Palm Down, Centro Way Up, Treo On The Mend
This week Palm reported the results of its second quarter with an encouraging 11 percent increase in smartphone sales to 686,000 units but a disappointing (albeit not surprising) loss of $9.6 million on revenues of $349.6 million compared to a $12.77 million profit in the previous period.
The smartphone increase was attributed to the huge popularity and record sales of the new Palm Centro released by Sprint at the beginning of October while the loss and drop in revenues was blamed on the late arrival of the Verizon Treo 755p which began shipping after the end of Palm’s quarter as well as warranty costs of older legacy products.
For 2008 it’s clear that Palm will on the one hand be betting heavily on the continued success of the Centro by launching it across additional US carriers such as AT&T and Verizon as well as others across the rest of the world. I personally can’t wait for the GSM version to become available so as to replace my larger and heavier Treo 680.
On the other hand Palm CEO Ed Colligan reiterated his company’s commitment to the development of new Windows Mobile Treo smartphones stating that “we intend to continue to deliver a compelling array of Windows Mobile solutions through next year”. In this respect, rumours are that a WiFi-enabled Treo 800w may appear as early as February ‘08 and the Treo 500 should also become available in the US very soon.
Aside from its ongoing development of a next generation Palm Linux OS (due late 2008 or early 2009), Colligan also firmly stated that “we intend to lead in terms of design, ease-of-use and functionality while serving a broad range of customers” and “we will not stop at anything short of revolutionary and fantastic”. In this respect the company’s product development team has been strengthened thanks to the leadership of Jon Rubinstein from Elevation Partners and ex-head of Apple’s iPod division.
Additionally he pointed out that Palm is undergoing an important period of “transformation” and recognized that “we need to build a larger array of offerings and retake the mantle of design and innovation leadership – we are working on building key platform technologies and breakthrough product designs”.
I’m glad to hear that Palm is finally taking steps in the right direction (what took them so long?) and I am beginning to feel that Elevation Partners’ input may indeed help the company to deliver a new range of Treo and Centro smartphones in 2008 that will reignite passions across the entire Treonauts and Centronauts communities.
Treonauts are always the most passionate… 
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c71a953ef00e54fbfdebc8834
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Palm Down, Centro Way Up, Treo On The Mend:
Comments
Great site as always. As a 700p with Sprint user what palm based smartphones can I expect in 2008. I still haven't seen enough differences in the 750 or centro to make me upgrade, can I expect something new as a better alternative? Thanks and happy holidays.
On the 500v, Colligan also said it won't be coming to the US, though it will be available elsewhere in the world and a masochist might try to put up with an unlocked one (without the 850 mHz) here in the US...
BLA BLA bla... Mr CEO Ed Colligan ! and again bla bla bla...
How do you explain that all the world and all companies in the world have mooved rapidly to fully equiped machines except Palm ?
How can you trust the leadership of a such CEO ? ...
If you deny your own child ( a Palm with a Palm software and open to Macintosh PC, for instance) only because you have been seduced by a Behemoth ( a Window system 5 or 6) you are painted yourself in the corner as you did the last 5 years...
You better have walked on the steps of your own roots...
And if it takes you 2 more years to understand that a WI-FI and many other facilities should be there you are just a dying dinosaure...
When you buy a Microwave oven you intend to cook your food and not to freeze it... so you should better work on a Palm wich does not freeze... and concentrate yourself on a Smart Palm System not sold to greedy telephone companies
Have guts ! Create your own telephone system and put in YOUR Smart Palm.
You demonstrate a self hatred behavior when skipping your own child from the market... You need to hire a Shrink not an Apple assistant...( too late my dear)
You can't imagine my deception... Ask artists how they do work ( designer, stage directors, musicians, choreographers, writers...) instead of selling your imagination to Mr Bill Gate... who does well what he does because he is who he is... and how many more years do you need to understand the Nokia or Google or Apple spirit...
Your company will be always late because you do not work for a dream but only immediate profit... and "fast food" type solutions...
Creation needs time, risk and courage... you have lost your company by being a follower and not a creator...
Bye bye Colligan ...
