Jon Rubinstein, Apple's former VP of hardware engineering, is now leading the way at Palm, trying to revive the wilting company, according to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. [Subscription required.]

Mr. Rubinstein has been making a splash at Palm with the directive from Palm CEO Ed Colligan to shake up the company. As soon as Mr. Rubinstein arrived at Palm a few months ago, he restructured the company, cleaned house, and started appointing product directors to oversee product development from start to end. He also put the brakes on products that hadn't been well thought out and streamline the product line. The Palm Foleo was terminated.

Challenges remain, however. Palm's share of the world-wide smartphone market has dropped from 5.4 percent to 3.6 percent in the last year. The Apple iPhone and new products from RIM have invaded Palm's traditional turf.

Palm's partner's are happier as well. "There had been issues for as long as two years over what Palm's strategy was," said Douglas Edwards, chief marketing officer of Handmark Inc., a company that makes mobile software. "Now we're not debating as many issues and wondering if our stuff will work with their devices."

Now it's time to see of Mr. Rubinstein can invoke the same magic he did at Apple -- even as Apple's own iPhone is poised to further invade the Treo turf.