Colligan: Palm Stands Alone

Palm CEO Ed ColliganIn a new interview with Bloomberg, Palm CEO Ed Colligan has again downplayed the prospect of a takeover bid and said that the company is focused on being a successful stand-alone business.

"What we are focused on today is making sure this business is as successful as possible as a stand-alone business," said Colligan. "When you're a public company, there are always people who may or may not be interested in any point of time of owning that asset. We don't control that. If that happens, it happens."

The article also delves into Palm's plans to standardize its Treo production, in order to accelerate the development of new devices and cut costs. Potentially, says Colligan, this could slash development times from two years to nine months. He says new devices built using this method will appear this year, almost certainly referring to the rumoured Treo 755p.

Most interesting of all is speculation from a director of Palm's product lines, Stephane Maes, that the savings from lower production costs will mean cheaper Treos - possibly at the magic $99 (with contract) price point. It's hard to see how that fits with Colligan's hopes for higher margins, however: he states that he wants to lift Palm's operating margin to 10 percent or more, up from approximately 3 percent last quarter.

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Buy my company...PLEASE!

Foo Fighter @ 4/9/2007 12:11:37 PM # Q
"What we are focused on today is making sure this business is as successful as possible as a stand-alone business," said Colligan.

Translation: "We can't find a f*cking buyer! Those jackholes over at Nokia wouldn't even return my phone calls! Motorola slammed the door in my face too. Ed Zander just laughed when I told him our asking price, and made some lewd joke about what I was holding in my "Palm". We did get some solicitations from Bubba's Farm and Tractor Supply, but I think there is some confusion there as the CEO mistakenly believed that we manufacture hand lotion and udder cream. So yeah, we're just going to stick to what we're doing now and pray to God that iPhone doesn't make our products look as obsolete as they really are."

-------------------------------
http://www.pocketfactory.com
http://www.elitistsnob.com

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
SeldomVisitor @ 4/9/2007 2:05:05 PM # Q
Pretty much what I thought, too.

Giggle.

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
freakout @ 4/9/2007 6:57:43 PM # Q
"So yeah, we're just going to stick to what we're doing now and pray to God that iPhone doesn't make our products look as obsolete as they really are."

Oh, please! iPhone is the one that should be praying: praying that people are distracted enough by the shiny sliding menus that they don't notice they're paying 500 (or, if they're really nuts, 600) bucks for a fancy iPod with limited storage and a 2G feature phone with questionable messaging abilities & an even more suspect battery life.

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
JayC3 @ 4/10/2007 3:29:48 AM # Q
Unlike in the US, here in Asia (and maybe also Europe) we are used to paying the full price for the phone. So $500 or $600 USD is actually an average price for a smartphone here. Palm's Treo retails about $766 USD for the 750(v) and $510 for the 680 here. So you can see that Palm's Treo 680 is almost the same price as an iPhone here in Asia. And most of us here do not use the qwerty keyboard. Why? That's because it is very hard to enter chinese/thai/japanese characters using it. Even the 750v is using a 3rd party app to enter chinese/japanese characters using the touchscreen ofcourse.

The iPhone will sell very well here in Asia (come 2008) as the Apple brand is well known and price is may not be much of an issue (if they stick to the $500 and $600 price mark). It is the only phone that I know of that landed the front page of a newspaper when it was announced.

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
ChiA @ 4/10/2007 5:15:34 AM # Q
limited storage and a 2G feature phone with questionable messaging abilities & an even more suspect battery life.

Sounds like you're describing the Treo 680!

The iPhone offers all the features of the 680 (except keyboard) but also provides:

- WI-FI
- 4GB/ 8GB storage for music, photos, videos etc
- 2 Megapixel camera
- the ability to play protected tracks from the iTunes store.

It's funny that someone compares Treos with at most 128 megabytes of memory to the iPhone with at least 4096 megabytes of memory, 32-64 times that of the Treos, yet considers the iPhone to have limited memory.

It's time to take the blinkers off.

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
freakout @ 4/10/2007 5:33:54 AM # Q
As I've repeated ad nauseam lately, by combination of "premium" pricing, Cingular-only availability and US-only availability, the iPhone is not going to be the massive, dominating force the Apple Cultists are so clearly expecting. It will be initially successful at least, simply because of Apple's well-oiled hype machine and respected brand. In order to gain critical mass they'll need to do exactly the same with iPhone as they've done with iPod: spin off cheaper, smaller models. The iPod really started taking off because of two things: (1) Windows compatibility and (2) the introduction of smaller, cheaper iPods in the Shuffle and the Mini.

