“The company shipped 960,000 smart phones to stores and distributors in the quarter that ended Feb. 26, 23 percent more than in the previous quarter. However, the number of phones that were actually bought by consumers was 408,000, down 29 percent from the previous quarter,” Svensson reports. “By comparison, Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones in its most recent quarter.”
Svensson reports, “Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said in a statement, ‘Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Translation: “We suck, please somebody, anybody, just buy us already!”
Svensson continues, “Palm reported a loss of $22 million, or 13 cents per share, for the quarter, its fiscal third. But that was mitigated by an accounting effect brought about by the recent drop in Palm’s stock price. Excluding that effect, the loss was $102.8 million, or 61 cents per share. In the same period a year ago Palm lost $98 million, or 89 cents per share.”
“After the release of the results, [PALM] shares fell 72 cents, nearly 13 percent, to $4.93 in after-hours trading,” Svensson reports. “That would be a 52-week low.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The end of this particular farce is nigh.
SIDAGTMBTTS
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=:~)
Pystar ought to buy them
More bad news in the PreCentral roundup – Palm now has to try to push the 500,000 unsold phones they have sitting around collecting dust:
Palm additionally has a dual problem of inventories. Nearly half a million extra Palm devices ended up as unsold inventory at the end of Q3, while Palm barely sold 400,000 units during the quarter to end users. At the same time, carriers have both reduced and deferred to later dates their orders. Palm is putting increasing focus on selling this backlog of devices instead of shipping more devices to carriers.
Also, the title of the article title states “Palm CEO: Pre would have done better than Droid if it launched first” – as if that kind of wishful thinking helps them now…
“Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said in a statement, ‘Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong.’ Kind of like the captain of the Titanic saying they have a great orchestra moments after hitting the iceberg.
Hey Bono, bwaaaaah, bwaaaah, catches breath, bwaaaah, bwaaah.
Looks like my brother in law (the one who agreed w/ Michael Dell) is wrong again!
He loves his Palm!
Quote:
“Its WAY better than the overhyped iPhone.”
Hey Rubinstein, don’t bother sending that resume of yours to Apple unless you want Steve to use it to wipe his rear end.
@breeze Thanks, I needed a laugh and you furnished one!
I wonder if this is a good time to buy some PALM stock? The possibility of a take over in the near future seems much more viable.
@ Gabriel,
Rubinstein was answering a question. He wasn’t whining at random.
“We had an arrangement with Sprint that when we launched with Sprint that they would invest in marketing and carry the product and for that they would get an exclusive for a period of time. That really determined when we could do our launch at Verizon. I agree with your premise that if we could have launched at Verizon earlier, prior to Droid, that we would have gotten the attention that the Droid got and since I believe that we have a better product, I think we would have even done better.”
And from the comments:
“I went to a couple Verizon stores to see if they have any good info about the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. They were so negative about the Pre, saying that it was to slow and saying that Palm App Catalog is wayless than the Droid phones. I told both of them that you guys have no clue to what your are talking about. Most Verizon stores talk mess about the Pre’s. And they are always trying to get you to buy a Droid. This has really hurt Palm.”
There you have it. No room for Palm.
No wonder they stopped trying to leech of iTunes… Far as I remember its been awhile since the last time they hacked their way in there.
Wake up, you guys, Palm is the first victime of Google. Google is very agressive, don’t underestemate that, it’s not the time to lough!
hey, at least they took only one quarter to ship almost a million devices to stores.
M$ took more than two quarters to ship that number of zunes!
And Kindle? they don’t even tell….
To paraphrase a country song that I wrote
“their stocks got hammered
while their coffin got nailed….”
they need steve to ceo for a $1 wage.
March 2009 McNamee Palm Investor : “You know the beautiful thing: 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 (ex) CEO Colligan: “We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone, PC guys (Apple) are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
Jon Rubenstein Palm CEO :
“We don’t pay that much attention to Apple.I know it sounds really strange…. I don’t have an iPhone. Actually, Ive never used one.”
