palmOne Responds to the Pocket PC Rumor

This would actually be funny if it wasn't so close to reality.

The truth is, we don't really need Cobalt. When Cobalt Release Candidate 6.3 is announced in Spring, 2004, will any decent hardware be shipping with it? Not likely - just a second tier smartphone or two. And will it offer any any significant advantages over PalmOS 5.2/(patched + quilted)5.4? Not likely. The BeOS contribution appears to have been pure BS based on what I've seen. We are not impressed, Palm.

Pssssst: The Emperor has no clothes. Pass it on.

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

This has to be totally suspect. Just plain suspect. Why won't palmOne concede to release a Cobalt-Powered Device? This is just ridiculous!!!

I pledge to the Palm-Powered community that I will seek to make a better handheld through research one day!!!

This just stirs the pot even more. Ugh.

But I have to say that if I were them, I would not "deny" the possibility of other operating systems either. That would be plain dumb.

This is exactly the situation that palmOne is trying to avoid.

If they denied rumours every time that they were false, then any time a rumour comes up and they don't deny it, people will assume that it is true.

If they confirmed rumours every time that they were true, then people would just keep throwing out random rumours in the hope that one of them is true, so it can be confirmed. (Cobalt upgrade for the T5 for $30, anyone?)

If they just ignored rumours, then people can't make any assumption of whether it is true or not. That's why they don't comment on rumours or talk about unannounced products. They're muddying the waters.

Likewise, iPAQ has a smaller market share than Palm. Producing a Palm device would reduce the credibility of their range and give them a Sony sized market share in Palm world. In would come Dell to sweep away all that remains of their disillusioned customers.

Either move would spell the death of the respective company. Noone’s that stupid.

Rest easy, everyone; it’s not going to happen.

Nick

What other design exists? A round screen? Square screen? An elegant Hp19xx, 41xx series or X50 with Palm OS would be killer compared to the T5E2. The older HPs are very attractive from a form standpoint. If you're talking about horrid the new HP "Darth Vader Pez dispenser" designs just released, then I understand what you mean.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

PalmOne is turning into a Microsoft because they want to be bought, merged, or funded by Microsoft. Or they have schizophrenic multi level management issues.

On top of it, PalmOne doesn’t appear to be in favor of supporting small third party developers. I get the feeling P1 wants them to go away. Look at what P1 has already done to the handheld email industry. First P1 bought or got MultiMail in the separation and then just about dumped the product to get into bed with Good and Notify because those companies had some VC money. When that didn't seem to go well, P1 went back to MM (Versa Mail) with the active sync stuff. Now they got a new pony show of some copycat product from Seven for God knows why. In the mean time PalmOne is in denial of the existence of better products like Chatter, CMM, MailWave, & Snapper.

Call it as I see it.

== We are not working on a MSoft-based anything.

All they said was:

== We didn't say we were working on a Msoft-based anything.

For all we know, one of the contractual terms they have with PSRC is not to mention active work on any alternative OS for some period of time...

They had a meeting and posed this question: "how can we get as much money as possible out of this sinking ship? The hardware biz just sucks!" Since they're in it for themselves at the expense of employees/shareholders they had to capitalize as quickly as possible (re: SCO/Linux BS lawsuit). No blame here really since every corporate mngmnt thinks the same way.

Let's see... capture as much smartphone market share as possible before Microsoft/Nokia start a bidding/investment war. Get Microsoft STOCK or Nokia Euros. OR, build and design smartphones for Microsoft. It's cloudy for me, but judging from human nature/experience/capitalism the management could give a crap about PDAs (T|5 anyone) and will focus ENTIRELY on getting someone to scoop up the Treo design. There is no loyalty any more to anything so dont' get your hopes up Palmlovers...

-- a palmlover

Nokia 3650 bluetooth magnate

I think I'll just keep deceiving myself about P1. Feels better that way.

"Yeah, that killer T6 is on the way with VGA, OS6, dual-wireless, .25 thin and smaller than a wristwatch for $249" wooohoo.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

Don't expect anythig from Palm for the rest of this year. The news story just shot a big hole in their sales potential.

By the spring, you will see a device running OS6. It won't be a Palm or Treo, but some other product. Don't forget, there are things running Palm OS. I doubt there will be any new Palm models released in the spring either. No more Tungstens, Zires or such.

In the first quarter of 2005, Palm will announce what they are holding back from admitting to right now. We have joined with Microsoft. This will cause mixed reactions from the public as to what to do, how to feel and "what about my stock?" The announcement will probably be made to look like an experimental joint project that is looking for advancing the PIM and communication spectrum. Expect politician speeh in this one. You know the drill. Tons of meaningless words.

By the summer of 2005, MicroPalm will release the first joint smartphone. Most likely Treo.

After all this, your guess is as good as mine.

This worst part of this deal is for guys like me who write code for Palm devices. Now what? There goes some of our revenue if we don't change to the other guy. It reminds me of a book I read by Spencer Johnson entitled, "Who Moved My Cheese". It is about how we deal with changes in our work and life. If you haven't read it, do. With this perspective in mind, I will begin to adjust my situation to accomodate the new one. Why sit back and cry about it when you can capitalize on it.

