Palm is doing something right....

I see so many \"palm is dead\" or palm will be dead by (insert date)... it is interesting that they are doing fairly well... I do not see a massive slide into the ocean as predicted... they are depending too much on treo sales (from what I read... and I have not researched the matter much). But it sounds, again from what I read, they are getting ready for 2006 and beyond... getting ready for the next step in palm OS....

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_p ... p?id=45858


SAN FRANCISCO — Handheld-computer maker palmOne Inc. said Thursday that profit surged 33 percent in its fiscal fourth quarter, beating Wall Street’s expectations.
The Milpitas-based company said the increase was fueled by sales of its Treo smart phone and other products. PalmOne also forecast first-quarter revenue above analysts’ expectations.

“All in all, we’re firing on all fronts,” said palmOne Chief Executive Ed Colligan, who also said the company would change its name to Palm Inc. and its ticker symbol to PALM on July 14

PalmOne agreed in May to pay PalmSource Inc., the company it spun off in 2003, $30 million over 3 1/2 years for its 55 percent share of the Palm trademark.

Shares of palmOne rose 2 cents to close at $29.77 Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

For the three months ended May 31, palmOne earned $17.7 million, or 35 cents per share, up from $13.3 million, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier. The company said it would have earned $19.2 million, or 37 cents per share, after excluding non-operating items such as deferred stock-based compensation, employee separation costs and restructuring charges.

Revenue jumped 26 percent to $335.8 million from $267.3 million in last year’s fourth quarter

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected earnings of 31 cents per share on sales of $332.3 million.

The company is coming off several lackluster quarters as it faced growing competition in the mobile computing sector from such companies as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.

But palmOne appears to have hit a home run with its Treo 650 line. Treo sales more than doubled from a year ago and rose 57 percent from this year’s third quarter.

Steve Biggs, senior equity analyst for Chicago-based Zachs Investment Research, noted the company struggled to roll out the 650 line to major retailers, but those issues appear to be behind it.

“That really slowed down sales,” Biggs said. “I think we’ve got a couple of good quarters ahead with the 650.”

Another positive signal was the news that palmOne devices captured greater market share in the corporate sector, where Research In Motion’s Blackberry is the top seller.

PalmOne has also received favorable reviews for the LifeDrive, part of the company’s new Mobile Manager category that executives hope will spur handheld sales. The LifeDrive, which launched in May, can store music, video, text documents and digital photographs. The company says it is the first handheld to feature a hard drive.

“Traditional demand for PDAs has declined but we think our share of the PDA market is good,” Colligan said. “We’re working to reinvigorate sales.”

Analysts questioned Colligan about whether he was worried about the recent missteps of PalmSource. PalmOne’s sister company, PalmSource sells the Palm OS operating system which most of palmOne’s products run on. On Wednesday, PalmSource announced it plans to reorganize its sales, marketing and product development and cut its U.S. full-time work force by about 16 percent. PalmSource also forecast a first-quarter loss on Thursday.

“We’re tracking that development closely,” Colligan said. “We are working to make sure that platform carries forward. If things deteriorated more we would have to take action.”

Colligan added that palmOne is prepared should it have to move to a new operating system.

“There are a number of suppliers that we could leverage,” Colligan said.

For the entire fiscal year, palmOne earned $66.4 million, or $1.29 per share, on sales of $1.27 billion. Excluding items, the company

PalmOne (now Palm) is doing good, but PalmSource is NOT! And since the latter is really the soul of the platform, it's troubles are not good for the entrie platform...

Hopefully something will be done about Psource. Would it be possible for P1 Board of Directors to join the PS Board and send money to \"help\" the weakend company?

1src's podcast this week talks about this issue. He thinks it dosen't really matter, that PalmSource has basically become irrelevant and that Palm now makes the whole deal again, software and hardware.

I'm not so sure. Yeah Palm keeps extending the OS, but they do a poor job of it IMO, and they don't own the rights to either OS 5, OS 6, or OS 6 on Linux. And they don't own the rights to the PIM either.

So what do they do? Just keep licensing OS 5 and dragging it forward forever? Start their own OS from scratch? Is the PalmOS going to be split in two, with Palm and Palmsource both doing their own, incompatible thing?

They STILL need a modern OS, and I don't know where it's going to come from. OS 6 is dead, I guess (unless Palm bought it and just used it, or something like that). The Linux version of it isn't ready, and isn't designed for PDAs apperently. They can't license Windows Mobile and wrap it with the Palm interface, because they don't own the Palm interface or PIM apps, so what the hey do they do?

Will we see OS 5.7.999999 two years from now, even buggier than a Lifedrive or T5?

Oh yeah, and whatever OS they end up using, it had better support Graffiti, or I'm not interested!

vga display + usb-host + removable battery + who cares about software = no objects of desire on palm side

\"Palm is dead.\" My Tapwace Zodiac seeems to still be working. Jeff Kirvin has a good podcast on it. http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=774

Some of us actually care about software. Although i really want USB host. VGA is ok, but on this tiny screen it really is not needed.

Today I put some videos on my SD card so my friend with his HP Smartphone can try them out. Then he told me the bad news. He kinda lost/broke his HP smartphone when he went on Batman the Ride and he really isn't happy. It really sucked. He has insurance on it but it will still cost him, hopefully his insurance will cover it. It was a very nice device. Anyway I later showed him my videos on my Zodiac with its lanscape 320x480 screen and ATI graphics. TCPMP uses the ATI chip. The video was on ride view of the rollercoasters at Great Adventure. At least that cheered him up a bit cause he was having a crummy day. He now wants me to give him a copy so he can show his family because he is from the Dominican Republic. When he gets his new PPC since it was insured I will give him Betaplayer and the video and perhaps sell my 512 SD card.[Get myself 1gb]
My girlfriend had an iPaq with insurance and they wouldn't cover her chewed[dog] up PocketPC. She now has a metal Tapwave Zodaic 2. I converted her back. Metal will cut gum.

As long as good Palm OS handhelds are made I will use them. If Palm was really dead I would have a PocketPeeC. My next device may just be a Zaurus. I really miss my Zire 71. The only thing I don't like about my Zodiac is that its not like having a portrait PDA.[But I love it for videos] Another thing I miss that I had with my Zire 71 was the handy dandy camera. Most people ditch it but its not bad. Good enough for me. For the time it was like a high end camera phone. So my next devices for next year or so would be a Zaurus[Linux], HP PocketPeeC[Linux+Win Mob 05], Zire 73/4.