“How did Palm find itself in hot water? While the company had made early strides in the smartphone arena with its Treo line of phones, its PalmOS had aged poorly—so much so that the company even started selling handsets powered by Windows Mobile,” Moren reports. “In an attempt to revitalize the company, it started work on a new operating system dubbed webOS, which it debuted on the Palm Pre at CES in 2009… Unfortunately, the webOS platform was hampered by limited availability of the SDK for third-party developers… [and] six months of exclusivity with Sprint didn’t necessarily help Palm’s case either.”
“Even updated models of its handsets on Verizon haven’t been enough to bolster Palm’s sales to the extent that it had hoped,” Moren reports. “The company said on Thursday that its fiscal year revenues would be ‘well below’ the $1.6 to $1.8 billion that it had forecast and expected revenues of $300 to $320 million in the current quarter.”
Moren reports, “That’s not enough to get Palm CEO and chairman Jon Rubinstein down, though. The former Apple executive issued a missive to the troops, discussing what steps the company was taking to help correct its course. Top on the list were strengthening the company’s relationship with Verizon Wireless by training sales people and engaging in a more widespread advertising campaign.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Training sales people? More widespread advertising? Puleeze. Seriously, Palm doesn’t have enough money; they never did. What’s Rubinstein gonna do, bleed on Apple? We can almost hear him threatening to bite Steve Jobs’ legs off.
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good as
They need to spend money they don’t have.
Hey Rubi, Did you really think that by being in the company of Steve Jobs all those years would automatically pass his genius skills and vision to you by osmosis?
Ummmm… yes you are. You just know it yet.
I think Palm got “Rub-bed” the wrong way.
They aren’t training sales people. They’re training engineers to be sales people, to get them to sell their family and friends Palm phones.
My brother’s friend’s cousin’s neighbor’s gardener’s wife’s aunt says that she likes her Palm Pre, more or less.
PALM: I’m not dead!
INVESTORS: ‘Ere. He says he’s not dead!
MARKET: Yes, he is.
PALM: I’m not!
INVESTORS: He isn’t?
MARKET: Well, he will be soon. He’s very ill.
PALM: I’m getting better!
MARKET: No you’re not, you’ll be stone dead in a moment!
PALM: I think I’ll go for a walk!
MARKET: You’re not fooling anyone, you know! [to INVESTORS] Look, isn’t there something you can do?
PALM: [singing] I feel happy! I feel happy…!
[INVESTORS club PALM over the head]
MARKET: Ah, thanks very much.
If you like that, then read this by Jim Goldman then…
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35607982
“Better put, it’s potentially ANOTHER big problem for Palm. The company seems to be playing fast and furious with the truth. Analysts are wary. And judging by the company’s continuing plunge, investors are throwing in the towel. Difficulty competing in the marketplace is one thing; losing trust is quite another.”
Palm is d d dying. So much for that pumped up arrogance.
Now trading at $6.02 per share, 1/3rd of the 52 week high. This company has done nothing besides systematically destroying shareholder value since trading at $140 per share shortly after the IPO. 3Com was wise to spin it off when they did.
They’re not even worth a buy out, and seriously who would bother? RIMM, Nokia, Apple all have their own OS strategies. Moto, Sammy and LG are on the Android bandwagon. Who does that leave? Sony Ericsson? While it might actually be a good fit, SE is another dysfunctional mobile device maker. The second tier manufacturer’s have WinMo and Android to choose from. Too little, too late, Palm. Shut it down now while there’s still something left to pay severance.
it’s a bit of a pity, from what i’ve seen the Pre’s a decent phone and webOS is rather usable.
Their solution isn’t to make a better product but to increase sales pressure at the stores.
“Bring out your dead” might be the better Monty Python clip. A cart piled high with iPhone wannabes.
the problem about palm’s death is the $500 million of cash on the balance sheet. it will take some time for them to be out of business. they might even be able to save the company but because mdn has such influence on the industry and in the world, they are preparing now to shut down and give the money back to shareholders.
Such is the ultimate fate of all companies that ignore Apple and the Mac market.
It’s coming, Adobe…
I don’t miss resetting my Palm twice a week. Nor do I miss that haphazard sync software they gave us Mac users to suffer with.
The Pre’ wasn’t a bad phone; it was the “little things” that hurt it. Cheap keyboard feel, rough / non smooth feel when sliding the case open, plastic display, leaching off iTunes, Sprint, too late on the SDK.
Too much reliance on marketing instead of letting the product do the talking. BTW- Rubi… it’s over.
What was I thinking…?
Maybe R2 will buy all the Pre’s so he can multitask.
@ silverhawk
Poor R2. Slowly going down the drain while he fruitlessly listens to Pandora at the same time. LOL
But… Multitasking!
Well, according to this article, it looks like vagina killed the Palm
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http://bit.ly/cYy0AC