Palm Inc. Announces Lower Q4 Revenue Outlook

They are refering to an overall drop in demand for all handheld computers not just palm branded models.
-Ryan

I think there should be some resignations at Palm...no, wait a second, all the good people are gone already so those who are still around actually want to sink with the ship!

Sony isn't killing Palm. Want the facts? Get it from http://brighthand.com/newsite/features/marketshare.html
Palm is doing just fine.

Oh yes, Palm Inc. is losing within the Palm OS market! The article says that Palm OS has increased its market share when compared with other handheld OSes (such as PocketPC and all its versions). It is not saying that Palm Inc. has increased it's own market share.

In fact, Sony has surpassed Handspring as No.2 Palm OS device manufacturer for the first time in March. And that means it is taking its march towards the top if Palm does not wake up soon.

Eric Benhamou made a statement that blames a soft market for handhelds as the cause of poor sales at Palm is downright lying. According to ALL the research and stats companies (NPD, Gartner, IDC) it all points that the Palm OS has increased it's market share or are taking the larger share of the market. Aren't CEO's like that taken out to the courtyard and shot? Especially after Enron? Especially when their subsidiary PalmSource is able to maintain and increase market share despite new competition from Microsoft?

No wonder their shares are falling like May showers.

In the c|net article an analyst made a good observation about Palm Inc. They have not been able to come up with innovative products - just tweaks to existing ones. It pains me to see Palm (the hardware) slowly dying. Despite their lead, if they do not reinvent their hardware they will die at their own altar.

>>Eric Benhamou made a statement that blames a soft market for handhelds as the cause of poor sales at Palm is downright lying. According to ALL the research and stats companies (NPD, Gartner, IDC) it all points that the Palm OS has increased it's market share or are taking the larger share of the market.

You guys are such morons. I wish some days the iunternet was never invented because now every idiot has a podium. Sigh.

Here we go: Sale for all PDAs are down. Palm OS share of those sales is up - BUT THE OVERALL NUMBER OF UNITS SOLD IS DOWN. Yeah - Palm Inc (the hardware guys) is losing share to the liscensees - but he's not LYING by saying that sales are down because PDA sales are down. you guys have such a juvenile view of things. He is explaining why they haven't met their predicted targets. Those original targets would have already assumed a loss of Palm OS share - nothing on expected their. Sure Sony is doing well and nabbed another couple of percentage points (BTW i like Sony and own a beautiful new NR70). BUT - this isn't nearly the problem that overall PDA sales drop is.

PDA market is not growing as fast as it used to be.
But in fact it is still growing.

I think when the new market share come out, Palm's
share will be down, while Sony keeps moving up.

Gee. A guy who buys a Sony NR tell me differently?
At least I bought a M515. :-)
It is guys like you who buy Sony instead of Palm that causes this problem.

"Sony is struggling to be on an even field with Handspring at best."

Do you really think Sony is struggling? Do you really think Sony has diverted even 1/10 of their resources toward the clie? Have you ever seen a commercial for a clie?

Don't get me wrong I like the clie but to Sony these units are trivial. If Sony were trying to push the clie it would have name brand recognition in a matter of weeks. Spiderman and Green Goblin would have been using clies.

By no means do I think, as some do, that Sony should buy Palm or would even want to. But do not fool yourself into thinking Sony has even entered the fray. The clie is now nothing more than an experiment.

Slow down my foot.

what do you expect? people will keep buying same old stuff, rehash of V/Vx?

Of course sooner or later the market will tapper off. That's what Sony is learning, keep introducing new model with some sort of compelling feature. At least you can claim it's a new and intereting handheld to own.

The "why do you need that" philosophy finally bit them in the ass!

>"First of all a forum is for EVERYONE to participate in, and yes, including morons sometimes. But to think you have the monopolistic right to YOUR moronic viewpoint, there will never be a thing called "forum"."<

So, to prove your point that the forum is for everyone, you tell someone who expressed their opinion to shut up?

