Comments on: Palm Sells 25% Stake, Announces New Board Members

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http://www.pocketfactory.com
http://www.elitistsnob.com

That is sadly hillarious!

Pat Horne

The Fooleo'll launch to much hoopla but quickly garner about 75% negative/25% wildly positive reviews. It'll then eke out a feeble 2 year lifespan all while being pushed to the back of the Palm product line and seeing perioodic price drops. In short, the Fooleo's life will likely mirror what happened to the LIfeDrive between '05 and '07. Count on it.

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

Information coming from a name like really makes me value your opinion on corporate strategy in the technology sector. Generally speaking, people who give themselves names like this usually have very little actual knowledge, experience, or clout on the given topic, therefore they rely on clever names to advertise how they would like the world to perceive their opinions. Before you get upset, this is not a personal attack on you, just a canned response I have to the millions of geniuses the Internet has produced by giving the average-joe the ability to post information to the masses.

Rather then anonymous posting, why don't we share a little information about each other to provide a little weight to these seemingly anonymous comments. I'll start off to make sure everyone's comfortable with this:

Hello, my name is Jeff Howard (as my screen name implies). I'm a System's Engineer that works for a major software corporation, in fact, on of the largest. I work in the architecture and design of enterprise IT solutions. I don't have much experience in mobile product development, but hope to move my career in that direction in the coming years.

The company I work for has a very large stake in the mobile computing sector, so plenty of information flows through our company regarding big decisions such as the one Palm just make. Right now, *the buzz* is that it was a good decision, and if managed properly, could make them a very formidable competitor. Not surprisingly, some large equity firms seem to agree with this view, and while investors do make plenty of mistakes, statistically speaking, I trust them as "The Voice of Reason" long before an anonymous poster on an Internet forum.

But of course I would be more then happy to change my opinion if you would be so kind as to provide some additional details about your knowledge and experience to substantiate your claim as "The Voice of Reason".

- Jeff

Tungsten T --> Palm TX --> Foleo-mini??(like and LD-II??)

Giggle.

Plus I drank a lot of coffee... :-)

- Jeff

Tungsten T --> Palm TX --> Foleo-mini??(like an LD-II with a small attached keyboard??)

- Jeff

"Jeff"? How do I know who you really are? What company do you work for? All we know about you is that you CLAIM to be "Jeff Howard (as [your] screen name implies)... and are " a System's Engineer that works for a major software corporation, in fact, on of the largest." For all we know you could really be Jeff Kirvin. Or Jeff Hawkins. Or Dianne Hackborn. Or... well, you get the point. This is the Big, Bad Internet, Jeffy. You need to figure out who is telling The Ugly Truth and who is full of sh1t. If you don't trust what TVoR says, then simply ignore the posts made by TVoR

XOXOX
Carl Yankowski

Most people that make posts based solely off their opinions are trash. You are correct, I could simply overlook them, but I think it's good to call people out. If even one reader walks away wanting more credibility out of the myriad of anonymous posts, then it was worth my time. It seems much more constructive to have a spirited debate based on information from the well informed, but maybe that's just asking too much.

As far as me lying about my creds? I suppose I could be, but for what purpose? All I've posted was the opinions of other people who are much more informed than myself. You could be a janitor and I would still listen to you as long as you cited some creditable sources, and applied a good structural argument to your opinions.

My reply asked one simple question, of which you still have not answered:

All B.S. and sarcasm aside, why don't you *honestly* tells us what you do for a living to give everyone a better idea of who we're talking too? It seems like such a simple question, why are you so shy?

P.S. - I don't mention my companies name out of respect for them. These are my opinions and views, and I would rather not speak on their behalf. My only point in previously mentioning my company was that it's a pretty large group of well-informed people who spend a lot of time researching this sector. I would never assert their opinions as fact, but more just a pretty good sample of people who do their homework.

Tungsten T --> Palm TX --> Foleo-mini??(like an LD-II with a small attached keyboard??)

Besides the Foleo, I have a feeling the new management structure will have an affect on Palm's existing products as well. But as mentioned in other posts, I think the remainder of '07 is going to be pretty quiet at Palm as they settle down with the new structure, and get the Foleo officially launched.

Regardless of whether they fail or succeed, I think there's some exciting times ahead for the company.

Tungsten T --> Palm TX --> Foleo-mini??(like an LD-II with a small attached keyboard??)

Foleo is definitely a "wait and see" product.

Developers want to see, not wait. As is usually the case, there is a hunger for early release of an SDK, desire to assess the device's capabilities first hand, and disappointment that Palm didn't tap *them* to be in the early developer group.