(2) is a long way off for the iPhone, which isn't even out yet. I don't actually dislike the device: I think it's actually quite cool. But I intensely loathe the sheep-like hype that's been built up around it, when all one needs to do is step back, take a deep breath and look a little harder to see that it is really not the be-all, end-all.

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
freakout @ 4/10/2007 5:33:54 AM # Q
Chia, the unlocked Treo 680 is a hundred bucks cheaper, money with which you could get a 4GB SD card, or if you go eBay, an 8GB one. You also get a bonafide mobile computer which you can install anything you want on.

With the iPhone you get a feature phone, where you can run only Apple-approved software.

WiFi is indeed a good thing, but not essential to a good phone. 2 megapixel camera is good, but experience has taught me that *all* cellphone cameras suck, except those where the camera is the primary focus. and even those pale in comparison to real cameras.

As for the protected iTunes tracks, that's great! ...... if you want to use iTunes. However if you use any of the other online music services - which employ WMA - then you're not gonna be able to load up your iPhone with those, are you? And DRM is dying anyway. EMI's recent announcement was the first nail in the coffin.

Treo vs iPhone = Oranges vs Apples. One is a mobile computer. The other is a feature phone. (Or a fancy iPod.)

P.S. The Treo 680's decidedly average battery life is what makes me question iPhone's non-removable battery. It runs 3 different radios, a wide screen, two different sensors (proximity and tilt) and will be one of the thinnest devices on the market. Something's gotta give, people...

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
SeldomVisitor @ 4/10/2007 6:32:50 AM # Q
> ...With the iPhone you get a feature phone...

Where the features are as programmable as any other computerized phone but the UI is better.

> ...where you can run only Apple-approved software....

That is, it will be as solid as a rock. Sorta like one of these:

-- http://theaesthetic.com/Images/phone2.gif

> ...Treo vs iPhone = Oranges vs Apples. One is a mobile computer.
> The other is a feature phone. (Or a fancy iPod.)...

This is as silly as that first quote up above. Totally bogus.

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
nybble @ 4/10/2007 7:05:17 AM # Q
While I don't want to get into pros/cons of the iPhone (it not being out and all), I want to point out to Tim that the #1 best selling item in amazon electronics is the 30GB ipod, the #8 is the 80GB and the nano all the way down at #15.

my blog: http://comments.deasil.com/">#comments
RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
freakout @ 4/10/2007 6:29:04 PM # Q
^^ Sure, it's the best seller, but that doesn't mean the Nano and the Shuffle don't play a very strong part in maintaining the iPod's overall dominance of the DAP market.

SV:
Where the features are as programmable as any other computerized phone but the UI is better.
Well, if "better" means "prettier", then yes, I suppose that's true. Otherwise, all I see is a phone with no real method for one-handed navigation. Oops.
I don't understand what you mean by "programmable". It's not like you'll get a choice in the software you use. You can choose the background wallpaper...

That is, it will be as solid as a rock.

Great! Good for it! Doesn't mitigate the fact that it doesn't run third-party software, which for many (or me, at least) is the point of owning a smartphone.

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
SeldomVisitor @ 4/10/2007 7:19:08 PM # Q
Didn't we follow this path once before - recently?

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
freakout @ 4/10/2007 7:24:33 PM # Q
Well, I do seem to be repeating myself a lot lately. It's amusing to see how pointing out the iPhone's obvious flaws inevitably results in Apple Cultists coming back and trying to make out like they're not really flaws at all.

I like the iPhone. It looks like a very slick, very cool media player/internet tablet. It doesn't look like a particularly great phone, and it's too expensive and aimed at too limited a market to crush all competition in the same manner as the iPod. That's all I'm saying, folks.

Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
SeldomVisitor @ 4/11/2007 12:36:37 PM # Q
Speaking of iPhone third-party applications:

-- http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/games/scenariopoker.html

RE: Buy my company...PLEASE!
mikecane @ 4/11/2007 2:47:28 PM # Q
Ooh! Thanks for that! Linkswiped ya.

iPhone: The First Game?
http://tinyurl.com/246olr

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What about PDA's

PacManFoo @ 4/9/2007 1:03:14 PM # Q
We are also commited and focused on killing off our handheld buisness. So far we have done a reasonably good job of abandoning our developers and long time users. We have a whole team commited to posting on discussion forums that the PDA is dead and only idiots want to use a touchscreen any longer. Once we have those loyal and patient wacko's out of the picture we can put all our energy towards the trendy customer who buys a device because it's cool at the moment. We can then add additional colors of that device only available if they have a certain cell phone carrier. The funky color thing worked for Crayola why not the Treo. Hey is that a Razzmatazz Timber Wolf Treo?