Kind of hypocritical, isn't it?

Except people still care about Palm OS.

Once Palm OS is seperated. I don't think people care
about this Palm anymore. :-(

Looking at it, with the hardware (Palm) and software (PalmSource) now officially split to 2 different ones, the spotlight is turn to what Palm itself will come out. With better or on par with its other same Palm OS competitors.

From CNet Asia, Palm Singapore has toned down its usual many marketing events compared to last year. Event like Communicasia being one of the big event to be held in June 2002, Palm is not in at all.

Why would Sony want to acquire Palm - what value would be added. None!

I can't believe what you saying. Do you have any idea what you are talking about. I hope you have at least half a brain.

Sony buy palm?
Why?
What value is left at Palm?
The Zen?
Will somebody knowledgable pls step forward and tell the eager audience what remains more worth than a brezel making palm more attractive than - lets say a halve eaten cheesburger.

Benhanoutchi is still by far overpriced with a apple and a egg

To the last guy who replied and said Palm needs Sony-
That's pretty funny that you can say that Palm needs Sony to keep their head above the water. Yo dumb*** what kind of OS would Sony use if there was no Palm??? If they bought out Palm and then claimed the OS and the company, there's another problem! Wheres the competition? Handspring? Don't make me laugh. I already laughed too much looking at the Treo 90 trying to be an ugly, overpriced mirror image of the m130. With just Sony and PPC (and a couple other companies), prices would enter close to the thousands for a mid-high end device.
So Palm needs Sony right???
Why???
Seems like Palm is doing a good job sitting on 3/4 of the entire handheld marketshare. Do they really need Sony to sell the OS to anybody? When somebody enters into the market looking for a handheld but don't have a lot to spend, do you think they like the Sony pricetags??? No, it's either the m100 series or the visor series. One more thing I would like to point out is that whenever one Sony comes out, a better replacement comes out in another 3 months. If I bought a top of the line handheld like a Sony NR-70V for $600, I would like it to stay on top for at least a half of a year. I'm sure all you guys who bought the NR are mighty happy right now. Let's see how happy you guys will be after OS 5. ARM!

Ed;
I'm thinking we need a slashdot like moderation system...

"Well, another interpretation of this so-called downturn in demand can be explained by market saturation.

Most people who want PDAs or handhelds already have them at this point."

This is probably true. If you are right then Sony's attempts to garner consumer interest may be more sucessful than Handera and Palm's attempts to corner the business sector. Marketed properly an arm based machine that will let people carry games, pictures, home movies, vcd and dvds and mp3s can be a killer (once battery and price issues are squared away). When's the last time someone suggested that the market was saturated with cd players and tvs? If you love Palm OS you should not have a problem with Palm and its sisters marrying their PIM functions to multimedia.

"If you want to play games, then a Gameboy Advanced is the cheaper and better way to go."

Why do people keep saying this? A gameboy is great for my kids but the screen is godawful by the standards of a Palm user. If Palmsource comes through with some of what they have intimated, someone will be able to build a decent gaming unit based on the Palm OS. Remember the turbografx express? A machine like that with SEGA's gaming API and Palm OS would be awe inspiring (once battery and pricing issues are resolved).

Down turn my foot. The entire PDA market is projected to grow 15-20%. Sony is growing, PPC is growing.

How many more V/Vx/m505/m515 can the market take? more of the same stuff obviously won't sell.

"This is probably true. If you are right then Sony's attempts to garner consumer interest may be more sucessful than Handera and Palm's attempts to corner the business sector."

Don't know about that. consumer interest is still restricted by "why do I need that". Yet when businesses are more often equipping staff with them like mine, you have a market that continues to grow. And the question of "why do I need that" is answered by management with "Because I said so", or "because it's how you get parts X, Y, and Z of your job done".
Tools for business will continue to be an important revenue portion for Palm, HandEra and Symbol IMO.