Beleaguered Palm Inc. swung to a loss for its fourth fiscal quarter as revenue fell by 26% amid slowing sales of many of its devices.
“For the quarter ended May 31, Palm reported a net loss of $43.4 million, or 40 cents a share, compared to earnings of $15.4 million, or 15 cents a share, for the same period last year,” Dan Gallagher reports for MarketWatch. “On a non-GAAP basis, the company said net losses totaled $23.9 million, or 22 cents per share.”
Gallagher reports, “Revenue fell to $296.2 million from $401.3 million last year.”
Full article here.
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
Don’t laugh guys, let’s express our sympathy in remeberance of the days Apple was down.
Indeed, no confident warrior should rejoice when another warrior goes down on the floor.
Sorry Palm, it’s time for iPhone to rule !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
<b>Yep, Apple could have very disappointing earnings coming here real soon<b>
So lets not cheer too much, let the evil dogs lie.
At least Apple was smart to bank all those billions to make it over the bad times already here.
Apple is a real survivor.
Now if Microsoft would bite the bucket.
Wow, sales fell thru the floor. That Centro must be doing real well.
@Ed Colligan
They’re not PC guys they’re Apple guys.
And they didn’t just walk in.
But speaking of PC guys, if you’re lucky you can catch the next train out of town with Bill Gates.
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I’d say RIM is responsible for most of that damage.
Sorry, Palm, but you shouldn’t have dropped all your Mac support 5+ years ago! Now you’re paying the price of making a large number of horrible decisions. Horrible company. Hope to see you completely disappear soon!
Set on your ass long enough and this is what one gets in return…
They took over “Handspring”, gutted the company and cashed in but failed to build on there purchase…
But they did had a good run even if there good fortune was built on and around earlier Apple based software…
You know if one thinks about they really never came up with anything on there own… guys it’s time to cash in and leave something for the stock holders, if there are anyone left!
It’s starting to look like Palm and Dell are two peas in the same pod and that pod is drying up while still on the vine!
They actually grew units by 20% YOY – they’re just not making any money at it! If a Palm can still grow its units by 20%, what can RIM and Apple do? This just shows that the whole market is growing very nicely. Interesting that the stock is barely off Bid 6.32, Offered 6.41 versus close of 6.54.
Palm is a perfect example of why a technology company can’t rest on its existing products. Palm has tried splitting itself up, reuniting, running Microsoft’s OS on its devices, and almost everything else under the sun EXCEPT come up with something new.
In the Tech World, someone else will develop the Next Great Thing while you sit back toasting how great you are or refusing to take the next leap in product development.
Apple learned this the hard way and almost died because of it.
Microsoft is going to have to learn it, and pretty quick.
Palm never did learn it.
Everything goes in cycles. Palm took over when the Newton wasn’t there and looked a class above the average cell phone. Then CrackBerries started chipping away their market. Now its time for something new a cut above. Palm CEO is as smart as Dell CEO. Maybe they’ll try to jump on/fall under the Symbian train.
Take that Palm…
and your little dog too!
“Palm is a perfect example of why a technology company can’t rest on its existing products.”
Palm shouldn’t have run Windows Mobile OS… they should have evolve and improve their own OS. But no, they slept on their success.
If you have told me 5 years ago that Apple was gonna have a shot at becoming the leader in the smartphone industry, I would have think you’re a fool. Now guess who looks like a fool?
And let’s be aware of something: If Apple lead on something today, they won’t let it go. They’ve learnt their lesson 15 years ago, and even if Steve leave Apple, he’ll leave them with a 5 to 10 years written strategic plan to follow (including all the “what ifs”) !!!
Mac+
Can these phone company falls be explained by people delaying upgrading their phones until 11th July?
Also, the $199 price point for a smart PDA/iPhone with 8 M RAM is like when Apple dropped the price of the iPod Nano by about $50 a week before the release of the Zune. When you only have one product and one trick it hits hard when someone plays the Joker.
Palm is probably ruing the day they sold their OS and linked with MS. They no longer can develop their product or its environment the way Apple can.
Win Mobile can’t tell a user interface from a crash log.
Android is totally unproven and going for the low end, but who is going to risk $200 and a contract in this economic climate – unix hippies?
Nokia is the only one with the nuts to get complete control of their OS, make it available to everyone and create a trusted community.
RIMM’s only ‘features’ are a physical keyboard, Exchange support and installed base. The first two are not exclusive and the last one is only good for the length of a 2 year contract at most.
Given the above scenario, in three years only Apple and Nokia will be left with a decent market share.
isn’t Ed Colligan the
Q: “how do you deal with the iphone?”
Ed: :how do they deal with us?” guy?
if so, he just got gmped, way worse than being pwned.
Palm gives investors a good hand job!
While RIMM investors give Research In Motion stock a rim job!
Wait a second. I thought Dell had “beleaguered” copyrighted?
Failure to execute will get ya’.
No new Palm OS, no new innovative palm devices. Only new thing they added was crappy windows mobile.
“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”
Someone get the paddle, its time for a spanking!!!
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Replace name Palm with name Microsoft and add 4 years….
Palms have been the mainstay of the medical community for years. Lots of easy-to-use software, a few winner apps and all-in-all fairly stable. Docs didn’t ask their peripheral brains to do number crunching or document review, just simple library stuff, some drug interaction checking, simple calcs. and maybe some schedule/contact maintenance. I don’t want to be a patient when all those Palm-toting docs have nothing to turn to in the place of their defunct devices. The pipeline is dry on the Mac/Windoze side. Really.
In the pipeline . . .
Epocrates and Apple Bringing iPhone App for Medical Professionals
“Epocrates is working directly with those fruity chaps at Apple, in the hope of bringing an application for medical professionals to the iPhone. The app will support a drug search feature, as well as providing updates with recent, relevant medical information. Epocrates is one of the few companies that is working directly alongside Apple to create software for the newly opened iPhone, and the development is promising because it proves the iPhone has some serious worth in a professional capacity.”
http://gizmodo.com/365022/epocrates-and-apple-bringing-iphone-app-for-medical-professionals
15 days and counting until I dump my Treo for an iPhone 3G…
farewell, Palm.
we loyal followers gave up long ago waiting for innovation from you.
you’ll soon just be a footnote in handheld history…
I live in SD, and 3G or no 3G, AT&T;is still not doing business where I live. The Palm Centro is the best phone I’ve owned since my Ford truck tough Samsung 8500. Sure I’d rather have an iPhone, but as long as Apple’s wonderific device is not available to many, there is a real need a viable alternative.
Palm is at least responding to that need. It just released an unlocked version of the Centro.
It would be a shame if Palm went belly-up at this point.
I’m not at all sure they can pull out of the nose-dive, but Palm does have two ex-Apple executives who are very good at what they do: Jon Rubinstein, who ran hardware development at Apple for several years after the NeXT merger, and Paul Mercer, whose company supplied the OS on the original iPod.
So, I don’t doubt that they can greatly improve the product, I just doubt that they still have the time to save the company.
-jcr
@HolyMackerel
its 8GB or storage not 8 m RAM
@a long time Palm user
I’ve had the palm treo 600 to 755 I must say I hated every single one of them. It felt like you are holding a brick with the same based style year over year. It took forever for them to remove the pointless antenna on it and I’ve always had problems with the phone. Random lockups was the big pain, and this isn’t just one phone its the 20 treo’s we had at work all doing the same crap. Having sprint didn’t help the matter either with their horrible support. I see sprint, dell and palm all joining forces to kickin the bucket together. If anything, comcast will finally just buy sprint and maybe they wont die off.