I'm sure the reason Palm limits the number of developers they do early release to is not because they don't care about having lots of 3rd party apps developed as soon as possible, but because setting up a good developer program, clean docs and sample code, trouble-free tools, and support takes a lot of resources away from product development, which obviously is their first priority.

I fear that the software running on the device could make or break it, and it sounds like Palm hasn't (yet) invested much on the software side of things.

As others have said, I'm hoping today's news shakes things up in a positive way for Palm. I think Foleo has a decent chance to evolve into the game-changing concept that Hawkins foresees, but it's saddled with a lot of baggage right now. On top of a disappointing recent history that it needs to shake off, Palm hasn't really satisfied me that it has a good idea of how to market the Foleo to the people who would like to buy one. I foresee a slow start, a prolonged early adopter phase, and more negative buzz around this product if something doesn't change pretty quickly.

That's not to say I'm not jazzed about working on some apps, because *I* know plenty of people that *I* can sell on using devices like the Foleo. Just that for Palm's own sake they had better start firing on all cylinders and come up with a marketing message and applications for Foleo that befit Palm's "future of personal computing is mobile computing" vision.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

TVoR, please take over - PLEASE!!!

jeffhoward++, just start another thread and we swear we'll be all SERIOUS all the time!

IIIe -> m505 -> T3 -> Treo650 -> Treo680

[of course, posters are NEVER important - just posts are - but we'll forget that factoid for the moment!]

I imagine running a site like this it would be difficult to avoid the temptation to post some contentious arguments under an anonymous profile or two. Again no offense Ryan. Just a wacky theory with absolutely no justification.

How dare you imply that I would post to my own site just to "spice things up".

He/She/It has been posting to the site for years under a number of accounts, most notably the old smilyface accounts, the voice of reason and perhaps even "ska". Who knows how often it posted back in the old wild west, anonymous commenting days here at PIC.

If any of you knew or met me in real life for more than five minutes you would know that such nonsense would ever come out of my mouth. (with all due respect voicey)

But again, sincerely, I am not TVOR. I realize you are half joking but really there is absolutely no connection.

Nice attempt to marginalize those who speak the truth, Beersy. The real "troll[s]" are people like you with a not-so-hidden agenda who come here attempting to mislead the public for their own (financial) benefit. How often do you post links to your own website in your posts? Are you looking to get more traffic to your website and more contracts for your little PalmOS application development company? Disgusting.

The last thing in the world he'd want to do is let anyone know who he really is.

Your attempts at obfuscation are hopelessly transparent, Beersy. The endless attacks you've made on TVoR over the years remind us all of your hidden agenda.

On one point he is correct: it *is* the big bad Internet out here, and scarcely moderated forums like this one attract not just people with a sincere interest in Palm and mobile computing but narcissists and loons who like to use it as a platform to make themselves feel important. Bordering on that personality type myself, I can spot 'em every time. ;-)

"Scarcely moderated"? Wow. Yet another cheap shot at Ryan and Palminfocenter. Perhaps you should stop trolling here, trying to direct traffic towards your website (and your pocketbook).

I'm watching with interest the response from different sectors to the Foleo. It's difficult to assess in some respects because a lot of the people who *are* interested fall into categories that aren't necessarily big bloggers or content producers on the web: heads-down business road warriors and people interested in simpler, cheaper, smaller computers for dedicated uses like word processing or email. On the other hand, the vocal cadre of mobile power users seems on the whole to be pretty disgusted with the Foleo because any product that doesn't deliver better features and specs than the competition is almost by definition of little utility.

Yes folks, again we have another fine example of SPIN DOCTORING by our good friend, Beersy. Since the Foleo has been universally panned by almost every tech site, almost every site dealing with PalmOS devices, and almost every power user posting to the fan boy sites, Beersy's only hope is to claim that the market for this device consists of people other than those who have criticized it. Now isn't that special? Brilliant mendacity.

Well guess what, Beersy? Road warriors will have their needs met by simpler, cheaper, smaller computers... running Real Windows™. If you were being honest, you would admit that "the vocal cadre of mobile power users seems on the whole to be pretty disgusted with the Foleo because" quite simply, it fails to present the solution to ANY problems better than more powerful, more flexible devices that are already on the market and that have massive software libraries + the power of inertia behind them. Quite frankly, the Foleo is an embarrassing indictment of the ineptitude of Palm's leadership, designers and programmers. Kind of reminiscent of a junior high school project left to the last-minute and completed on the bus on the way to school. Show us a device with background syncing with a new online Palm PIM site, Virtual Network Computing capability, the ability to run legacy PalmOS applications full-screen, GPS capability, VoIP capability, full multimedia capability, rotating screen and in a package no bigger than 50% larger than the Sony CLIE UX50 and the device might have had a chance. As it stands now, the Foleo may as well have come out in 1999. Palm's laughable decision to position the Foleo as a Treo add-on ("Foleo = Treo's biotch") further underscores the company's lack of confidence that this device has the merit to stand on its own two feet.

