“Palm Inc., maker of the Treo e-mail phone, posted its third straight quarterly loss as customers defected to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and new BlackBerrys made by Research In Motion Ltd.,” Ville Heiskanen reports for Bloomberg.
“The third-quarter loss was $31.5 million, or 30 cents a share, compared with a profit of $11.8 million, or 11 cents, a year earlier, Palm said today in a statement. Revenue fell 24 percent to $312.1 million in the period ended in February, missing analysts’ estimates,” Heiskanen reports.
“Palm slashed jobs and closed its retail stores last quarter to curb costs as sales declined. The company has failed to update its product designs fast enough to compete with the BlackBerry or the iPhone, introduced in June,” Heiskanen reports.
“The company plans to introduce new Treo phones this summer, Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan said today on a conference call,” Heiskanen reports.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in. – Palm CEO Ed Colligan, commenting on then-rumored Apple iPhone, Nov. 16, 2006
Heiskanen continues, “The BlackBerry dominates U.S. sales of e-mail phones, with 41 percent of the market in the fourth quarter, Reading, England- based researcher Canalys said in a report this month. Apple’s iPhone had 28 percent, and Palm had 9 percent.”
Heiskanen reports, “Palm, whose handheld computers were best-sellers in the 1990s, is falling behind, said Rob Enderle, president of the San Jose, California-based research firm Enderle Group. ‘Palm is the company that should have had the iPhone first,’ he said in an interview with Bloomberg Radio. `’They created the concept of a handheld computer that could be used for these kinds of things. They fell off their game.'”
MacDailyNews Take: First off, Rob Enderle is an idiot. Secondly, the Enderle Group is comprised of Rob and his wife Mary. Some “group.” Next, media outlets that quote Rob Enderle do themselves a disservice simply by associating with an idiot. And, finally, Apple is the company that should have and did have the iPhone first, because Apple, not Palm, created the concept of a handheld computer with the Newton MessagePad, introduced in August 1993 — two years and seven months before the first rudimentary Palm Pilot debuted.
Heiskanen continues, “To improve its designs, Palm brought in Jon Rubinstein last year as an executive chairman in charge of product development. Rubinstein, who had run Apple’s iPod business, joined the company as part of a deal with buyout firm Elevation Partners. The firm bought a 25 percent stake in Palm.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacVicta” for the heads up.]
Rubenstein is a hardware guy. What Palm really needed, back when they still had a chance, was a software guy. Brilliant software takes a long time and it requires the right people — rare people — to create. Palm ran out of time long ago. Barring a miracle that exceeds Steve Jobs’ return to Apple, Palm is dead.
“First off, Rob Enderle is an idiot.”
No shit, really?
Unlike Dvorak and Turrott, I don’t think it is in Enderle’s DNA to give Apple positive credit for anything… even if he were <u>paid</u> to do so!!
Strikes me as a little rough on idiots, but what the heck.
Good bye Palm. Once the vision is gone, so are you.
MDN…. you had me at “Rob Enderle is an idiot”
Asking his wife to leave the room, Rob Enderle quietly perfected the linear jerk of technology analysis. Patent pending.
About a month back I had the good fortune to hear Rob Enderle speak at a ‘Legends of IT’ banquet. My company had an extra ticket so IT guy invited me along. It was great. Rob was typically brilliant, insightful and entertaining.
What a night—Rob’s eloquent dissertation covered revolutionary innovations in computing and technology which of course covered Microsoft’s marvelous contributions to mankind. No mention was made of Apple, probably because everything they’ve done is a poor copy of something Microsoft did first. Good stuff. I got him to autograph a floppy disk.
Your potential. Our passion.™
Hey, Colligan man!
(For those who don’t recognize it, that’s a takeoff on the very long running tagline for Culligan water softeners in the US.)
Palm is failing because Palm never understood that people who buy Treos, etc. really want something that is separate from their PC, not just a dependent CRM. Today’s Treos aren’t much different than the original Palm Pilot, excluding the phone function and color screen (and maybe Windows Mobile!).
Actually, Enderly does praise Apple. A lot. It’s just that it isn’t heard through the cotton in people’s ears that they put there when he criticizes Apple.
I have a lot of Apple products, bought a lot for my company, and have a lot of stock as well, but I know that Apple isn’t perfect, and makes mistakes. nothing wrong with saying it when it happens.
The truth is that for the past three years or so, most of what he’s written about Apple has been positive. He’s not a Dvorak who deliberately says nasty things to get hits.
And, yes, I’ve argued with his a number of times, but he’s always responded like a gentleman, not with the insults some others offer.
Blood? Palm? That’s a stigmata, isn’t it? But there’ll be no resurrection on this one. Happy Easter, folks.
LOL “First off, Rob Enderle is an idiot.”
I guess he never heard of the Newton? Ahaha
@ZT
“I got him to autograph a floppy disk.”
I almost spit the water I was drinking all over the keyboard – that’s funny right there.
All good stuff!!! First off, I usually just check to see if MDN has some sassy take that easily entertains. Then I make sure that our friend “Zune Tang™” slings his fake anti-Apple slurs, for even more entertainment.
All good stuff!!!!
MW: all
Zune Tang, that was brilliant!
Whoosh!
“I got him to autograph a floppy disk.”
Yeah, I feel for ya Zune. That can sometimes happen when you drink too much whiskey….
One of Zune Tang’s best lines yet.
I mean, we all know who Zune Tang really is, but it’s entertaining as hell.
“First off, Rob Enderle is an idiot.”
