Palm's new owners, TCL Communications, today made the first overture to Palm fans, saying that they intended to keep the spirit of the brand alive. But they didn't go so far as to say when we'd see the first batch of new Palm devices arrive.

In a statement, TCL Communications said Palm's brand "has always been synonymous with innovation," and that "now is the time to revive and bring back this pioneer spirit." That will involve headquartering the new Palm in Silicon Valley, as well as relying on its parent company's research and development group of some 5,000 engineers, and its partnerships with hardware makers and carriers to help get devices to consumers.

You're in charge of 5,000 engineers

Interestingly enough, the company is also looking for outside help on actually figuring out what it's going to make.

"Palm has always carried a lot of affect and emotions," TCL said. "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."

Speaking to Phonescoop, TCL's chief executive George Guo elaborated, saying he's looking to the Palm community to provide feedback and ideas for new devices, as well as on apps and operating systems that are not webOS (which LG owns). That's likely to leave many who hoped for a firm plan of action from Palm, or even just a little dose of nostalgia, underwhelmed.

Palm's unlikely return as a zombie brand happened last week when Palm.com began redirecting to a new site, mynewpalm.com. It was discovered that the site, along with Palm's trademarks and logos, were all owned by a top exec at Alcatel One Touch, which TCL Communications owns.