22 dec 2007
BLA BLA bla... Mr CEO Ed Colligan ! and again bla bla bla...
How do you explain that all the world and all companies in the world have mooved rapidly to fully equiped machines except Palm ?
How can you trust the leadership of a such CEO ? ...
If you deny your own child ( a Palm with a Palm software and open to Macintosh PC, for instance) only because you have been seduced by a Behemoth ( a Window system 5 or 6) you are painted yourself in the corner as you did the last 5 years...
You better have walked on the steps of your own roots...
And if it takes you 2 more years to understand that a WI-FI and many other facilities should be there you are just a dying dinosaure...
When you buy a Microwave oven you intend to cook your food and not to freeze it... so you should better work on a Palm wich does not freeze... and concentrate yourself on a Smart Palm System not sold to greedy telephone companies
Have guts ! Create your own telephone system and put in YOUR Smart Palm.
You demonstrate a self hatred behavior when skipping your own child from the market... You need to hire a Shrink not an Apple assistant...( too late my dear)
You can't imagine my deception... Ask artists how they do work ( designer, stage directors, musicians, choreographers, writers...) instead of selling your imagination to Mr Bill Gate... who does well what he does because he is who he is... and how many more years do you need to understand the Nokia or Google or Apple spirit...
Your company will be always late because you do not work for a dream but only immediate profit... and "fast food" type solutions...
Creation needs time, risk and courage... you have lost your company by being a follower and not a creator...
Bye bye Colligan ...
22 dec 2007
This sounds like doom for Palm OS users. Will it be Windows or nothing from here on out? I'm still stuck with my 650 because of AT&T. (I don't want a 680.)
If/when Palm finally gets their new Linux based PalmOS working, then we can expect a new PalmOS phone that has all the features we are waiting for. The 680 is a nice enough unit, but the new OS should open the doors for a lot of new functionality.
So, no "doom", but no light at the end of the tunnel either it seems. It would be nice to see a true PalmOS phone without any reference to Access since they don't deserve any credit for anything.
This really puzzles me. Why is Palm clinging to old technology (Bluetooth 1.X, funky cameras, lack of common built-in features) when the rest of the world is clearly passing them by?
How in heck do they think more Windows Mobile devices are going to save them? There are plenty of vendors out there offering Windows Mobile on more modern hardware -- what does Palm think their differentiation is going to be? "Yeah, we're running Windows Mobile 6 just like practically every other Smartphone manufacturer, but we're doing it on four-year-old hardware"?
Currently the only thing keeping me using my scratched-up 650 is the Palm operating system and my software investment in same. There's absolutely nothing in Palm's current or imminent lineup that's substantially better than what they were selling in 2004. What do they think they're going to sell in 2008? I'd really like to know.
For the LAST TIME:
Bluetooth 2.X
Bluetooth Stereo
3 Megapixel camera or better
Voice dialing integrated with Bluetooth, and integrated with the phone, not some funky add-on.
WiFi
OS: Not Windows (Repeat after me: Differentiation is Key.)
It's not that hard to understand.
I currently have a palm 700p and was very excited to see the new palm 755. I was completely disappointed!!! Absolutely no difference in specs what so ever...same memory...same processor speed...same operating system...camera resolution...same internet connectivity speed! The only thing different was the fact that they made the little antenna nub internal now...but the drawback is the fact that it uses a mini-sd card which is only available in 4GB now, where the 700 uses standard size sd cards, which now has an 8GB version. Anyone else out there that has a 700 and wants to keep and use 8GB cards here is the instructions on how to do that. (note the 8GB hards are HC)
http://blog.treonauts.com/2007/02/treo_8gb_hdsc_c.html
Very cool stuff for 700 owners.
Not sure why they rolled out a new phone just to make an internal antenna....I personally thought though they should have at least upgraded the phone to a higher pixel cam also. If they would have at least done this and say went from the 1.3 mega pixel to like a 2.1 or something...that would have been at least enough to make me want to upgrade. Dont get me wrong...its still a great phone, but there is no reason to get rid of my 700 for the 755 when there is no benefit and the cards interface (mini-sd) dosent hold as much capacity as current standard size sd cards.
The comments to this entry are closed.