I consider the Palm Entrepreneurs Forum to be a pretty level-headed group: they've suffered enough from Palm's shenanigans over the years that they are way past being fanboys, they develop enough for competiting platforms in any case, and they have years of experience providing software and technical support to all kinds of Palm users--not just the kind who hang out here. The most common reactions from that group:

* There's a long thread with the subject "It's for the women" and widespread assent that the Foleo is passing the "wife test."
* There's a nostalgia for a time when computers were simpler and more fun to develop for. (Long thread with the subject "Foleo deja vu" referring to both the early days of Palm and older products like the popular Radio Shack Model 100)
* There is optimism expressed on a few fronts: the fact that this is pure solid state, the fact that Palm's development of this product doesn't involve the carriers, the idea that it is an extension of your phone that could eventually do more.
* There's a sense of opportunity surrounding the fact that this enables the creation of new kinds of applications (esp. that sync between Foleo and smartphone)
* There is concern expressed by some that Linux could actually make it problematic for commercial software developers (lots of free quick-n-dirty ports of Linux apps don't show off the platform well and make it harder to make a living)
* There's widespread opinion that this should be marketed as a mobile computer, not a "mobile companion"

There have been over 200 posts about Foleo on the PEF forum (as of this moment) by 32 different individuals (not counting posts by one Palm employee). I've also had some back-channel conversations with a few that I count as well. The participants break down roughly as follows, by my reckoning:

Favorably inclined toward Foleo: 72%
Neutral/Can't tell: 12%
Negatively inclined: 16%

Frankly, I am really surprised (and heartened) at that breakdown.

Fascinating study, Professor Beersy. Can you post some p values with your numbers? Also, for the sake of comparison, would you mind letting us know what the numbers were for this group re: how they claimed to feel about Cobalt when it was announced and/or pseudo-released? Thanks for sharing.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

Would you mind posting your company's name and your web site some more? I don't think we've seen it enough. Thank you.

IIIe -> m505 -> T3 -> Treo650 -> Treo680

TVoR is most certainly not "ska". "Ska" possessed ZERO wit, insight into the Palm-companies, and sometimes seemed to speak more Engrish than English.

As to any of the other pseudonyms TVoR may have had back in the good ol' "Wild West" days of PIC....it's impossible to tell. Heck, I posted for years prior to the mandatory registration (was that in '02 or '03 IIRC) on PIC.

And to think that TVoR may stand for "The Voice of Ryan"....PURE HOGWASH! Ryan's an easy going, laid-back, mellow dude with mucho love for everyone. I'VE made more jokes about reach-arounds and lube jobs than he ever has!

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

As I asked you long ago, Voicey, picked up any good copies of Catcher in the Rye lately?

_________________
Sean

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.

Look back at the sleazy posts we've seen here over the years...

Of which the very sleaziest, of course, have consistently emanated from The_Gaping_and_Fetid_Maw_of_Unreason, who feels in necessary to drag other posters' personal lives, and the personal lives of their families, into any "discussion" in which it feels it's on the losing end. Which is to say, about all of 'em.

"Mr. Pot! There's a Mr. Kettle on the phone for you!"

Weren't you taking your few remaining marbles and going home...? Honestly, you made a lot more sense when you were absent.

Weren't you taking your few remaining marbles and going home...? Honestly, you made a lot more sense when you were absent.

Well thanks for your kind words, David Schlesinger. As a PalmSource manager/Access Japan lackey, shouldn't you be spending your time trying to get your DELAYED ALP-OS to the point where it can but put into a REAL, SHIPPING device? Did PalmSource not learn anything from its Cobalt Catastropheh? Are you really as stupid as you appear to be?

Keep trolling, Mr. Schlesinger.

Hugs & Kisses as always
Ki o tsukete

TVoR

Is he God?

Or is the PR Machine in full gear?

No no no no.... When will you people learn?