PDA's Past and Present:
Palm - IIIxe, Vx, M500, M505, Tungsten T, TX
Handspring - Edge, Platinum, Deluxe
Sony - SJ22
Apple - MP2000, MP2100
RE: What about PDA's
VampireLestat @ 4/9/2007 1:53:06 PM # Q
hehe

By the way, still no response to my letter to Colligan and the board of Directors.
I doubt I ever will get a response.

RE: What about PDA's
mikecane @ 4/9/2007 2:57:29 PM # Q
>>>By the way, still no response to my letter to Colligan and the board of Directors.
I doubt I ever will get a response.

My Dear Schmuck reply would have at least been *something*...

Much hugs.

Ew.

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A Tale Of Two Palms

mikecane @ 4/9/2007 3:00:27 PM # Q
This is most significant to me:

>>> Cupertino, California-based Apple, whose iPhone combines its iPod music player with a Web browser, e-mail and phone functions, aims to sell 10 million of the devices in 2008. Palm shipped 2.3 million Treos in fiscal 2006.

By contrast:

>>>Palm's PalmPilot electronic organizer, which preceded the Treo as a breakthrough product, sold more than 1 million units within 18 months of its debut in 1996.

How many Treos were sold in its first 18 months?

iPhone is gonna kill them. It will have the highest sales of *any* phone ever.

RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
freakout @ 4/9/2007 4:20:34 PM # Q
No, it won't. It's too damn expensive!
RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
Foo Fighter @ 4/9/2007 7:22:32 PM # Q
RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
freakout @ 4/9/2007 8:01:13 PM # Q
Mmmm hmmmm. I don't know many high school students with $100 to spare, let alone $500. Sure, teens say they'd be willing to buy one at that price point. How many of them actually have the money to follow through with that willingness, though?

Three reasons iPhone won't be the tsunami that floods the phone market, as Mike's fantasy has it:

1) It's too expensive;
2) It's limited to one carrier only;
3) It's limited to the US only.

Even that report you just linked to doesn't think Apple will hit their 10 million target:

Still, Munster said he's modeling for the Cupertino-based electronics maker to sell just 660,000 iPhones during the 2007 fiscal year ending September and just another 4 million in the proceeding 12 months.



Tim
I apologise for any and all emoticons that appear in my posts. You may shoot them on sight.
Treo 270 ---> Treo 650 ---> Crimson Treo 680

RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
retrospooty @ 4/9/2007 8:33:47 PM # Q
"iPhone is gonna kill them. It will have the highest sales of *any* phone ever."

That is hilarious. Are you trying to be funny or are you really that naive? 8 million phones in 2008? LOL. that is even crazier than Moto's claims of selling similar amounts of Q's in 2007 (yes, remember that flop) at least the Q is cheap... iPhone would likely sell 8 million phones if the price were 1/4 of what it is.

On a serious note, I know the iphone is pretty and has a 2G radio, but will it support exchange active sync to get corp email like a Treo or Win mob device? I have not seen anything claim it will.



RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
Foo Fighter @ 4/9/2007 8:43:53 PM # Q
but will it support exchange active sync to get corp email like a Treo or Win mob device? I have not seen anything claim it will.

Yes it does. Steve Jobs stated MS Exchange support is built-in.

-------------------------------
http://www.pocketfactory.com
http://www.elitistsnob.com

RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
freakout @ 4/9/2007 9:00:21 PM # Q
Specifically, iPhone supports POP or IMAP email - no Exchange Direct Push for you!
RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
retrospooty @ 4/9/2007 9:14:41 PM # Q
"Yes it does. Steve Jobs stated MS Exchange support is built-in."

Thanks for the info. That is a big plus, but no way in hell it sells 8 million in 2008. Like I said, maybe at $199 with no contract, but not $499 w/ 2 years... no way. This is as obsurd as Jobs saying the Mac platform will outsell PC's in 2008.

RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
retrospooty @ 4/9/2007 10:44:10 PM # Q
"Specifically, iPhone supports POP or IMAP email - no Exchange Direct Push for you!"

OK, Foo says yes, you say no. I have only seen POP or IMAP as well, but we could be wrong... If it doesnt at least get you exchange active sync (push or no push) it will flop hard. $500 for a device with no corp email? not


RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
freakout @ 4/9/2007 10:51:55 PM # Q
This is what Jobs had to say during the iPhone keynote:

"It connects to any POP3 or IMAP email -- Yahoo Mail, MS Exchange, Mac Mail... POP3: Gmail, AOL mail, and most ISPs... let's highlight one, Yahoo mail. Today we are announcing Yahoo will offer free push-IMAP email to iPhone customers. This isn't just IMAP, this is push-email, same as a BlackBerry."

