Comments on: 2001: The Year in Review

While it's often easy to get lost in the daily flow of Palm-related news, the end of a year is always a good opportunity to look back and try to get some perspective. News Editor Ed Hardy brings us a chronological retrospective of the year's top stories and trends.

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Great Summary

kevdo @ 12/31/2001 1:28:08 PM #

Tone and details hit everything quite well. No editorial bias towards any one company either. Congrats on a job well done.

-Kevin Crossman

RE: Great Summary

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/31/2001 1:36:19 PM #

Agreed. 2-sentence mention of September was perfect, too.

-Roy E.

Great Job

Coyote67 @ 12/31/2001 2:07:34 PM #

Great Job ED. You really covered every aspect of Palm related events.

---------------------------------------
When you have a Clie shoved up your mouth, you can only talk in vowels.

Good job

Pepper @ 12/31/2001 2:09:55 PM #

nice summary!

the year seems so long when you look at it that way . . .

-Pepper

I love my Palm . . . do you?

RE: Good job

Davy @ 12/31/2001 3:10:56 PM #

Years are long, at least that's what they tell me.

RE: Good job

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/31/2001 3:34:46 PM #

Who could have thought that all those things happened this year. It went by so fast. I am dying to see what pops up next year..especially once OS 5 is released.

RE: Good job

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/31/2001 4:21:44 PM #

Chances are OS 5 won't be released in 2002... second half of 2002 usually translates into first early 2003 as far as OS development goes...

RE: Good job

msmasitti @ 12/31/2001 5:13:42 PM #

so much happened in the Palm world, it is unbelievable. however, i still think next year is going to be bigger. lets see how many units we can pump out Sony! ;)

-Mario
msmasitti@yahoo.com

I hate my Palm..

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/2/2002 8:18:30 AM #

But I am forced to use it because the industry I am in only makes accessories fr the Vx or M500 series..

I am a "Clie'" wannabe...

Nothing special this year...

I.M. Anonymous @ 12/31/2001 6:23:01 PM #

I don't think nothing great came from Palm this year. The m500 series did not live up to expectations, Carl (no vision) left and the m100 series was a bomb. Especially the Jordan edition, only Jordan is making money off that for the next couple of years. There was no replacement for the IIIc but no price drop either. I think Sony was the surprise this year with pushing the envelope in OS3.5 & 4. I hope next year is better for all of us.

RE: Nothing special this year...

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/1/2002 2:37:50 AM #

You don't think nothing great came from Palm? Yowzer! I don't think anything great came out of your grammar school.

RE: Nothing special this year...

ktran @ 1/1/2002 5:46:15 PM #

Errr... aren't the m100s some of Palm's best-selling units? Not that I'm a fan of them or anything -- I actually prefer the blocky old Pilot to the kids-toy look of the m100s, but that's just me I guess.

rgds,

K. Tran

Not enough on what's coming

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/1/2002 11:08:14 AM #

We would need insight on stuff like how would Qualcomm's affect handspring and some issues such as: if T615 has such a lousy batter life, can we expect sony to dish out the same form factor when the power hungry ARM processor.

Let's start the new year with some predictions!!!

Norm

2002 and 2003 Palm Predictions

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/1/2002 1:18:13 PM #

May 2002 - Palm releases a m525 which is the same as the m505 but it has 16MB RAM, a better speaker, OS 4.1, stronger battery, and 320x320 Hi-Res Sony Screen a la the Clie 760.

May 2003 - Palm releases the m550 which has ARM, OS 5, even better screen, and built-in wireless capability.

RE: Not enough on what's coming

Ed @ 1/1/2002 1:21:34 PM #

Here you go:
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=2754

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News Editor

RE: Not enough on what's coming

Davy @ 1/1/2002 2:53:38 PM #

Summaries usually don't focus on the future, but I could be wrong.

Looks like a great year for Palm Infocenter!

robrecht @ 1/1/2002 2:56:15 PM #

Happy New Year, everyone!

I must be getting old, because the history, based on reality, seems so much more interesting than predictions.

It seems as if the first half of 2002 will culminate with expectations and evaluations of the color Treo, the color i705, a high-res m525, which will already have wireless options?, and a wireless option for the T615c.

Unfortunately, none of the major players seems interested in virtual graffiti, and so far Handera has not been interested in color.

Maybe virtual graffiti could be packaged with a sufficiently non-Xerox graffiti to get past censors? Otherwise, we may be stuck with a lot of thumb keypads.