There will be NO GPS equipped device this year, just forget it already. I told you, the best you/we can hope for is Wifi (it makes me cringe every time I need to put 'hope' and 'Wifi' in the same sentence for a smartphone released in 2007). Which is why I went back to WM: it certainly isn't perfect but it does work and you have every radio option available, in your preferred form factor.

The day Palm can do built-in GPS + Cellular over a BT headset, all at the same time (a la WM), only then will I consider going back.

Palm Vx (a classic) -> Palm 505 (*yawn*) -> Dell Axim (slooow...) -> Palm TE (great) -> Qtek 9090 (great idea, lousy platform) -> Nokia 6630 (a toy) -> iMate SP3i (not bad) -> Nokia 9300 (can't sync notes!!) -> Treo 650 (awesome) -> hw6915 (almost perfect)

I think that while Palm may have cooled slightly on WM, they will turn to WINDOWS MOBILE 6 (as I clearly stated) as a stop-gap measure between the next round of releases (the Foleo and whatever new Treos are planned) and the first non-Foleo PLinux devices (next spring?).

I think Palm's release roadmap will look like this:

Late Summer: Foleo, WM6 upgrade for Treo 750 (and probably start selling the 750 pre-loaded with WM6)

October: Treo 755w (CDMA WM6 Treo, identical to 755p 320x320 screen)
Treo 780 (GSM WM6 Treo, 320x320 screen, either wi-fi or GPS built-in)

Spring '08: First Plinux Treo(s)

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

== "...We were approached by larger parties over the last six
== months," Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan said, declining
== to be more specific. "The reality is that we thought this
== was the best outcome for our business and our investors..."

No, they had another option: release devices that are actually worth buying and provide value for money.

Naw... forget that... they didn't have any other options.

TVoR

As opposed to blowing it all at the casinos. Because some investment managers, instead of investing money in companies they see a future in, go to the casino.

Since typing sometimes leaves your expression without the intended stress, maybe you meant that they invest large amounts of money instead of large amounts of bananas and elephant droppings. Which, in the case of Palm Inc, might have been an equally appropriate alternative.

People are right to say that with Rubicon, things are looking up at Palm Inc. But they don't seem to be in a better cash position and their collective brainpower seems to be fizzling.

For all the posters who continue to hold on to hope, I suggest waiting for Access to showcase their ALP at LinuxWorld in August. I bet we see their software on way more numerous and advanced devices in the future (compared with Palm), despite most of them appearing in Asia. Cellphones make tonnes more sense in Asia than in North America anyway (probably due to population density and reduced regulation).

"They invest larges amounts of money in companies that they see a future in."
As opposed to blowing it all at the casinos. Because some investment managers, instead of investing money in companies they see a future in, go to the casino.

Since typing sometimes leaves your expression without the intended stress, maybe you meant that they invest large amounts of money instead of large amounts of bananas and elephant droppings.

Well those who invested people's pensions into Enron and Worldcom would have had a much better return on their investment if they had gone to the casino!

Also it's not unknown for a company to be purchased because the investors see greater value in it being broken up than being left as it is.

There also times when a deal is more favourable to the short term interests/greed/dogma of the broker than the long-term interests of the fund owners, assuming that the fund owner is even in it for the long term.

I do hope that the new directors can impress upon the rest of the board a sense of urgency in bringing Treos up to date with competing products.

It's notable that even the recently announced Blackberry Curve 8300 comes with a 2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack and music player.

Rubicon? W T F? Another Michael Mace biotch in da house, yo!

> No, they had another option: release devices that are actually worth buying and provide value for money.

Sony tried that and made so much profit they had to shut the division down. Releasing cool tech doesn't do a company any good unless there are enough customers willing to pay a high enough price.

It appears that you're under the (mistaken) assumption that "actually worth buying and provide value for money" somehow is synonymous with "cool tech" and "a high... price". Quite the contrary. $10 in parts, some attention to detail and more intelligent design is all it would have taken for most of the devices Palm has released over the past 6 years to have evolved from buggy betaware to "actually worth buying and provide value for money". Therein lies the rub: Palm has been SO close to providing good designs that Palm Faithful keep hoping Palm's potential will eventually be realized... before the company is ransacked and completely burned to the ground by Palm's management.

On the high end of portable hardware, anyone who has owned Sony's CLIE UX50, TH55 or VZ90 models was able to get a glimpse of the potential that Palm gave up on. Imagine what could have happened if Sony had merged ideas from the CLIE UX50 and the Vaio UX series? The Holy Grail of mobile computing would have arrived.