Active Sync isn't mentioned one way or the other, but since this is an Apple product and aimed at consumers, I'm going to bet that it won't support it.


RE: A Tale Of Two Palms
retrospooty @ 4/10/2007 11:14:07 AM # Q
OK, I see. It has to at LEAST get MS Exchange email. That is what the world uses, like it or not. It doesnt necesarily need to get the "push" email, but at least standard corporate email, which is 95% MS Exchange. Without that it will flop hard.

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UPDATE: Dell At Center Of Rumor Co. Could Buy Palm

Gekko @ 4/13/2007 2:49:17 PM # Q

UPDATE: Dell At Center Of Rumor Co. Could Buy Palm

April 12, 2007: 01:58 PM EST


(RECASTS headline)

By Donna Fuscaldo and Roger Cheng

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

With speculation swirling as to who would want to buy handheld device maker Palm Inc. (PALM), computer maker Dell Inc. (DELL) has been popping up as a would-be suitor.

Recent talk that Dell would want to buy Palm is being spurred by Dell's decision to no longer sell its Axim handheld computer.

While Dell has the financial clout to make an acquisition of Palm's size, some analysts and investors don't think any sort of deal is imminent. They say Dell, which has historically shied away from big acquisitions, is focused more on turning around the company then getting into the smartphone market via Palm.

"Dell has its hands full with its current problems," said Shebly Seyrafi, an analyst at Caris & Company, which initiated coverage of Dell Thursday with a above average rating. "Dell is focused on right sizing the ship versus undertaking an acquisition like this."

Palm spokeswoman Marlene Somsak declined to comment. Officials at Dell weren't immediately available comment.

Palm, whose shares have risen 27% since hitting a 52-week low late December, has been buoyed by takeover speculation. Handset giants Nokia Corp. (NOK) and Motorola Inc. (MOT) were each believed to have expressed interest in the maker of smartphones, while a group of private equity firms were also said to have been in the mix. Palm's decision to tap Morgan Stanley as an advisor added fuel to the rumor fire. Chief Executive Ed Colligan said recently that the firm has been its banker for many years, but wouldn't comment on whether the company has asked it to do any special projects.

The company, whose line of Treo smartphones commands a small but loyal base of customers, faces competitive pressures from the larger handset makers. Research in Motion Ltd. (RIMM), for example, dominates the market for mobile e-mail devices to corporate customers, while larger players such as Motorola have a wide range of products that Palm can't compete with. Colligan said the company was streamlining its operations in an effort to more quickly put out a less expensive product to the market.

While the smartphone market is expected to see growth, industry watchers wondered why Dell would want to get into that area, given the well heeled competitors and the fact that the company stopped selling its own handheld computer device.

"They just axed the Axim line," said Mark Mowrey, a analyst at Al Frank Asset Management, which owns shares of Dell. Dell buying Palm is "strange to me," said the analyst. Mowrey said it wouldn't make that much sense for Dell to buy Palm since having the actual hardware device may not add too much value when servicing corporate customers. Mowrey did note that Dell competitor Hewlett- Packard Co. (HPQ) has a "somewhat respected" presence in the smartphone market.

Dell, which has been struggling for sometime now, recently launched a restructuring plan which resulted in the ouster of CEO Kevin Rollins and the return of Michael Dell to the helm. The company has said it would look for acquisitions, largely in the services market. Still analysts have been speculating about a host of companies Dell could or may want to buy.

Take Brent Bracelin, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, which earlier this week came out with a laundry list of potential targets for Dell. While Palm landed on the list, Bracelin said that's one of the dozen companies Dell could buy. Bracelin said that Palm isn't the only way for Dell to get into the smartphone market and named High Tech Computer Corp out of Taiwan and Motion Computing, the Texas private handheld device maker as examples of other potential targets.

"The reality is Dell is at the point where the company is looking at several IP technologies," said the analyst. "To say some sort of deal between Palm and Dell is imminent is way premature."

Recently, shares of Dell were trading up 1.6% or 39 cents to $24.63 on volume of 13.5 million shares. Average daily volume is 23.2 million shares. Shares of Palm were recently up 1% or 19 cents to $17.02 on volume of 4.3 million shares.

-By Donna Fuscaldo, Dow Jones Newswires; 704-371-4263; donna.fuscaldo@ dowjones.com

-By Roger Cheng, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2020; roger.cheng@dowjones.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-12-07 1358ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200704121358DOWJONESDJONLINE001033_FORTUNE5.htm



RE: UPDATE: Dell At Center Of Rumor Co. Could Buy Palm
numlock @ 4/13/2007 2:55:54 PM # Q
Give it a rest, these ANALysts aren't fooling anyone anymore with this.
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