Comments on: Palm Reports Q3 FY06 Results

Palm, Inc. today reported revenue of $388.5 million in its third quarter of fiscal year 2006, ended March 3, up 36 percent from the year-ago period.

"We delivered strong results this quarter, a result of solid execution against company objectives," said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm. "We extended our record of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth and profitability gains. Smartphone sell-through reported by our carrier partners more than doubled over the year-ago period, validating our strategic decision to support multiple open platforms and offer a choice of smartphones based on either Windows Mobile or Palm OS."

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Sold 100 000 Treo 700w's

Surur @ 3/23/2006 4:50:33 PM #

Three months ago

"Achieving the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year double-digit revenue growth and growing our converged device market share to 36 percent in the United States (Canalys) are significant accomplishments," said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm. "We'll roll out the Palm Treo 700w smartphone based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile, and we'll announce three additional new smartphones during calendar year 2006."

http://www.palm.com/us/company/pr/news_feed_story.epl?reqid=797987

Today

Grew Palm's share of the U.S. converged smartphone/PDA market to 30 percent, up from 22 percent a year ago, according to Canalys. Palm's unit shipments grew by 111 percent compared to the overall market growth of 56 percent, according to Canalys;

So their marketshare is shrinking?

Also interestingly
http://www.slamblog.com/2006/03/all_time_treo_s.html

Q106 August-05 sellthrough 470,000
Q206 November-05 sellthrough 435,000
Q306 March-06 sellthrough 564,000

Assuming POS Treo sales to the true faithful were unaffected, does this mean they only sold 100 000 Treo 700w's? Will they regret their move?

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: Sold 100 000 Treo 700w's

batmon @ 3/23/2006 5:27:14 PM #

Hope they regret. I want POS stuff.

btw, check out the new Palm LifeDrive! 30GB!!

http://guides.macrumors.com/Gallery_of_Video_iPod_Mockups

RE: Sold 100 000 Treo 700w's

SeldomVisitor @ 3/23/2006 5:58:13 PM #

In addition, the CEO said "enterprise sales" went from 30% to 35% of their mix.

RE: Sold 100 000 Treo 700w's

AdamaDBrown @ 3/23/2006 7:03:55 PM #

100,000 units (if that's accurate) wouldn't be too bad for a brand new device that was really only available for about the last 6 weeks of the quarter.

RE: Sold 100 000 Treo 700w's

fishtastic @ 3/23/2006 7:28:24 PM #

100,000 units isn't that bad considering what a poor WinMob phone the 700w is. There are much better windows based phone out there.

Fish

Treo & PDA Sales Figures this quarter

Ryan @ 3/23/2006 6:05:03 PM #

74% Smartphones and 26% Handhelds mix this quarter.

treo sell thru was 569,000 up 102% y/y

510,000 Handhelds shipped.

Colligan again confirmed new Windows Mobile and Palm OS products are planned for release this year.

RE: Treo & PDA Sales Figures this quarter

Simony @ 3/23/2006 6:49:23 PM #

OK. Let's not get too exited about this. There are always ups and downs in business. And the problem with record profits is that you have to beat that number next year - the difficulty is compounded by the fact that good profits attract immitators like flies to garbage. Success also breeds hubris and complacency, which inevitably lead to problems - this is something that Mr Colligan must guard against.

RE: Treo & PDA Sales Figures this quarter

AdamaDBrown @ 3/23/2006 6:56:27 PM #

74% Smartphones and 26% Handhelds mix this quarter.

treo sell thru was 569,000 up 102% y/y

510,000 Handhelds shipped.

As a note for anyone trying to reconcile these numbers, the 74/26 ratio is revenue, not units. The Treos have a higher average selling price, so one Treo produces considerably more revenue than one E2 or TX.

POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Surur @ 3/23/2006 6:46:13 PM #

These are the combined sales of handheld plus smartphone. It has hovered around a million/quarter for quite some time now. Its basically a static replacement market.

HH SP Total
q3 04 1188 115 1303
q4 04 834 126 960
q1 05 766 179 945
q2 05 892 190 1082
q3 05 997 282 1279
q4 05 678 442 1120
q1 06 597 470 1067
q2 06 708 435 1143
q3 06 765 569 1334

Palm went WM to try and escape from this dead end. What Palm has not succeeded in doing yet is selling to people who did not even know they needed a smart handheld device. Unfortunately I have not heard them explore this theme at all. Unless they succeed in attacking this market they will have to rely on Microsoft to do this with their OS, and who knows if/when this will happen.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Simony @ 3/23/2006 7:26:11 PM #

Palm is already offering a free BT headset (and other bundled goodies) on the Treo 700w - only about 2 months after release - so maybe sales are not going as well as they had hoped.

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Surur @ 3/23/2006 7:29:39 PM #

Thats not really relevant. At least they are attempting a new market. There are those who say OS does not matter, but obviously they do not know the POS community. At least Palm is now trying to access another market.

I would never buy a WM Treo with only 32 MB SDRAM, 10MB free after boot. This was something which was completely avoidable, yet it weights negatively every time a knowledgeable PPC user considers this device. Palm do not deserve to sell 700w's well if they continue to pull such cr*p.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Simony @ 3/23/2006 7:55:12 PM #

I detect an element of confusion in some of your most recent posts.

You have been cheerfully telling us (almost daily) over the last year or so that 'Palm is doomed' because of competition from WinCE/PPC/WinMob/whatever devices.

Now you seem to be saying that, on the one hand, Palm is surviving just because it has released a device with WinMob but, on the other hand, that device has pathetic technical specs.

It looks to me that you are struggling to read into these latest numbers some sort of angle you can use as part of your 'WM Advocate' advertising campaign.

