TCL confirms acquisition, will create a new Palm

China-based TCL Communication, the holding company of affordable mobile device vendor Alcatel OneTouch, has confirmed recent reports it has snapped up the Palm brand from HP. TCL said it is to create a new US-based company, Palm Inc., which will take ownership of the brand and development of mobile devices.

According to TCL, the new Palm’s ethos will go beyond of just making smartphones. The firm reckons Palm will deliver breakthrough innovations in technology, design, user experience, eco-system, marketing, supply chain and business models.

The global device maker also said the new company will be supported by its network serving over 170 countries. Further, the firm claimed this move represents the biggest crowd-sourcing project ever seen in the industry. However, details of what exactly this entails were not disclosed.

“Palm has always carried a lot of affect and emotions,” TCL wondered in a statement. “That’s why TCL has set the direction to rebuild the brand involving Palm’s very own community, making it the largest scale crowd-sourced project ever seen in the industry.”

Palm, together with its mobile OS webOS, was acquired by IT giant HP in 2010. Subsequently, after making webOS into an open source platform, HP sold it to LG that now uses it in its smart TVs.

With its Alcatel OneTouch brand TCL is already fairly strong in emerging markets, especially in the Latin American region. It seems then that Palm, as a US-based company that also has previous brand awareness in the country, will target its local market as a priority. On the technical side, it remains to be seen whether there could be any implications from the fact Palm no longer comes hand-in-hand with webOS.