TVoR

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Gloria

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

I Will Follow (up with more models)

In God's Country

Joy

Miracle Drug

Mofo

Mysterious Ways

Original Of The Species

Wake Up Dead Man (Yankowski's theme)

I travel a lot at work, so for me hauling a laptop everywhere is a must and I DO need a copy of all those gigabytes of old files close at hand.

Maybe there is a market for a 500 dollars crippled laptop, but I fail to see it. Right now you can log to Dell and buy a basic (512Meg RAM and 60GB hard disk) laptop for 550 dollars.

Cheers,

What convinse me that I am right and "you" are wrong is that you do not understand that the iPhone will be a flop. In the US it will sell some, but in Europe and Asia where the real marked is it will not sell at all. SMS is just as important as talking, and a phone without a numpad is like a bicycle without wheels, it does not work. The iPod is oldfashioned and nobody wants it anymore, they rather purchase a SE or Nokia walkmanphone with gigabytes of SD card to hold and play their music. Why would someone purchase an iPod with a useless phone?

Then, why is the PDA market plummeting? It is NOT because of smartphones, it is because ANY mobile phone have all the things that PDAs used to have; addresses, apointments, sync with desktop and so on. The PDA is a geeky redundant device, and probably allways have been. The next thing to plummet will be the smartphones because they too are only clunky geeky redundant devices that offers nothing more than a standard SE or Nokia.

Now, the Foleo is NOT a geeky redundant device. The Foleo offers something that has never before been offered; instant access to email and web in an efficient and intuitive manner (real keyboard and screen) at a price that most people can afford. It can, and will, be used by anybody, well - maybe anybody except the geeks.

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

Wont they do that right have they get the extra 9$ bucks?

Seems to me that going into debt like that is troubling.

Palm needs:
- Staffing cuts (first wave already done)
- Refreshed lineup (budget Treo, mildly refreshed PDAs [0$ in R&D needed!], FOOLeo launch)
- To focus on business/enterprise customers with FOOLeo and Treos. The combination of Treos with ChatterEmail + push configuration needs to be leveraged as a BlackBerry Killer. FOOLeos need to be sold as easy-to-support, virus-proof, inexpensive laptop-alternatives for businesses, grade schools, niche markets (hospitals, real estate, doctors, lawyers, writers, etc.). But in order for this to succeed, the SOFTWARE needed for each market must be COMPLETELY understood, bundled as a COMPLETE package and simply WORK, all right out of the box. If solutions aren't painless + turnkey, as a non-Windows underdog Palm can kiss its chances for market penetration goodbye.
- Effective, cohesive marketing.
- A clear vision for its product development.
- Better quality construction. How many longtime PalmOS users has Palm lost due to their frustration over shoddy hardware in recent years?
- Proper product support. (Hellooooooooo Bombay!!!) Failures like the company's refusal to fix its flagship Treo 700p's numerous bugs erode the remaining goodwill the company has among longtime PalmOS users left over form its Palm III/Palm V days. Unlike 1999, Palm isn't the only game in town anymore, so if customers aren't happy with Palm's products/support they will simply leave AND NEVER COME BACK.
- Proper communication with customers (the current Palm blog has devolved into a tragic mistake). Hire someone to administer a coherent, easily-searchable, up-to-date knowledge base that includes a listing of known "issues" with available (or planned) workarounds. Include sections on "How to" do various functions, tips etc.
- Better industrial styling. And remember that (as IBM has proven) EVERYTHING looks better in all-black. Given the type of markets (professionals/enterprise) that Palm needs to penetrate to survive, clean styling and a lineup of all-black devices would be the safest way to go.
- Better programmers. Historically, Palm's codemonkeys couldn't code their way out of a wet paper bag and the best PalmOS applications have come from third party developers. Palm needs to clear out the dead wood (partially done), license best-of-breed applications (like they did with ChatterEmail) and ensure ALL software is thoroughly beta tested before it is released.
- Realistic pricing. This isn't 1999 (with $400 Palm V) anymore, so $600 FOOLeos are going to sit in Palm's warehouses gathering dust. It's hard to grow a new platform if no one is buying the hardware... Unfortunately, Palm is competing with so many other vendors selling cheap hardware that they may almost have to sell FOOLeos at cost if they hope to achieve the critical mass of users needed to attract developers to the platform.
- A whole lotta luck. After 6 or 7 years of mismanagement, the odds are stacked against Palm.

TVoR

In response to VOfRs attack on my math, 26 million shares at $16 plus a 50% premium gets to $624 million.

Will another reverse split occur next year after the 'de-capitalization' goes through, to bring the share price back up from penny stock territory?