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Surur @ 3/23/2006 8:06:20 PM #

Correction - Palm is TRYING to survive (and grow) by releasing a WM device. But in pure Palm tradition it has pathetic specs.

They are not really doing much to justify their continuing existence. If their WM ploy does now work, it wont be due to the OS, but due to their penny-pinching. Their margin is +33% (+$150) for heavens sake, on devices they sell for $500 each ($289 million/564,000 Treo's), and they haven't got enough money for $10 of 64 RAM? Whats up with that?

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Simony @ 3/23/2006 8:20:07 PM #

Politicians talk about being 'on message', but your spin seems to be floundering in confusion. I think you need to reassess, and make more coherent, what angle you need want to use in your continuing astroturfing campaign.

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Surur @ 3/23/2006 8:49:04 PM #

Ah Simony, why would I work so hard. I'm sure Ed Colligan would be happy to sit down with you and explain why WM is essential to the future of Palm.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Simony @ 3/23/2006 9:20:57 PM #

I expect Mr Colligan will wait and see how the sales pan out.

Let's assume that a 700p is released and let's assume that all carriers stock it together with the 700w. That would make an interesting experiment in what the market really wants, wouldn't it?

And the Palm (including Handspring) people have a track record with experiments like this. The first Treo came in two versions - one with GIA; one with a stupid keyboard. Customers preferred the stupid keyboard, so they dropped the GIA from all later Treos.

If Palm are smart, they will look at the comparative sales numbers and then decide what is the best thing to do.

You see, in business, it's best to try to be as flexible as possible and try minimise the number of 'bet the company' decisions that are needed.

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Simony @ 3/23/2006 9:32:46 PM #

PS. Your continuing attempts to find a negative angle to all this is interesting - I haven't seen sqirming like this since that Kirvan guy posted here.

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

naio21 @ 3/23/2006 11:51:01 PM #

Simony,

It's interesting how you keep attacking Surur's opinions due to his OS preferences, and due to this alone.

He said that WM Treos leveraged Palm revenue. And also said that HE (himself, alone) would never by such a device with it's actual specs.

One of them was a discussion about business, the other about personal preferences. It can be done without being incoherent. What seems to be the problem here? :-

Ivan

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Simony @ 3/24/2006 12:22:03 AM #

You're right - I'll try to keep my mouth shut in future.

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Surur @ 3/24/2006 2:28:33 AM #

Simony, looking at those quarterly sales numbers, I have yet to see POS device cause an escape from the "million and a bit" sales figures. It appears to be all about substitution. The Treo 700p will be a success, and would probably outsell the Treo 700w, because its selling to the loyal POS market. It will however cause a corresponding drop in the TX sales, which Palm is OK with in the short term, as the margin on Treo's are higher. In the longer term however, Palm wishes to grow beyond the limited POS community. Their strategy for achieving this is to go WM, as you know from Ed's speeches on a number of occasions.

As a further direct example, they will be going WM for their European attack, because they think POS will actually hinder their attempts there.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Simony @ 3/24/2006 3:00:01 AM #

I don't why it is, Surur, but I find your style of astroturfing much more annoying than others. But I said I would shut up, so I would respond (here at least - I might go over to pocketpcthoughts.com and tell them all what a hapless bunch of losers they are).

RE: POS sales static - WM to the rescue

Surur @ 3/24/2006 3:24:02 AM #

Its hurts because it makes sense Simony. Thats the problem.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

No new handheld launches this spring?

AdamaDBrown @ 3/23/2006 7:03:58 PM #

During the conference call, the Palm bigshots explicitly said that they don't expect an uptick in sales during the May timeframe the way there usually is. That would seem to imply that there's nothing new being launched this spring.

RE: No new handheld launches this spring?

Simony @ 3/23/2006 8:07:07 PM #

That's what it looks like. I guess the rumours about a May launch for the 700p must be false.

RE: No new handheld launches this spring?

Ryan @ 3/23/2006 8:11:08 PM #

that question was specific to handhelds only, not the treo. just published my notes on the call, check that for more info.

RE: No new handheld launches this spring?

Simony @ 3/23/2006 8:18:45 PM #

Thanks for clarifying that.

POS losing out big time overseas

Surur @ 3/24/2006 4:51:40 AM #

Oops. Ignore that HTML disaster. Look at this table


................Q3 06..........Q3 05	
US..............310.8...80%....190.95...67%
International...77.7....20%....94.05....33%
Total...........388.5..........285

Not only did their international sales drop percentage wise, but they also sold $16 million less. Its obvious you cant get away with selling the same underpowered devices overseas as in the USA. I hope they realised this, and dont try their penny-pinching ways with the WM Hollywood Treo.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: POS losing out big time overseas

KultiVator @ 3/24/2006 12:54:19 PM #

That HTML table - looks like the work of an MS application running on an MS dumb-phone OS!

;o)

RE: POS losing out big time overseas

Surur @ 3/24/2006 1:00:49 PM #

Kultivator, you from UK, arnt you. Have you heard that t-mobile may finally offer flat rate unlimited data for only £7.50 on their web and walk package. Pity I dont see any POS Treo's in their line-up. Maybe they will add the new WM Hollywood in June however.

http://www.t-mobilepressoffice.co.uk/press/uk/2006/23-03-06-webnwalk.htm

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: POS losing out big time overseas

Ryan @ 3/24/2006 1:05:18 PM #

that looked like Frontpage at its best, try using pre tags to format lists like text tables

RE: POS losing out big time overseas

Surur @ 3/24/2006 1:28:41 PM #

Thx Ryan for fixing it.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: POS losing out big time overseas

Admin @ 3/24/2006 1:48:46 PM #

no problem, soon you will be able to edit your own comments here :)

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