Put up or shut down, Palm
December 1st, 2008, 11:02pm by Jake
There it is, the once ubiquitous Palm III, which alongside the sleeker Palm V, was the flagship device of Palm during its heyday, when the company was valued in the tens of billions of dollars and was destined to be in the hands of every person in the country. That never happened, but at least the Treo 600 was a groundbreaking device that was years ahead of its time. Sadly for Palm, they spent the next 5 years selling basically the same device well after the market had passed it by.
As its share price has plummeted by more than 90% over the past few years, the appeal of Palm devices has descended alongside it. Oh, the form factor was ergonomic, but you really need to update your form factor more often than once every 5 years. The Windows Treos have gotten decent reviews, but they stand out as anything special. The Centro is a nice, solid device, but it’s still running an OS that was showing it’s age 5 years ago. You can’t even compare the web browsing experience to an iPhone.
So now, the company’s life quite literally hangs on their ability to come out with a 3rd ground-breaking gadget. Everything rests on Nova, Palm’s supposed 2-year late answer to the iPhone, after everyone from Samsung to HTC, RIMM and Nokia have already revealed their pretenders to the smartphone throne. At this point, even the true believers are doubting Palm. Really, if Nova isn’t a big hit, I think there’s a better-than-even chance than Palm will be history in a year. So why would anyone buy a new phone from a company that may not last 12 months?
Palm Inc., it’s time to put all your cards on the table. You may be quite proud of the secrecy that surrounded the Foleo. And you’re also painfully aware of what a costly diversion that was, and even more so how much the secrecy itself cost. Customer feedback was quick & brutal– a decent idea sorely lacking in the capabilities demanded in a sub-notebook form factor. What did Palm gain out of that? Nothing. So Palm, you may have a winner on your hand. But no one will believe it until they see it. No one will recommend your devices, since your survival is in question.
Preview Nova now, Palm. If it’s crap, you might still have enough time to kill the program and shift to an Android/ WinMo future. If it’s all that you’ve claimed it to be, your survival will not be in doubt, and sales will pick up, while your most loyal fans wait for the device to hit the streets. There really are no benefits to keeping Nova hidden any longer, whether it’s an iPhone-killer or Foleo part two. In short, you might as well release a Nova preview now, or just shut down and close up shop.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:45 am
What’s that sticker on the lid all about?
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I’m hoping that’s Svanes, and his girlfriend?
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I agree with you Jake. I can see no good reason strategically for Palm to not show Nova. Classically, the reason you would not pre-announce a product is if you thought it would affect current sales, but that doesn’t apply in this case. Never mind the fact that Palm has very little in current sales to speak of, Palm has not had a product that competes with the Nova phones in a long time. Centro is an entry level product and I doubt Palm will target with their new platform, at least initially. The WinMob Treos are business-focused and should retain their niche.
IMO, Palm’s reluctance to show Nova can only mean one of 2 things: 1) It’s not close to fully baked and therefore not ready for public consumption 2) It’s “innovations” are so trivial that Palm fears competitors can copy them before Palm can roll it out. Regarding 2, consider that Apple showed off the iPhone 6 months prior to release, and it’s taken until now for decent competition to come out.
From an investor standpoint, it’s increasingly clear that Palm is asking shareholders to take a leap of faith that their new OS will be transformational, but they have done nothing to earn that credibility. You could argue that by introducing Palm OS, they have a proven track record in mobile OS’s, but to me, that’s like saying that because MS-DOS was successful, Windows was a given. The difference is that Microsoft rolled out Windows from a position of strength and didn’t wait until MS-DOS had a 3% market share.
IMO, holding Palm shares now is a gamble, not an investment. Good thing we are mostly playing with house money, right?
December 4th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
In case you missed it…
To add insult to injury… Flickr has now (finally) released a website designed for the smartphone crowd. All it needs is Webkit or Opera Mobile. And guess what? There’s no Opera Mobile for the Palm OS. Why? Because Palm years ago DISCOURAGED Opera from releasing a version for the Palm OS. How customer-hostile was that? In fact, the day I heard about should have been the day I sold my last remaining Palm shares and burned my last Treo.
That sort of brain-dead decision making is emblematic of the criminal mismanagement of Palm over the last 5 years. Seriously Palm, you have succeeded in turning the web browsing experience on the Treo/Centro from market-leading to not-even-in-the-game in 5 short years. It’s pathetic.
Please, I want someone from Palm to explain to me why they thought it was a good idea to make sure that their most loyal customers have a mobile web browsing experience that’s stuck in 2003. This is not news, really, but the fact that Flickr has a better website that I can’t access solely due to Palm’s intransigence drives me crazy to no end.
Get it together Palm. There won’t be any loyalists left soon.
December 4th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
So why are you so loyal to Palm, anyway?
December 4th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Who knows? I think it’s part of my nature. I used Apple all through the darkest chasm of despair, too.
December 6th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
An indication that Palm is in trouble may be the content-to-fine-print ratio. Not so sure about the marketing campaign, anyway, but seriously, do you need this much legalese in an ad?