“Is Apple serious competition?: Palm CEO Ed Colligan seems downright nonchalant about rumors that Apple may introduce a mobile phone to market in the coming year,” Sarah Jane Tribble and Dean Takahashi report for The San Jose Mercury News.
Tribble and Takahashi report, “Responding to questions from New York Times correspondent John Markoff at a Churchill Club breakfast gathering Thursday morning, Colligan laughed off the idea that any company — including the wildly popular Apple Computer — could easily win customers in the finicky smart-phone sector. ‘We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,’ he said. ‘PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Palm CEO Ed Colligan is in for a rude awakening.
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Doesn’t it make you want to fast-forward time?
I love my Treo but I can’t stand arrogance. I may not immediately get an iPhone but really hope it is great. I’d love to see this guy eat his words.
I was awakened rudely once.
Obviously, Palm CEO isn’t a student of infamous statements by other tech CEOs from the past.
heh, O ye of little faith.
Peterson, was it your wife who awoke you rudely? I hope she wasn’t doing anything naughty!
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Will these guys ever learn? Do you think Michael Dell wishes he handn’t spouted off?
They don’t know nothing! I have a Treo 650 and it’s GUI sucks (and I think it’s the BEST the phone market has to offer to date).
I’m praying that the iPhone has an integrated (and obviously syncable) Address Book, iCal, Mail and browswer (tho the last 2 are “nice to have”). That and a mobile version of Mac OS X, of course.
Yes, MDN is quite right: they ARE in for a rude awakening…
didnt they(the tech industry) “learn and struggle for a few years” figuring out how to make a decent MP3 player.
…and look who walked in.
MW: new, as in, a new era is upon us.
This from someone who owes quite a bit of his business to the foresight of Apple and their (ultimately ahead-of-its-time) Newton project. Has he forgotten about that?
MDN word: Job, as in they might be out of one soon.
If there was EVER a company that deserved the “beleaguered” label, it is Palm. These guys are in serious trouble, and the Palm CEO’s braggadocio is mere whistling in the dark.
I’m ditching my Treo as soon as the iPhone comes out. It’s okay, but definitely not an Apple experience.
That’s an amazing photo. How did they get Chicken Little, Wayne Newton and Mark Foley all together for the shot?
Does anyone else think Bill Gates neck looks wierdly long in that photo? It’s either proof that he’s an alien, or he’s been doing some mighty effective geek stretching.
I have a Treo 700P that I would dump today for an iPhone that had similar features but WORKED RELIABLY. The Treo is CRAP but it is the same sort of crap that PC users put up with day after day. Most people who have one probably find it acceptable because it acts like a PC. It hangs for no apparent reason, crashes, doesn’t work as expected, has serious user interface problems, etc. I have had this one through tech support and have had it replaced under warranty but it is all the same. I am sure not the only person out there with these problems. When the iPhone comes out it will be, again, like the iPod. People will see how a smart phone should really work, reliably and simply… and the rest will be history.
The real problem is there is no good alternative out there. Apple, are you listening?
Maybe he meant to say, “I hope and pray they don’t just walk in.”
Believe me if Apple does release an iPhone, they will sell more units in one quarter than Palm sells total in an entire year. MDN nailed it, Colligan is definitely for a rude awakening.
Palm-type phones have a distinct market. Most people own less featured phones and that’s a market where Apple can succeed.
All Apple needs to do is make a sexy phone with a great interface that syncs contacts, photos, calendar, and mp3s to a computer better and simpler than the competition. The best connection/sync to the computer is the key feature.
No need to have browsing and email. It doesn’t even need to have a fantastic camera. Those can be added years later (or not) after the initial phones gain wide acceptance.
Jobs always talks about how Apple is a software company as well as a hardware company, “…it’s what we do best.” Is it me, or has Palm been struggling for years with how to make software for their crappy little devices? To me, they’re like Real Networks, I can’t believe they’ve blown such a lead once the Newton left the market. Let’em sleep with Microsoft…
Apple has a talent for spotting gaps in the service offerings of companies like Palm and basically creating a whole new market by catering to it. It’s not going to be what you think, Ed.
Famous last words…
It’s not like Apple had a thought last week and decided to develop a phone for release in a month or two. Apple’s been working on this for years. Jobs is not going to allow something as important as a new consumer market and device to be released until it’s perfect, AND significantly changes the existing marketplace.
We may not know much about the iPhone, iChat mobile, or whatever it’s going to be called, but we do know that if Apple decides to take on the likes of Blackberry, Treo, etc., Apple’s offering will be much easier to use and actually fun to use.
I had one of the first Treo 600’s and I’ll tell you what, it’s not going to be replaced with anything Palm.
…even if its better than Blackberry, certainly better than any Windows CE crap, and any other phone out there.
Go Apple.
“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…” (General John Sedgwick, battle of Spotsylvania, 1864)
Ed “I’m just an old fashion guy” Colligan makes a great antediluvian phone. What he doesn’t understand is that Apple wants to make communication devices that’ll make his mobile look like a two cups and a string. I suppose that Ed’s myopic tunnel vision is an occupational hazard of working with Microsoft. His next quote will be, “How’d they do that?”
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
-Mahatma Gandhi
Guess at which stage Palm CEO Ed Colligan is right now?