“Palm Inc. has reportedly hired an investment banker to help the wireless-device maker explore a potential sale,” Jeffry Bartash reports for MarketWatch.
Bartash reports, “The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Palm is working with Morgan Stanley to evaluate its options, citing ‘people familiar with the matter.’ Possibilities could include a sale to Finnish mobile giant Nokia Corp. or a private-equity firm.”
“On Monday… Palm stock fell more than 6% in recent trades, partly because of a brokerage downgrade. J.P. Morgan cut its rating to underweight from neutral, saying Palm’s product line has grown stale while the competition is intensifying,” Bartash reports.
Bartash reports, “Nokia, Motorola and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. have all unleashed sharp-looking new smartphones that have blunted Palm’s historic edge in device design. And soon, technology bellwether Apple Inc. will enter the smartphone market with the much heralded iPhone, which is based on snazzy touchscreen design.”
Full article here.
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Sounds hairy, Palm.
Damn. I’m not going to make any money when I try to unload my Treo 650 for a iPhone.
Bye Bye Palm.
Hello iPhone.
Too bad the way Palm went. I always admired their products. Well, until they went Windows Mobile…
It’s a helluva lot more than just a “snazzy touchscreen design”, bubba.
Blood on the iPhone’s touchscreen before it’s even released? Damn.
But for those of us with no options… being that Cigular is a disaster provider in Northern California… Palm Treo and Sprint is my only option. Way bummer.
I would love the iPhone but…heck…what’s the point with Cingular when a bug flies in front of you … you drop a call.
“technology bellwether Apple Inc.”
A far cry from “beleaguered Apple” of just a couple years ago.
Cheesy Mac wrote: Sounds hairy, Palm.
Hairy palms? Remember, a Freudian slip is when you say one thing, but mean your mother!
David,
I’m in Northern California on Cingular and love it. No problems at all and a signal even in the most off-the-beaten-path places. I have noticed that certain phones SUCK with signal though… get a new phone.
Palm sucks, however to give credit where credit is due, I have had a very pleasant experinece with one of their techs who was very helpful in troubleshooting a problem I had with a Tungsten C.
Gee, what a surprise. RIM is next up to bat.
HINT: Buy PUTS
Rock on Steve!
Any HW company that adopts Windows SW ends up going nearly broke, battling 100 other companies using the exact same schlocky stuff…
The problem with HW vendors is they do not see themselves as a total integrator. Well, PALM did, but then the temptation is to be lazy, and just “solve” problems by adopting a vein of product that would run Redmond on it.
Yes, they sell to some degree – but so do 100 other HW vendors products with Redmond on them.
Now PALM is competing soley on hardware and what people think looks cool or not, etc…
Sony, PALM, Dell, HP, all in the same boat, rowing up stream because they refuse to devote millions in devloping superior software solutions.
Just add up the dollars in license fees they have dolled out to Redmond, and it should be clear that they should all have done their own thing on the SW side of the coin, or collectively put together reference platforms to all work off of. But no, they are all to locked up in their own kingdoms.
They all have their little power rings, but one ring rules them all… Bill’s ring.
I said Apple would pummel RIM next but I forgot one important thing: The iPhone doesn’t do “push” mail. Therefore, the iPhone is doooooomed!
And since the iPhone is based on Mac OS X, there is absolutely no technical way it will ever be able to do “push” mail. In fact, now that I think about it, Apple is doooooomed!
AshNazg
Where in Northern Calif?
I paid to get out of my Cingular contract. No matter what phone they gave me it was terrible. I do know that when I was in both Chicago, NY and LA that Cingular was great. Perfect reception. Here in Sacramento, just terrible.
My mother and friends are on Cingular and all…and My mean all have the same reception problems. Each of them are bursting to be set free from Cingular.
Perhaps you are blessed with the perfect phone and near a tower.
The iPhone does “push” email through Yahoo, and perhaps through Exchange as well. If that was sarcasm, it was a pretty sad attempt.
Jake
I wish Palm would just handover the BeOS source code to the Haiku people. Haiku is an Open Source version of BeOS that the BeOS fan boys started working on after Palm bought out Be… It’s a great OS, and they are getting close. Still the original source would make it that much easier..
Remember, Apple’s 1st choice for an OS BEFORE Next was……… BeOS.
AshNazg’s problem and David’s reply are indicative of all cell users; regardless of provider. It is either fine or crap, depending on location. Cingular is fine for me in Los Angeles, and the best there is on the Palos Verdes Peninsula where I spend most of my time. So I lucked out. I DO hope that they get the 3G or better systems up and running asap.
“First blood on the touchscreen…” Good comment. Wow.
iPhone, b*tch!
Apparently, a partnership with Windows is like dealing with a reverse MIdas King:
Whatever he touches turns into $h1t !!!
Palm used to have a good product, at least when they designed the PDA. I never used the phones, but I owned a Palm Pilot, a Palm III and a Palm VII. I liked them all, and back then, they were pretty good, simple and did the job.
It’s funny how there were some parallels with early Palm and Apple. While Windows CE was bloated and confusing, PalmOS was clean, and designed to just work. It was designed right from the beginning.
I never understood the Mobile Windows deal. Too bad for them.
I’d love to see an Apple PDA-like device, like the iPhone without the phone.