Many, many owners will upgrade, but of course it will be a compromise between screen, size, and connectivity. If we want a good screen, good battery life, and long talk and standby times, I think most of us will still be carrying separate phones and PDA by next New Year's celebration.

But I would love to be proved wrong!

Thanks, Robrecht

RE: Not enough on what's coming

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/1/2002 11:39:08 PM #

To Ed,

Nothing to add to mikecane's predictions? They represent what you think?

I think his prediction on the small MS is quite valid,and I further think that there could also be a turn towards the smaller MS.

Any takers on who will prevail? (MS or SD) I think MS has a better edge

Gassee resigns from software maker Be

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/1/2002 7:23:39 PM #

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-8327565.html?tag=lthd

RE: Gassee resigns from software maker Be

Ed @ 1/1/2002 8:06:40 PM #

Thanks, I'll make a quickie out of it for tomorrow.

While we're on the topic, keep in mind that Palm doesn't actually own Be Inc. It bought Be's intellectual property and hired most of its employees but Be itself still exists as an independent company. I hope I've made this clear in my previous articles. It didn't really sink in with me for a while.

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News Editor

RE: Gassee resigns from software maker Be

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/1/2002 8:38:56 PM #

Gassee might have been an asset to Palm had he stayed on. My bet is that he knocked heads with the current Palm management and said to himself "I can't work with/for these bunch of bozos. Who needs the aggravation? I'm outta here." I find it funny that he wanted $200M for Be and Apple offered $125M and now he essentially only got only $11M of Palm stock. Looks like they are going to cut up what's left of Be's physical assets into small little pieces and sell it all off in one big garage sale. My guess is that Gassee will start a new software company soon.

RE: Gassee resigns from software maker Be

Davy @ 1/1/2002 8:42:15 PM #

I met him once, at a computerware in Palo Alto. He seemed nice, yet at the same time a little distant. He was probably imaging how to make his Be OS better, it had some cool feature in it's day.... good luck wherever you go, Gassee.

RE: Gassee resigns from software maker Be

Ed @ 1/1/2002 10:04:06 PM #

> My bet is that he knocked heads with the current Palm management

Part of the deal with Palm was that Gassee would assist with the integration of the two companies. I wonder if this process is over. Just because he doesn't work for Be anymore doesn't mean he still doesn't have contractual obligations to Palm.

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News Editor

RE: Gassee resigns from software maker Be

mikecane @ 1/2/2002 9:54:42 AM #

It didn't sink in for me, either, Ed, that Be still existed but their assets went to Palm, Inc., until I read that latest CNet article.

No mention of PocketPC?

Foo @ 1/2/2002 8:40:05 AM #

Ed, why on Earth did you not mention the negative impact PocketPC has had on the Palm platform? You did a good job covering Palm's supply chain problems and botched product rollout, but you can't ignore the fact that the market embraced PPC in 2001, which added further to Palm and Handsprings problems.

RE: No mention of PocketPC?

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/2/2002 9:48:41 AM #

would you care to post statistics that backup this claim?

IIRC, although Palm's revenues are down, they still maintained a commanding lead over PocketPC devices in number of units sold.

RE: No mention of PocketPC?

mikecane @ 1/2/2002 9:55:40 AM #

PPC might be grabbing power users, but every time I am in a retail store where everyday people buy PDAs, I see interest in and sales of PalmOS PDAs. For PPC, no interest, no sales. CompUSA, RCS, J&R. This is not a knock; just what I have seen.

RE: No mention of PocketPC?

Foo @ 1/2/2002 10:02:08 AM #

I'm talking about the enterprise, not consumers. PPC has grabbed the corporate spotlight, while Palm drug its heals.

RE: No mention of PocketPC?

Ed @ 1/2/2002 10:34:57 AM #

Actually, according to several recent studies, Palm handhelds dominate the enterprise almost as strongly as they do retail sales.

IDC questioned more than 1,100 IT managers from all sizes of businesses and found that Palm handhelds outstrip all others overwhelmingly, with 60% of the companies currently purchasing Palm branded handhelds. Compaq was in a tie with Handspring for number two with less than 30%. The Palm OS platform is likewise supported by more than 60% of the companies -- which is nearly double that of any other operating system.

David Nagel, head of Palm's OS and software division, called the idea that PPC controls the enterprise a triumph of wishful thinking over data.

www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=2628

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News Editor