“Last year, Palm thought it had all the pieces for a turnaround in the market it pioneered: A new CEO known for making the iPod a household name, a sleek new smart phone called the Pre and fresh, intuitive operating software,” Rachel Metz reports for The Associated Press.
MacDailyNews Take: We knew better. First.
Eventually, so did these guys:
• The Motley Fool: Palm’s Pre appears doomed, dead on arrival – April 14, 2009
• CNBC’s Goldman: Palm hype far outpaces hope – April 30, 2009
• Jason Schwarz: Palm Pre is Microsoft Zune, the sequel – May 21, 2009
• Wired’s Sorrel: Palm’s Pre is no more an iPhone killer than Microsoft’s Zune was an iPod killer – May 26, 2009
• CrunchGear: Palm’s new ‘Pre’ is gonna bomb – May 28, 2009
• PC World’s David Coursey: Five reasons why the Palm Pre won’t prevail – June 02, 2009
• Jim Cramer: Apple shares could once again hit $200; Dump Palm – July 24, 2009
• Analysts: Beleaguered Palm faces rough times ahead – September 21, 2009
• Analyst: Beleaguered Palm may be acquisition target – February 03, 2010
And, without Tony Fadell, there’d be no iPod.
Metz continues, “Several analysts say Palm Inc. might not remain an independent phone maker for more than a year or two. It just could be too late to stop the momentum enjoyed by Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerrys — not to mention a growing crop of phones running Google Inc.’s Android software. Palm spokesman Derick Mains said the company had no comment.”
MacDailyNews Take: Here’s an interesting progression:
From:
• “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, November 20, 2006
• “Why would we price ‘Pre’ less than iPhone when we have a significantly better product?” – Palm CEO Ed Colligan, January 10, 2009
• “June 29, 2009 is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.” – Palm backer Roger McNamee, March 05, 2009
To:
• “No comment.” – Palm spokesman Derick Mains on the future of the company, March 10, 2010
We like to call it, “The Death of Hubris in Sunnyvale, CA.”
Metz continues, “Consumers haven’t really embraced the products. Palm sold 810,000 phones in the quarter that ended Aug. 28. In the next quarter, sales fell to 573,000. And Palm’s latest report, due March 18, is not expected to be bright. Palm recently cut its forecast for that period, citing sluggish sales. Discouraged investors have sliced the company’s stock price by more than half since the Pre hit stores.”
“It takes Palm an entire quarter to sell as many phones as Apple sells in a less than a week,” Metz reports.
“Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek thinks the company could keep spending its cash — it had $590 million at the end of its most recently reported quarter — and run out of gas in a year or two,” Metz reports. “Or, it could try to conserve funds and angle to be bought out. But Misek thinks a buyer could be dissuaded by the year or two it might take to get webOS working on new phones.”
“Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu thinks Palm could be purchased in the next year by a company such as Motorola or Dell Inc.,” Metz reports. “Ultimately, Wu thinks the smart phone market will look like the PC market, which was crowded with competition early on but eventually produced a short list of winners and a smattering of losers. ‘Palm’s almost on that list of losers,’ he said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Smattering” is the wrong word. Metz likely meant “plethora.” There will be many losers vs. the very short list of winners.
You’ll be back on the beach in no time, Jon.
MDN noted: “There will be many losers vs. the very short list of winners.”
And the reason is…consumers now know & expect 1st class products at generation 1 of a device today and will abandon any product in short time if it isn’t intuitive, easy to use and competent, Because…
Apple has set the bar so high, that you had better nearly match Apple or your street cred will be near zero in no time.
Maybe Dell will buy Palm, then they can try to extend their reach beyond smart phones with an iPad clone using their fresh new OS… except there won’t be any apps 🙁
Wait, they can integrate Flash support so all those Flash game developers have a great platform on which to innovate.
They’ll have an iPad killer with multitasking and Flash support. Finally, I can take Hulu anywhere, and Pandora plays while I do email – everything we’ll be missing on the iPhone and iPad… NOT!
“Palm spokesman Derick Mains”
What happened to the female spokesperson? You know the one that followed Rubinstein from Apple? Whatshername? Did she leave?
“They’re not going to just walk in.”
No, they just sprinted by, pants you on the way and left you standing there dumbfounded.
….or maybe Dell”
Any body remember the Dell PDA?
I thought not.
NEXT!
Despite the hubris, I would much rather have the Palm OS on my phone than whateverthecrap Verizon puts on their phones. Seems like Verizon or HP or LG could put the Palm OS to good use and at least they would not be beholden to Google, MS or MeeGoo. (Did I say that right?)
It’s hard to remember that Apple was very close to being on that list of losers just a few short years ago.
Thank you, Steve.
Now Apple’s the one to beat in every market they are in.
I don’t think we are entitled to say “few short years ago” anymore. It has been thirteen years since Jobs returned and Apple turned around. It’s no longer relevant that Apple was at one point in its history struggling. When you think about it, that period of peril was practically mid-point in the life of the Macintosh (i.e. from 1984 until today). Most certainly not just a few short years.
Still; after the whole of tech collapsed in the early 21st century, Apple seems to have emerged the most powerful leader among them.
Keep it going, guys!
Shaw Wu has spoken!
“Why would we price ‘Pre’ less than iPhone when we have a significantly better product?”
Bwaaaaaaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha! That’s just too funny.
Okay Apple, buy Palm. Shut it down, fire Jon Rubinstein again and shelter all the patents. For the few dollars you will spend, you end up not having to deal with the potential patent fights another buyer may cause (that is their only real asset anymore that can bring in some possible cash). In addition, it is humanitarian to just put Palm out of its misery.
