Bradley, chief executive officer (CEO) at PalmOne Inc., will resign at the end of the first quarter but remain with the company until May, PalmOne announced Monday in a release.
Bradley was named CEO in October of 2003 when PalmOne spun off PalmSource Inc., which develops the Palm OS, and acquired Handspring Inc. Ed Colligan, currently PalmOne’s president and formerly president and chief operating officer at Handspring, will become the interim CEO while PalmOne’s board of directors searches for a replacement.
PalmOne virtually invented the PDA (personal digital assistant), but has steadily lost market share to companies like Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) in recent quarters as the entire PDA market declines. However, the company has a hit with the Treo smart phone products, originally developed by Handspring. Bradley was credited as a force behind the Handspring acquisition by Eric Benhamou, PalmOne’s chairman, in a statement.
Analysts predict that stand-alone PDAs will eventually die out in favor of voice-enabled handheld devices like the Treo 650 and HP’s iPaq h6315. PalmOne expects most of its future growth to come from the Treo family of products as well as PDAs with wireless Internet connectivity.
Bradley is leaving to pursue other challenges, he said in a release. He will remain as CEO until Feb. 25, when PalmOne’s third fiscal quarter ends, and will advise the company on its management transition until the end of its fiscal year in May.
Colligan will be considered for the permanent CEO position, PalmOne said.
