CEO Talks About Palm's Future

On the other hand, Palm must also take advantage of the new hardware and incorporate advances in the new devices that brings Palm up to speed with the rest of the market. Sony's devices are very compelling right now, but they are limited by processor power. Once the new processors are incorporated, I will be very excited to see what Sony can do in a small package. Palm needs such "cool tools" as well. If "simple" means leaving the "cool" out of the device, I see Palm's position in the market place stagnating and the company going the way of Packard and Dusenberg. You've got to keep up with the times.

The old company slogan was "Simply Palm." Maybe the company's new philosophy should be "Simply Cool."

JBH

That's because you're a tech geek. You want power. It's like cars. Camrys and Accords are what sell in huge numbers. Sports cars cost a lot and fill a niche market. That's why these arguments on boards like this are so silly. We go around and around about features/power vs. zen/small form factor. People have different needs. Different strokes...

Clearly, since 1996 zen/smallness has been the winning combo. So when we hear Palm execs talk about turning to the dark side of the force, we worry that they'll destroy Palm chasing after a mirage.

Handhelds will never be able to do what desktops do because the size limitations are so much less. In five years people like you will be bragging about the latest and greatest your desktop can do and complain about how the "Yawn OS v9" falls so short of what you want--which is a feature set that would bloat the physical dimensions of the device to an unreal level.

Get this in your heads, PPC trolls: handhelds will never do what your desktop does. Because it's a race they can never win.

Say for example, you can read all your emails including several common types of attachments on your Palm. Your Palm can synchornize with major business planners/scheduler/workgroup softwares.

Able to read(and even better, edit) Word, Excel docs is important to businesses too, IMO.

Also, aside from memory, processing power is important for some businesses too, as they may custom make some relatively processor intensive apps.

And cause corporation is one of the very important markets to Palm, it does not mean multimedia extras are irrelevant. But I don't think they are so important to the extent that they're all what OS5 is about.

Personally I won't bother watching serious video on such a small screen for a long time, photos are okay, but needs a good color screen. MP3? I would rather get a seperate player for that. Trying to do too many on one device is not a good idea...

Anyway, don't forget what Palm is all about at the first place -- Digital personal organizer, if it loses the usefulness of such(say, by implementating a very very bad interface, and make it very very complicated to use), I would say it's a failure for Palm.

So, I see 3 types of Palm in the future...

1) Basic Palm - For basic needs, with low-end config.
2) Business Palm - For advanced needs, med to high-end config, sans entertainment(not meaning no good color screen).
3) Entertainment Palm - For geeks, videos, audios, whatever you can put into a Palm.

Just my 2 cents comment.

No offence, but you know how much of the US know why there're 365 days in a year?

Think what this means for Palm, business wise - hypothetically, they spend bags of money on R&D and they knock your socks off - yours and about 100 others who have such special requirements. Not a good pay-off is it? Next step, Palm is bankrupt ... and the arm chair critics will put this down to lack of innovation!

The millions of other users (17 million and growing every day) probably want stuff which is much more mundane - PIM, work related apps, etc. Yes, I know this bores you, but the multitude of other users have a right to get what they want too.

Put it this way - you want to drive a Ferrari, fine. Just don't ruin things for those who would be happy to drive a Ford.

"problem is in features and software to take advantage of these features to sell bloody devices."

Maybe we should better distinguish "simple to use" and "simple in feature".

Is current Palm simple in features? Well, with the default apps, and comparing to PPC, yes it's. Is it simple to use? It depends but probably simpler than PPC.

Should Palm add more features in the future? Definitely, if it wants to stay in the business. But by how?

Let's assume everybody knows how to use PalmOS and PPC, but would you take 5 clicks to open your Datebook or 1 click?

Also, it's necessary to consider the technology available. If it's possible to make a ultimate PDA with all the features you want, but it weights 2lbs and is as large as 7" x 4", would you want it? Or if the battery runs out with 5hrs of MP3 playing, would you want it?

we do on desktops, the only exception are top end 3D games, and this is probably remain to be so. My main
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You prefer to do word processing on a handheld than on a PC? You want do read Excel docs on a handheld than on a PC?

I think the notion of simlicity on palms is overrated and general public is quite computer literate and surely can use both PocketPCs and Palms. Its just a question of features -- just because you ONLY need PIM in palm doesn't mean that same device can't get on boad people who want to watch MP4s on the go, its freedom like on desctop -- you run WHATEVER you want, its your call.
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I think you overrated the general public's needs for a handheld.

Just because you need to watch MP4s on the go doesn't mean that broad people should pay $500 for a device they use for PIM ONLY.

Hey, I own 2 palms and won't buy PocketPC, but I want Palm to compete with PocketPC successfully and for this they need something more than "simplicity" of interface, whatever it is.
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From my view, Palm is trying to tap the corporation market, and what it takes is more processing power and memory that's enough for most business apps, better connectivity with desktop softwares.

Same should apply to Palms if they want to be successful -- give general purpose device, with robust OS and support decent hardware and this device can be used for variety of purposes, it would be a matter of SOFTWARE, not hardware.

So what if it takes 5 clicks to do stuff on pocketpc? If its a PROBLEM then software will be re-written and thats it. If thats REALLY a problem then rewrite it and sell it.