Even before the iPhone came out, Palm has already been shut out of most corporate and government markets issued Crackberries as company phones. That used to be their bread and butter. And how did that happen? The writing was already on the wall. They just couldn’t get up after Google sat on them and took away the market for people looking for alternative to the iPhone.
Palm, meet the new Newton.
similar to what acid said…..
When Palm switched over to WinMo (WinCE?) in lieu of PalmOS (after having let PalmOS stagnate for so long), they were doomed. Pre, Pixi…whatever. Reminds me of the barnyard when the farmer cut off the chicken’s head, and the body ran around for a while before it keeled over. Palm – prepare to keel over. You are through.
Why should Apple buy them? For the patents? What patents? OK, they must surely have some, but don’t buy them, cross license them…heck, let them sync to iTMS now. Toss them a bone that won’t matter because they are done. El Jobso might float them some cash, like Gates did when the ‘peace accord’ was drawn up. What’s 150M of so to Apple to cross license stuff, that is someone else buys Palm, Apple still has the license goods to it. Doing this would make Palm completely worthless, you could argue….and, so? They are done. Only a matter of time before the chicken keels over.
Why would it take a year or two to get WebOS working on new phones? Heck, if a larger company with some resources bought Palm, it could simply improve production quality of the Pre and help sales improve. People like it when buttons don’t pop off of their phones and sliders actually slide in the direction they’re supposed to.
Palm has something with its WebOS, and may even have something that doesn’t violate patents filed by Apple (maybe, we don’t know yet). It’s probably better than Android, it’s just been killed by “brilliant” marketing with scary pale women and ethereal butterflies.
Apple should almost buy Palm just to kill WebOS so Nokia doesn’t get it. Dell or Motorola would just screw it up anyway.
Dear MDN
It benefits nobody to be a snotty crowing little jerk. Everybody is doing the best they can and competition is always good.
Report the news. Don’t demean yourselves.
Peace and love
Sounds like Apple built the coffin and Google nailed it shut by killing the need for an iPhone alternative OS.
Oh, and Palm wasn’t pushed, they dove into the coffin. Head first!
To Steve: MDN’s whole premise is to be snotty crowing little jerks. It’s what they do. Karma will get them someday. Let’s hope it doesn’t bring down Apple with them.
Steve and soiled
I like the way MDN reports on the news. I benefit, thank you!
@steve
agree to an extent that MDN sometimes gets a little repetitive, but, these ceo’s and investors that make claims and comments that really have no merit and are spewing nothing more than hubris need to get reminded of it over and over. this is because good people lost money on believing them and good people bought substandard products. the repetition of of MDN hopefully reminds us of that fact so we don’t become complacent.
If these nitwits thought Palm had all the pieces for a successful turnaround, they certainly weren’t reading MDN, or even paying attention to the circumstance. This iPhone wannabe was doomed from the outset and could have saved a lot of cash and effort by putting their patents on sale and retiring to the South of France or the South of California or wherever.
@ Steve
You forgot the rest of the sentence: “Everybody is doing the best they can” with what they’ve got to work with…
Some should track down Roger McNamee and ask him about his comments.
And Palm’s only real solution is to license their OS real cheap and focus just on software. If they could provide an OS that is better than Android, and more stable, and has no fragmentation like Android does, then they have a chance. And the clock is ticking. When Microsoft ships out their Windows 7 Phone stuff, that will effectively be the end of Palm.
Oh no. Palm can’t go, what will R2 do? He can’t play Pandora while His Pre spins down the drain? Oh nooooook!
@Solid
Nothing wrong with MDN premise. It’s something we Mac users needed since the first 512k. MDN is the voice we needed when we had none and surrounded by Windows/PC constantly insulting us for decades.
You don’t get it and you never will on why MDN is simply awesome for some of us.
What does ‘circling the bowl’ mean and what is Palm doing in the Superbowl anyway? Did they win and run around the Superbowl on a victory circuit? And who is this the Hubris guy who died in Sunnyvale? WTF MDN. You should explain these things. I’m from Omahahaha, and not from Bwahahaha, so you just gotta explain man.
Apple needs to take advantage of Palm’s woes, by stressing how the iPhone and iPod touch can do much of what Palm products could do, but better.
My father-in-law was a faithful Palm user for years, since the iPod was merely a gleam in Steve Jobs’ eye, until his health took a major decline this year (long story). He had no need for a Palm Pre, but had several versions of the Palm organizers because he appreciated the organization of the contacts lists and the calendar. There are probably a few million folks who might be in that same boat; Apple could do some simple ads showing how you can do the same thing with an iPod touch (and even an iPad), and not only just that, but all the other things you can do as well (play games, surf the Web with WiFi, other useful apps). At least then Palm users wouldn’t feel that they were victims of orphaned technology.
Part of the Palm Pre blunder was Sprint. Who in their right mind would sign on with Sprint?!
Palm have recently opened the Pre to other mobile phone services. This may well allow some interest.
Palm have also dumped their deranged advertisements, which removes another impediment.
The Palm was a great product at the time, they just didnt get it further developed and were overrun by the iPhone.
Still, its not a good habit to be smug and kick everybody when they are down. That will not make Mac fanboys or Mac popular.
Palm = CTD – Circling The Drain
@ Jubei; Hear Hear… Couldn’t have said it better. Some folks jes don’t get it. Cock-a-doodle-doo!! Apple has earned the bragging rights, and we, as Apple supporters from the days of “Beleaguered Apple” comments, can, and should, crow, holler, dance, Hi-5 and snicker as much as we like. Peace and get-a-mac brother.
No more Mister Nice Guy!