Palmtree Electronics

Palmtree Electronics is a Tierradorian multinational electronics and information technology corporation headquartered in Prisamarina. It is one of the largest producers of consumer electronics in the world. Palmtree's best known hardware products are the Palma series of smartphones, the Palmtree Smart TV (OLED and LED), the Captio tablet series, and the Lata touchscreen computer series. Palmtree is also very well-known for Palmetto, the software operating system used in Palmtree products along with hardware produced by various other consumer electronics companies, the Palmtree 24/7 suite of productivity applications, and the Palmtree Adventurer web browser. Collectively, these products are used by over 4.8 billion people around the world.

Palmtree is one of the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phones and smartphones, where it competes directly with Caphirian-based. Petalstone Electronics, and is best known for its Palmtree Palma brand. It has developed 5G capable smartphones including the Palma 28, and foldable phones including the Palma Fold 9. The company is a major vendor of tablet computers, particularly its Palmtree Captio collection, and is regarded for developing the phablet market with the Palmtree Palma Lite family of devices. Palmtree has also been the world's largest television manufacturer since 2008.

The company is a major manufacturer of electronic components such as lithium-ion batteries, semiconductors, image sensors, camera modules, and displays for clients such as Petalstone, Aegan, Emerson, and Zorin. It is also the world's largest Semiconductor memory manufacturer. Palmtree Electronics has assembly plants and sales networks in 61 countries and employs around 275,000 people. It is majority-owned by Tierradorian-based investors. As of 2030, Palmtree Electronics is the world's second-largest technology company by revenue, and its market capitalization stood at US$595.65 billion, the 8th largest in the world.

Palmtree, with assistance from TK Group, the largest telecommunications corporation in Tierrador, was considered the pioneer of the 5G network, being the first consumer electronics company to design its software and hardware with the components necessary to support a 5G network, and has announced it is actively working on the first 6G network.

1971–1995: Early years
Palmtree Electronics was founded on March 24, 1971 by University of Prisamarina students Chris Lonaté and Anders Wašardi as a partnership. Lonaté and Wašardi met at a computer science class at UoP which they shared, and Lonaté told Wašardi about his idea for an innovative personal computer, and took inspiration from the successes of the Aegan Group's initial lines of microprocessors and CPUs in early 1971, Lonaté and Wašardi sought to get involved with the IT industry, one they believed to be growing at an exponential rate. In October 1971, Lonaté and Wašardi released Palmtree's first prototype, the Palmtree I. The Palmtree I was an 8-bit desktop computer sold as a motherboard equipped with a CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips. This was mostly marketed as a base kit rather than a fully functional personal computer.

Lonaté presented the Palmtree I to the University of Prisamarina's IT department. The university then purchased the prototype from Lonaté for $594, and soon enough, word got around about the new invention, which, in early 1972, prompted Media Market, at the time the largest electronics retailer in Tierrador, to sign a deal with Lonaté and Wašardi, which had them manufacture several Palmtree I computers for the purpose of selling them to the public for $610 per unit. By November 1972, Palmtree I had sold 9,500 units, which had generated $5.8 million in revenue for Palmtree Electronics. At this point, the duo had already developed the Palmtree II, the successor to the Palmtree I. In January 1973, the Palmtree II was first introduced in Media Market and Royal's stores, selling at $645 per unit. It was at this time when Francisco Qantéria, who had attempted to create his own version of a microprocessor, but failed due to inability to find investors, reached out to the duo for a merger. Qantéria's microprocessors were unique as they were actually able to hold integers and memory addresses that were 16-bits wide, which was doubled the amount of the microprocessors found in the Palmtree I and II's motherboards. The duo immediately accepted Qantéria's offer, and the three quickly began working on a 16-bit personal computer. Palmtree Electronics was incorporated on January 7, 1974. Multimillionaire Yannes Gonçani provided the company with an initial investment of $284,000 along with basic expertise and knowledge in the business field. By April 1975, the company had 4,000 employees.

It should also be noted that another major cause for Palmtree's immediate surge to fame could be attributed to the technology boom seen in the late-70s to the mid-80s, where the Tierradorian government, led by Pedro Gomez, began raising the government subsidization of the technology industry within the nation. Before the release of the Palmtree II-16, the second edition of the Palmtree II series, Gomez met with the trio, where they demonstrated on national television how to correctly operate the new prototype. It was then where the BaseCalc application was introduced, a basic spreadsheet application intended for use by businesses to calculate costs, budget, and accounting. It the first application built for a computer of that size. One month after the demonstration, in September 1979, the company released the Palmtree II-16, and it was the first Palmtree product to include a 16-bit microprocessor.