Red Herring has a nice article about Hawkins and how his being stubborn has helped Palm, and now Handspring, keep out features that would have bogged the organizers down."I think it's important to take a few key features, focus on them, and don't do anything else," says Mr. Hawkins, when asked about his product-design philosophies. "Somewhere along the line, somebody has to be the bad guy, somebody has to say no," Mr. Hawkins says. "At Palm, that person was me."
Hawkins designed the Springboard so those that wanted to add features could "do it themselves."
Go here for the complete article .