Palm CFO Talks About Windows Mobile

Posted By: Ryan on Friday, August 12, 2005 10:18:32 AM

In an CNET interview, Palm Chief Financial Officer Andrew Brown said that building a Treo that runs on the mobile version of Windows might help the company woo corporate customers who have been reticent to buy its Palm OS-based gadgets. While he makes a strong case for the company to be OS agnostic, he does not confirm or deny any of the recent rumors.

From the article:

"CIOs don't get fired for using Microsoft products," Brown said, though he did not say whether Palm has such a product in the works. [...]
"The fact is we are Switzerland, whether it be over the e-mail server or the OS," Brown told CNET News.com last week after a presentation to financial analysts at an RBC Capital Markets conference in San Francisco.

Brown's comments are in line with what Palm executives have been saying for some time. However, last weeks rumors add much more substance to the topic. Palm recently renewed its Palm OS licensing agreement with PalmSource through 2009.

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eep!

legodude522 @ 8/12/2005 1:47:50 PM #

Holy ****! [sorry] They are darksiding us. I need help in these dark days. Hopefully my iBook G4 will be enough. As a long time Palm OS user I feel insulted and frightened. This is the begining of Microsoft taking over the entire mainstream PDA market. All we will be left with is some Linux devices that lack developement and lack in marketing and hope for an Apple PDA which will have to struggle on its own in a M$ dominated market.

Palm m125 December 25, 2003 to March 24 2004 > palmOne Zire 71 March 24, 2004 to March 31, 2005. Tapwave Zodiac 1 April 18, 2005 to present.

RE: eep!

T_W @ 8/12/2005 3:34:50 PM #

>"CIOs don't get fired for using Microsoft products," Brown said,

If thats not the *bold* statement of an *innovative* market leader, then I don't know what one is...

Uhmmm, ahhh, well.... I guess being a also-ran is *almost* as good as being a market leader.

Dear Palm, enjoy the competition with DELL. You had better be able to beat them on price! What other reason would we have to buy your gray box handheld over their gray box handheld?

RE: eep!

twizza @ 8/12/2005 3:50:40 PM #

"What other reason would we have to buy your gray box handheld over their gray box handheld?"

Because Dell's grey box doesnt look like a Treo. Once they do get a Treo look alike at a lower price entry point, then there will be the Grey A versus Grey B argument. Until then, the Palm name and Treo look will sell many a persons who would consider Dell (but not need wifi).

mobileministrymagazine.blogspot.com
antoinerjwright.com

RE: eep!

hkklife @ 8/12/2005 3:59:37 PM #

Can Palm beat anyone on price? No---see the LifeDrive & the Treos for an example of that.

Can Palm beat anyone on quality? No---see anything released in the past 4 years for numerous examples of that (either glaring hardware flaws, OS bugs or both)

So what DO they have in their favor presently? The OS.

Take that away and what's left...? Yep, thought so!

RE: eep!

sr4 @ 8/12/2005 4:19:50 PM #

They have the name. Its worth at least $30 000 000.

Surur

RE: eep!

T_W @ 8/12/2005 4:24:32 PM #

>They have the name. Its worth at least $30 000 000.

That reminds me of AOL buying Netscape, reducing it down to just a name and then desecrating the name with a me-too portal and a web browser that uses the IE browser engine.

I guess thats the future of Palm.

Palm salesman, circa 2007 - "Hey remember the Palm Pilot... wasn't that cool and innovative? Well, you should buy our me-too gray box PocketPC's because they have the name Palm on them."

RE: eep!

hkklife @ 8/12/2005 4:49:40 PM #

Look at all of the "golden oldie" electronics/appliance brands that have ended up as "me-too" brands for Asian manufacturers---their only marketable commodity left is how the brand resonates with positive sentiment with the oldtimer crowd and Joe Six-Pack:

Sylvania, Emerson, Rio, Fisher, Westinghouse, GE, Philco, Magnavox (yeah, it's still Philips but they just rebrand cheap Chinese stuff with the Magnavox name), RCA (to an extent), Zenith (again, to an extent). Add Commodore, Atari, etc to that list as well if you want to go international and cover software as well.

