Comments on: Understanding Palm: What Ed Colligan really said

Twrock,

I do not understand this fascination with the carriers blocking wifi. Every carrier except Nextel now has a wifi enabled phone. Why would this be such a problem for Palm to do it?

Palm III --> Compaq Areo 1550 --> Palm IIIc --> Visor Edge --> Casio EM500 --> Sony T415 --> Compaq 3670 --> Dell Axim x5 Advanced --> Sony SJ20 --> Palm T|E --> HP H1945/T610 --> Dell Axim X30 --> Axim X50v --> Treo 600 --> Palm T|X --> Blackberry 6230 --> Treo 650 --> Blackberry 7100t --> BB 7290 --> Samsung Blackjack

You know what, I am afraid that Palm is using a mythical, (now at least) carrier objection issue to avoid having to innovate. They are stuck on this tired old format (Treo Series) and just will not get to the next big thing.

Just how many different types of platforms is windows mobile running on now? I count at least 4. (Candy Bar SmartPhone, Clamshell SmartPhone, Sliding Keyboard Pocket PC, and CandyBar PocketPC.) Heck, even RIM has 3 different formfactors now. There is a formfactor to serve you however you want to be served.

Then there is Palm. Still selling the same basic formfactor since 2002! And when we question the innovation, we get excuses. "No body wants it", "No body needs it", "no body is asking for it", "the hardware can't support it", "It's the carriers", "Why build something for just the 'power users'"

Say what you want about the Windows Mobile and all of the rest, but if Windows Mobile is flexible enough to fit in all of those platforms, they why, why the heck can't Palm find a way to do it as well? PDA's are not a one size fits all solution afterall.

Why can't liveFaith get his mythical 800g with a full 320X480 screen and a sliding keyboard?

Why can't TVOR get a modern Clamshell Palm device?

And lastly, Why of Why must I get the blackjack in order to have a device that is less than a half an inch thick?

The answers my friend are NOT financial. HTC has the freaking designs already to go for crying out loud. The simple, regrettable truth is that Colligan and Company , and yes that includes Mace, Hackborn and even Hawkins has consistently been out to lunch when it comes to innovating since 2002.

I know competition, especially competition with Microsoft is tough. But to get beat by them essentially because Microsoft and it's hardware partners out innovated them is fundamentally inexcusable.

Even worse, that situation, was widely recognized in 2003 and yet it IS STILL GOING ON!

I'd like to direct the rest of this post to Ed Colligan:

Please tell me, PDA expert in every platform in existence, What is your compelling story? in other words:

What can a Palm do, that no other device can?
What could a Palm do, that no other device will be able to do in the future?

Answer those 2 questions, and you will save your company. In the meantime, I'd lay off of attacking or even commenting on your competitors until you and your company demonstrate some competence in delivering a compelling platform.

End of Line

Palm III --> Compaq Areo 1550 --> Palm IIIc --> Visor Edge --> Casio EM500 --> Sony T415 --> Compaq 3670 --> Dell Axim x5 Advanced --> Sony SJ20 --> Palm T|E --> HP H1945/T610 --> Dell Axim X30 --> Axim X50v --> Treo 600 --> Palm T|X --> Blackberry 6230 --> Treo 650 --> Blackberry 7100t --> BB 7290 --> Samsung Blackjack

Ok. A check of Verizon's site reveals that they have 2 phones with built in WiFi: The Samsung i730 and he Audiovox vx6600.

Clearly Verizon does not have an issue with built in WiFi. Palm just doesn't include it. for them to claim carrier support or business model reasons to avoid including WiFi is just an excuse. period.

End of line

Palm III --> Compaq Areo 1550 --> Palm IIIc --> Visor Edge --> Casio EM500 --> Sony T415 --> Compaq 3670 --> Dell Axim x5 Advanced --> Sony SJ20 --> Palm T|E --> HP H1945/T610 --> Dell Axim X30 --> Axim X50v --> Treo 600 --> Palm T|X --> Blackberry 6230 --> Treo 650 --> Blackberry 7100t --> BB 7290 --> Samsung Blackjack

Why can't liveFaith get his mythical 800g with a full 320X480 screen....

I'll take it if you leave off the keyboard altogether and give the the reduction in size that would create. I basically have wanted a TX with a cell radio. Let me do everything with a touchscreen. But I agree that more than one form factor would be nice.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2986976174.html

I'd take one of those ^^ with the Palm OS and be very happy (but I would like at least a 3.5 inch screen; I'm at the bifocal stage already).

I'm still waiting for the mythical color HandEra.

I thought Ed's comments were well measured and insightful. I was particularly happy about his statement that Palm is a mobile computing company, not a mobile phone company. This is almost a mission statement, and I like it.

Me too! Personally, I think it's why the Treo beats the pants off most of it's me-too competitors - Palm/Handspring had a unique view as to what was required of a smartphone built on years of PDA experience. Years later and the competition is only now starting to catch up.

(to go off on a tangent) Now Palm need to do the same thing again and design some new smartphones built on their now-years of experience with the Treo. Otherwise all their innovations will be copied, then sold for a cheaper price and they'll eventually be run out of town by Big Handset. As everyone here knows, Palm has essentially been sitting still when it comes to new designs. They've perfected the original Treo 600 with the 680/750 form: there's really nowhere to go from here except thinner, and given the knife-edge between acceptable and awful performance that the stock 680 battery balances on, that's going to be a while yet.

What I'm most keen to see from Palm is some new form factors. Or at least to be told that they're working on them.

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

Palm was also supposedly working on a T4 with a slider, a 320*480 Zire 73, an 8gb LifeDrive, and anything else you can imagine. Just because someone (especially Palm) might SAY a product is in the works/drawing board/pipeline doesn't mean a damm thing until it's off of the retail shelves and in my/your grubby little hands for a thorough "fondling".

Calling Voice a "killer app" is eerily akin to Yankowski & co. claiming color was omitted in the OS 3 era & A/V features were omitted in the OS 4-era to maintain the "zen".

http://www.thestreet.com/pf/comment/tish/1215685.html

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P