With Geniuses like these, eg. a CEO which says he hasn’t used the product of the leading multi touch competitor, what did we expect?
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/162528/the_palm_pre_will_be_an_iphone_killer.html
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/22/technology/lashinsky_palm.fortune/
http://www.thewwwblog.com/palm-pre-ultimate-iphone-killer.html
I don’t care for Palm, but the years they wasted away totyng with WinMo proves a sobering lesson. You don’t compete with the big boys by conforming to them. Palm OS fans should be livid!
There’s no magic lotion strong enough to save this palm.
…….jerks
So, Palm sold 408k phones, while shipping 960k, meaning 552k phones are sitting in Sprint and Verizon’s inventory. Now, add in the existing inventory, which I’ll guess was about 125k, and you have 577k phones sitting in store closets. Since that’s more than Sprint or Verizon need for a whole quarter of sales, OF COURSE, they told Palm to stop shipping phones, for about 3 months.
Alternative headlines:
Palm Reading Not Good
Stock Market Says Thumbs Down on Palm
Palm’s Lifeline Questionable
iLuvMyMacs
Nice. I hope you send those back to the whomever’s.
Go Monger go!
Yeah, Monger, I fingered you for that with no one opposing. Nailed or just an extreme reaction?
Indexed for future reference.
A sad state for what was once a great company…
“Jeffries said Palm now expects sales in the current quarter to be less than $150 million, partly because carriers now have big stocks of phones to sell off.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were on average expecting sales of $305 million in the current quarter.”
So the company lost $252 for every smart phone they sold last quarter? ($53.93 per smartphone if you go by the $22 million number)
That’s not very smart.
Palm is not looking rosey is it?
How do you bail and sell all your stock if no one wants to buy it ? No really. It’s hard to dump without a loss before tax day
What a hairy predicament Palm is in.
Palm is sweaty now
high fives are at an all time low at Palm
Facebook should buy Palm, create the ultimate FacePalm
Palm leaves stockholders in the rain?
Palm’s hopes dropping like coconuts?
They are In throws, give them the knell
Last August, RBC Analyst Mike Abramsky upped Palm’s target share price to $25 from $18. Yet again he’s proven himself to be a buffoon. Before that he downgraded AAPL and upgraded Palm. Not sure why he keeps popping up as a serious source of investment advise.
They should just load up the Palm devices with Porn, Porn apps, and special Adult features, move the sells into Adult Stores. Rename the Palm Pre the Hair Palm fill it up with straight porn that appeals to guys, include a Hair Palm model full of Gay Porn too, don’t want to overlook any market when having the problems Palm’s having. They could change the Palm Pixi around a bit by sealing it in a moisture tight case, then renaming the Palm Pixi to the Palm Vibe, it has no ringtone at all but, it does have 1573 Vibration settings for a woman every mode and as a special limited gift free with each Palm Vide sold Palm will include a special pair of Thong Panties that has a special pocket for her to carry the Palm Vide around discreetly but were it’s always on the spot for action. “If your girl has a Palm Vide and she doesn’t answer your call the first time. Keep on calling her back she’ll love you for it!”
They should have struck their deal with metro pcs and smaller companies like them. If only they had known they would win the race to the bottom beforehand. As opposed to them thinking they had a chance to win a race to the top.
It might have worked.
Palm makes your hair curl.
Palm made some critical mistakes with these phones. Its a very impressive OS and I like a lot of what it has in it, but Palm ignored developers way too long.
The second problem is in the era of subsidized phones, its hard to compete for two reasons. You can’t sell much cheaper than the iPhone. And the lock-in by AT&T;, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint make it damn near impossible to get out of a contract. Plus the data plans are so damn expensive.
Maybe Palm should think about making their phones the kind you buy at a convenience store. $50 for a prepaid plan.
Ok, I’m sticking my neck out here…
“A year from now, no one will be reading about the demise of Palm Inc on their iPhones”