Anyone thought why would expensive, bulky, low-battery life and supposedly bad interfaced IPAQs are selling well? Sure Palm owns 80% of market, but IPAQs are WAY more expensive, and if 20% of market opted to get TOP END then surely other 80% would be reasonably happy to get cut down version of same device, provided they are reasonably backwards compatible. Like it or not -- market chooses more features in one device.

So, you saying playing MP4 is a special requirement? How about watching DVDs, do you know that is the price of a portable DVD player? Its well above $1k, and they sold reasonably well (for these sort of devices), so give this FEATURE in PDA, and tell people that they can play their DVDs on the go, AND do lots of other things, and hey, you got a unique selling feature. Is playing audio special? All those people who bought walkman's can upgrade to this device, there is nothign special in it!

Now, this is my last post, I am not really not into trying to pursvuade you in anything, just have a look at this: http://news.com.com/2100-1040-883861.html

"The device measures 3 inches by 5 inches, is 0.9-inches thick and weighs about half a pound.

The major difference is that the OQO device, which will come out in the second half of the year for around $1,000, is a complete Windows XP computer. Along with Windows, it will come with a 5800 Crusoe processor from Transmeta, a 10GB hard drive, 256MB of memory, connection ports for FireWire and USB (universal serial bus), and wireless networking connections through either WiFi or Bluetooth"

This could be vaporware, but in 2-3 years something LIKE this will be out, and tell me how Palm is going to compete with x86 PORTABLE device with millions of software titles running on it unmodified? And price issue -- with components shrinking down and prices falling in 2 years something like this CAN be well sold at below $500 mark.

However, this is not a new function nor requires a new OS/Palm in many cases. All you need is to purchase a copy of DTG or QuickOffice, and often mid/high-end models come with a free copy of one of them. For storage, lots of Palms support external storage cards these days... Palm m-series (SD/MMC), Sony (MS), Visor (with MemPlug modules, SD/MMC/MS/SM/CF), Handera (CF).

Besides more processing power and memory, what I think is more essential to future Palms in terms of hardware is a better screen.

They aren't selling all that well. Compaq proudly announced last month that had sold 2 million of them in 2 years. Palm sold close to that number last quarter.

> tell me how Palm is going to compete with x86 PORTABLE device with millions
> of software titles running on it unmodified?

Very few Windows apps will run at the very small screen size this thing uses.

> with components shrinking down and prices falling in 2 years something
> like this CAN be well sold at below $500 mark.

It will never be that cheap. They are trying to make this have all the functionality of a full sized PC. "We see this as 'This is your only computer,'" said Colin Hunter, executive vice president of OQO. If this is supposed to be a desktop replacement, it has to keep up with desktops. That means the company will keep having to upgrade it with newer, more expensive components.

Here's something you left out of your quotes from the CNET article: "Other companies, including a Taiwanese manufacturer called Saint Song, have also tried to promote miniature PCs before."

Those all bombed. Trying to cram a full OS into something that small doesn't work. It isn't usable.

Handhelds will only be successful when they keep their feature set within what is possible and also have an OS that has been specially written for a small screen. That's why PPC has failed and why the OQO is doomed to fail. It's also the reason why the Palm OS dominates the consumer and enterprise markets.

Handhelds' screen and input method is so large a difference that could never replace PCs.

Handhelds can only remain being as handhelds because of one factor -- Size.

If you make it large and it's not a "handheld".

Otherwise the whole kitchen will not have so many appliances. If people want ONE then it would have been on the market and if enough people want IT then it would have been selling very well already."
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I'm not sure I agree with you here. The critical difference is that you don't have to carry your whole kitchen around in your pocket. Sure, Newton and WinCE devices have failed but not because they put too many features in, they failed because they put in all those additional features at the cost of more important things such as Battery Life.

In the end, I believe we will have a "PocketPC" in that, like the PC, the handheld will be able to do all the things that different devices currently do in one unit. I mean, do you really want to carry around a PocketMP3 Player, PocketTV, PDA, Cell. Phone, etc... all around with you if there is a choice of having it all in one?

I'm NOT against adding features to Palm, but it's to my concern that by adding features we may also add theses:

1) Size
2) Weight
3) Price
4) Usage complexity
5) Battery usage

Of all the above things, I surely will appreciate if my Palm can record and play audio(MP3/WMA...), vidoes, and surf the Internet and even take a photo.

And except taking a photo(cause it will increase the size and weight), I do think future handhelds should support the abovementioned, better out-of-the-box.

In fact, many of the mentioned are not new and already on the market, right?

However, as this stage, those extras come at extra $$$, and usually size and weight. If you ask me what I prefer(provided I have $$$), I would prefer a slim and lightweight handheld, with all the basic PIM functionality, and preferably a high-resolution color screen and a battery that can sustain a few days to a week of heavy use, blah blah blah...

But we shouldn't ignore the basic users, which may be using paper datebook right now and just want an electronic PDA to replace it for under $100.

It would be great if they come all within a slim package and reasonable price.

I just don't think EVERY Palm should be an all-rounder.

Also, I think handheld cannot replace PC in the forseeable future of mine.

Honestly, he should resign after the split happens.