Addicted to Palm

From a legal standpoint I don't see how Microsoft can buy out PalmOne. Admittedly since the spinoff of PalmSource its more possible as it would not involve reduced competition as far as OSes go. PalmOne is hands down the single largest licensee of the Palm OS. So while it would not be an overt antitrust violation, the Eurocrats would probably be all over Microsoft like a cheap suit. I am not so sure about the DOJ and the FTC here in the US. Not so much because of politics (Down Mike! Down!) but because they are much less likley to pursue something like this because the arguement would be harder to make under US law.

Anyway, why get in bed with PalmOne when they are trying to set fire to it on their own with their current business plan?

If I were going to wiggle my way into a company, I would start at the heart and work out to the extremities. Show yourself to be an interested, team playing kind of person while in the background you are pulling out the nails fo the boards behind you. You create your own stability when the whole thing flies apart and you save the day. They look at you as the savior of the business, when in fact you were the one who took it down. You get the raise, the new position and the big house. The former players get the boot because they failed to keep things going.

Where there is smoke, there is fire.

Addicted to Palm

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

The top guys at Palm know what is going on. Don't fool yourself. This is going to happen.

Addicted to Palm

For $ome reason I doubt Gates even thinks about Palm more than once on a monthly basis. Bigger fish to fry, although I'm sure Palm is somewhere down in the MSFT "Squash List".

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

Either MS has had a dramatic change of heart or MS is not interested in their own PPC OS let alone Palm OS.

As for the Palm using PPC - I can think of better ways for a company to commit suicide. It doesn't make sense for them to do this. They'd never sell. Don't forget that Toshiba and Panasonic have left the PPC market too.

I think it's all silly rumours.

I disagree. If managed properly, Palm could have (and still might) become a significant cause of lost profits for Microsoft. The Windows/Intel hegemony that has been entrenched over the past 15 years owes its existence partly to the fact that businesses like Standards and Compatibility. Palm set the standard for PDAs, much as "Wintel" has done for desktops and laptops. But Palm's so-called leadership failed to think outside the (narrow PDA) box and look at other ways to expand the PalmOS market. Last year, Sony's UX50 showed everyone that PalmOS PDAs had the potential to become mini laptop replacements. We also started to see a few adventurous souls using those slick little Treo 600 as laptop replacements in certain situations. Push those designs a little further (e.g. stretch the UX50 into the size of a Sharp Zaurus or ever larger http://www.dynamism.com/zaurus/ include a GSM radio, VPN app for remote access to your desktop, Word/Excel compatible apps, etc) and for a lot of people, suddenly they wouldn't need a laptop anymore. Palm could have got a lot of sales by marketing themselves to businesses as a way to cut the cost of laptops. And every Wintel laptop sale lost is less money for Billy G's Swiss bank accounts. More importantly, the presence of a cheap, simple, reliable alternative to Wintel would get IT people to start becoming more receptive to other solutions. Palm could have become a threat if only they had marketed themselves properly to businesses. Gates didn't become the wealthiest person in the world by ignoring threats. The fact that IT people choose PPC over PalmOS because of perceived better compatibility with Windows shows both how miserably Palm has failed in marketing itself to businesses and how effective Microsoft is at controlling its market. With a litle effort, Palm could STILL be able to leverage its OS and the Treo lineup to get more than a foot in the door of the corporate world (where the REAL profit potential is).

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

Thanks for the ride, palmOne.

>>biting my tongue otherwise. see that blood?<<

No, the thing that P1 needs to do is get serious about their corporate offerings and the Tungsten line. Let the Zires exist only as $200 and below consumer models resembling Pez dispensers. They need to focus all of their efforts on releasing several strong models in a row and get their build quality issues resolved. The Treo 650 may likely even drive some people who are drooling over a 650 but cannot afford it or convince their employer to pay for it to purchase a Tungsten model for their own personal use. In fact, I could almost see the Treo sending nearly as many referral or trickle-down PDA sales P1's way than existing Palm owners migrating to a Treo. Most of the current Palm owners either have BT cell or have no need for a smartphone.

No, the thing that P1 needs to do is get serious about their corporate offerings and the Tungsten line. Let the Zires exist only as $200 and below consumer models resembling Pez dispensers. They need to focus all of their efforts on releasing several strong models in a row and get their build quality issues resolved.

Very well said. It's a shame Palm's executives are too busy plundering the company to bother making these simple changes that could easily save the company from further losses.

Palm's recent actions suggest the company has a white knight up its sleeve ("Wild" Bill?), so it really doesn't care what happens to profitability (or even the development of OS and hardware designs). This past month will probably be remembered as the turning point for Palm. They are now in total self-destruct mode. PPC will probably control over 50% of the market before the end of the year and it now seems inevitable that Palm will pull a Netscape within two years.

I almost can't believe this is happening. It's like watching an accident happen in slow motion...

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Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.