webOS 1.3.5 Hitting Sprint Today?

Rubenstein is going to announce Palm's opening of a new chain of kosher delis.

My CES '10 Palm Predictions:

1. 16GB Pre Announced for Verizon for Feb/March timeframe. Only hardware change will be 16GB storage w/ 1.3.5 ROM standard. Sprint 16 gig version to follow in Q2ish.

2. An announcement will be made about a future forthcoming announcement regarding unlocking the GPU, video recording etc. I doubt we'll hear anything as specific as WebOS 2.0. I am sure there will be a lot of pomp & circumstance about new content parters, new carrier partners, new developer partners, how great Sprint are, Project Ares, etc.

3. An AT&T Pixi MIGHT eventually appear. I would rule out an AT&T Pre as that could POSSIBLY cannibalize a few iPhone sales. On the other hand, AT&T could bring a GSM Pre & Pixi onboard and aggressively market them to try and strongarm Apple into renewing the iPhone exclusivity.

4. I would not expect anything regarding a Sprint WiMax WebOS device, a WebOS tablet device, a Fooleo 2 etc. 2010 is going to be much like how 2008 was for Palm--basically leaning on existing devices/formfactors and primarily focusing on software improvements, additional carrier rollouts, price drops etc. The only difference is that instead of furiously working behind the scenes on a new OS & hardware (WebOS + Pre) they will be furiously working behind the scenes to sell Palm and/or raise more $.

I honestly believe that Ruby & Co. truly expected to have unloaded Palm sometime in the past 11 months in the wake of the CES buzz, hoopla and Palm's skyrocketing rebound in stock price. Thus, the lack of any new hardware or long-term OS plans.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid

> ...I honestly believe that Ruby & Co. truly expected to have unloaded Palm
> sometime in the past 11 months in the wake of the CES buzz, hoopla and
> Palm's skyrocketing rebound in stock price. Thus, the lack of any new
> hardware or long-term OS plans.

An interesting theory - it IS possible Rubinstein et al (Colligan et al?) were not used to Palm's exuberance w.r.t. stock price but there's a rather long history of it being nuts so I'd tend to disbelieve that.

More likely I'd think they, once a-GAIN, were surprised at the lack of interest in the company (*).

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(*) As probably noted around here at least once, in late 2006 the BoD of Palm decided the BEST outcome for Palm would be to sell the company and NO BUYERS stepped forward with an offer that the BoD considered high enough (that is to say, there were no buyers). Only Elevation Partners and some unnamed other entity made an offer that was mentioned AND that other entity backed out only three days after the offer was made! (that is SO unusual for such a costly transaction that the explanation behind the back-out must be a fascinating story in and of itself!).

Unless they have some kick-ass killer mini-tablet that uses a Pixel Qi screen, they will become totally irrelevant -- except to those outside the tech world who buy their phones. And even then, those people are always susceptible to the next shiny thing their carrier offers.

They stand on a pool of quicksand.

yes, we would. thanks! :)