That had me laughing for several minutes. That’s what’s great and not so great about mdn, they dont pretend to be fair and balanced.
Way to go, ZT!
@Cubist,
Keep your distance.
“Next, media outlets that quote Rob Enderle do themselves a disservice simply by associating with an idiot.”
Hmmm. Didn’t MDN just quote Enderle?
Oops. They quoted a quoter. My bad!
Jon Rubinstein’s pretty good. Like many high level Apple vets, he’ll bring a new direction and drive, not to mention a little style, all of which Palm really needs. I suspect they’ll come up with something pretty good later this year. It’s pretty much a do or die situation for Palm.
About a month back I had the good fortune to hear Steve Jobs speak at a banquet. My company had an extra ticket so IT guy invited me along. It was great. Steve was typically brilliant, insightful and entertaining.
What a night—Steve’s eloquent dissertation covered revolutionary innovations in computing and technology which of course covered Apple’s marvelous contributions to mankind. No mention was made of Microsoft, probably because everything they’ve done is a poor copy of something Apple did first. Good stuff. I got him to autograph a floppy disk.
Your potential. Our Blunder.™
I just hope Jon R. got a lot of money up front for his efforts. I would hate to see him have a large percentage of ….. zero. 🙁
en
I really liked Palm back in the day and I really dug my Visorphone, which at least aspired to be like an iphone some day. The Treo 180s really had me interested but then they converted to the thumb board, which I hate and then they started putting Windows CE on their devices and turned them into little bricks. I have a Treo 700 with WinCE (company issued) and it really is a step backwards from the Palm OS. Syncs with MS Exchange brilliantly, however. Too bad it never picks up calls half of the time.
Really wish I could convince my company to get iphones — maybe after June…
@ Mel G.
“Actually, Enderly does praise Apple. A lot” Have you actually read his articles??
The only time I read of him praising Apple is when he is prepping to complain about Apple products or its direction. Then he talks a out some brown laptop that is pretty much like every other pc laptop and he gushes about how neat this is and how good that is.
Its like a starship compared to a ford fiesta and he actually likes the ford fiesta better, cause , well, its more like the other cars.
Just a thought.
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en
iPhone, bee-yotch!
More blood on the touch screen.
To paraphrase Palm CEO Ed “The Colligan” Man: “We’ve been working on these phones for years. No PC company’s just going to walk in.”
To quote Steve Jobs during the dot-com bust: “We’re gonna innovate our way out of this.”
To quote the great Stan Lee: “‘Nuff said.”
Peace.
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Olmecmystic
Nobody else does dripping sarcasm like this: “I got him to autograph a floppy disk.”
I can’t stop laughing!
After ZT submits his usual lame crap, he obviously cranks up his Random Pseudonym Generator and the Differential ThumbsUp® Comment Creation Engine to post fake pat-on-the back comments.
MDN is stupid enough to fall for Enderle’s big mouth by reporting it every single freaking time.
Like I said, stop giving that idiot the spotlight he wants. Or else MDN is also doing its readers a disservice by even giving that idiot the time of day which he doesn’t deserve!
So MDN, stop reporting the idiot!
@Zune Tang,
Nice to see you branching out a little on your posts – they are always good for a chuckle. “I got him to autograph a floppy disk.” – that was inspired.
Keep up the good work.
Are JazzJams part of the Palm family?
Palm has no one but themselves to blame. They have had terrible Mac support. Actually, strike that, they have NO Mac support. No iCal syncing that works. And no innovations in their handsets. And the OS is really dated.
I gladly dumped my Treo 650 for an iPhone.
What is a floppy disk? or is this some joke I do not know?
Well, at least Enderle can enjoy group sex without having to run tacky ads in the classifieds.
cosmos,
You’re a moron.
What MDN is doing is spotlighting Enderle’s stupidity so that ignoramuses like yourself won’t run the risk of believing it. MDN is also correctly criticizing Bloomberg for using Enderle quotes.
Ignoring things and hoping they just go away does not work. See: Hitler, Taliban, etc.
And this from MacWorld UK:
“Dell plans iPhone killer?
Can Dell kill the iPhone without controlling the software?”
And now for your convenience another ZT translation:
ZT: “My company had an extra ticket so IT guy invited me along. It was great. Rob was typically brilliant, insightful and entertaining….Your potential. Our passion.™”
Interpretation: ZT is a fag, and his real jingle is “Your Floopy. My slot.™
Zune Tang, were you the IT guy’s date?
I bet you were.
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I’d much rather have the iPhone anyway.
No one here expects YOU to understand much of anything, even jokes.
Well, it looks like I might get to buy a company before I die after all.
“Well, it looks like I might get to buy a company before I die after all.”
Let me know when you do. We could break all the windows with rocks and then race office chairs down the halls with fire extinguishers for propellant.
There are six people in my ‘group.’ That makes us three times as good as the Enderle Group… Wait a minute, three times @$!%* is still just @$!%*. Sometimes comparisons are not a good thing…
Citi won’t let Palm die. They’ll buy it up if they have too. They’ve invested BIG $ and time to create bizware for it. Crucial stuff for their biggest revenue generating division. Palm might be subsumed, but it ain’t going away in the next five years or so.
I wish we wouldn’t treat Palm like the enemy. Palm supported Apple when just about no one else would. Their downfall is a sad thing, not something to be celebrated by Apple fans.
I wish we were better than this.
If zune tanflg was IT guys date, ummmmm. Will that make him IT guys Pune Tang?
First off, Rob Enderle is an idiot.
That may be true, but chances are Enderle makes more money than any staff person at MDN.