That's probably what'll end up happening to Palm eventually.

RE: eep!

sr4 @ 8/12/2005 5:42:55 PM #

Wow, when looked at from afar, these things are actually quite typical, maybe even inevitable. The name and brand has a value, and to recover share holder value a public company may be obliged to sell it, or at least betray its founding ideals (look at poor PalmSource).

Surur

RE: eep!

Gekko @ 8/12/2005 5:54:25 PM #

surur - your wife and kids just called. they want to know why they haven't seen their daddy in 6 months and why he's locked himself in the basement in front of his PC 24/7 patrolling every palm os site known to man.

RE: eep!

sr4 @ 8/12/2005 6:15:15 PM #

:) I'm actually watching Equilibrium (the movie) on my home cinema as we speak. They don't have basements in the UK you know.

Surur

RE: eep!

T_W @ 8/12/2005 6:24:08 PM #

>Wow, when looked at from afar, these things are actually quite
>typical, maybe even inevitable. The name and brand has a value,
>and to recover share holder value a public company may be obliged
>to sell it, or at least betray its founding ideals (look at poor
>PalmSource).

Great. So when will Microsoft be selling a cut-rate version of Linux labelled "Microsft Windows Linux Vista"?

Inevitable, no?

RE: eep!

sr4 @ 8/12/2005 6:27:38 PM #

Of course. When Linux hits 60% of the market, they will too. They will say they are responding to consumer demand. No empire lasts forever.

There is still such a huge font of disbelief and childish faith amongst some POS users. This one is particularly touching.

How long has Cobalt been out?
Do we know what Palm will term "cobalt" at this point?
It seems there is something they didnt like about what Palmsource gave them.
We know they have more "software" engineers than hardware ones despite being a hardware company.
Linux is now in the picture too. Apparently "Palm" (not just Palmsource) is doing work on Linux according to the Podcast..
I contend we may have no idea what Palm has done with Cobalt at this point, and what they are working on for the near future.
There is something we just dont know, happening behind the scenes.
I tell you the wont release a win mob device without great confidence in the future of POS.
Think about it. We lay people know Palm cannot beat Dell, and HP in Win Mob over the long term. We know that there only real Future is with POS. We know the potential message a win mob Palm device sends.
You think they done know all the above?
The one thing that we don't know is Palms strategy in releasing a win rob Treo.
We have no idea how the new Palm Os compares to Win Mob.
We have a tiny price of the puzzle an think they are doomed.
I tell you people, they would never release a wm device with anything like Garnet as the only alternative.
What you all are assuming they are doing is so obviously stupid that the janitor at Palm would know better.
I expect a huge surprise when we see the new POS.

http://www.1src.com/forums/showpost.php?p=843002&postcount=97

Boy is he going to be disappointed.

Surur

RE: eep!

PenguinPowered @ 8/12/2005 9:59:11 PM #

Linux isn't going to ever hit 60% of the (desktop) market share, for a lot of reasons.

Hobby OSes have very vocal support but that does not market share make.

Palm at Tech Ed?

just_little_me @ 8/15/2005 12:43:54 AM #

A bit of Googling just turned this up...

http://www.microsoft.com/australia/events/teched2005/sponsors/default.aspx

JLM.

RE: Palm at Tech Ed?

neuron @ 8/15/2005 2:45:47 AM #

Will they announce the treo 670 offically in Tech Ed?

RE: Palm at Tech Ed?

just_little_me @ 8/15/2005 8:17:43 AM #

Doubt it, that's Tech Ed in Australia... I doubt they'd announce a new product surrounded by kangaroos and crocodiles... Might be more interesting than recent releases, but I still doubt it...

JLM.

I get the hint already!

arielb @ 8/21/2005 10:31:31 PM #

goodbye palm. never got PalmOS 6 off the ground. never got the hardware specs to compete with Dell and HP. come on what's the POINT of Palm if it's just an ipaq clone?
dammit it is just like Amiga and Be Inc and Netscape all over again.

Palm Software on sale