Comments on: Palm Hires Chief Operating Officer, More Cutbacks Expected

Palm Inc. announced today it has hired Todd Bradley, formerly executive vice president of global operations at Gateway Inc., to be executive vice president and chief operating officer for the Solutions Group. In addition, the company said channel sell-through has continued to improve as the company's new line, the m500 series, is selling well in the United States and has just begun selling internationally.

Bradley's appointment is part of the company's actions to solidify Palm's leadership in the mobile computing marketplace and to return to profitability. Key elements of the plan include bolstering the company's management, reducing costs, and aggressively developing innovative products.

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Oh no,not another Industry reject. Did Ted Waitt fire him??

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 3:54:21 PM #
You get what you pay for.

Hmmmm Gateway...oh yeah...

MadMax @ 6/1/2001 5:03:15 PM #
Gateway; they're the loosers with the computers you go to buy at their stores, and they send you home with nothing. "Oh, no sir. We don't actually have computers here. ...Yes sir, I realize they do next door at the CompUSA, and BestBuy across the street. But, We'll ship it to you in just a few days."
What an idiotic approach to selling. That was one store I'd never go back to...I suppose my next Palm will come in a cow patty box too.


RE: Hmmmm Gateway...oh yeah...
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 8:32:12 PM #
Gateway is a direct retailer like Dell who opened up stores to make its name better known. They have been around just as long as Dell. Also, I think the way they have things set up at their Gateway Country Stores is excellent. This way, they do not have any inventory that they have to worry about, plus every user gets the exact computer they want. And if you wanted a custom-made computer at Best Buy or CompUSA, you would have to wait too.

Gateway aint no Dell
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 9:01:11 PM #
nt

RE: Hmmmm Gateway...oh yeah...
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 1:03:11 AM #
Damn right they aren't.

Great, just plain frickin great.

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 7:31:34 PM #
I have to say that hiring an idiot to run a failing company is a bad idea. What are they going to do next? Hire former Apple management? Why not the people invented new coke?

RE: Great, just plain frickin great.
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 1:03:34 AM #
They should get the XFL people. Hell, they could hire Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura to do commercials!

RE: Great, just plain frickin great.
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 11:58:57 PM #
Yeah, you're right. Apple has never come out with an original product. They are always copying Dell and Gateway with products like the iMac, built-in wireless networking, firewire...etc. Get real.

Another sign that Palm is about to go belly up

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 8:34:09 PM #
It's sad to see a company like Palm slowly die right before your eyes. Incompetence is doing to Palm what Microsoft dreamed would happen - killing off a company with a previously innovative product that once had the potential to achieve a level of popularity never seen before among computer peripherals.

Sony, your opportunity to take Palm over will soon come.

RE: Another sign that Palm is about to go belly up
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 9:02:11 PM #
Unfortunately, you're probably right.

Simple Stock/Company Valuation Lesson
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 9:05:46 PM #
Palm, Inc. - the company is NOT CHEAP even at $6/Share. Palm's P/E (Stock Price relative to Earnings) is still VERY high at 66. Compare this with MSFT at 30 or INTC at 18 P/E. I would be shocked if Sony or Apple or anyone else will pay for an over-valued stock/company. Palm's P/E should probably be no more than 1/3 of what it is now - which would make it 22. That means the stock may be reasonably valued at $2/share. It still could head a long way down. And Palm may have de-valued itself by negotiating the shitty OS $9/Unit licensing deal. Any company who considers buying Palm has to contemplate inheriting this shitty deal and poor leveraging of the Palm OS.

RE: Another sign that Palm is about to go belly up
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 9:31:17 PM #
Many analysts exect Palm's stock to sink to the $1.50 - $2 range over the next two months. Their smoke and mirrors attempt to hide their financial failings will come up and bite them again the next tine they announce their quarterly performance.

Given the stock volatility, I would recommend staying far way from Palm, even at $2. You might end up having penny stock by the end of the year.

RE: Another sign that Palm is about to go belly up
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 1:15:56 AM #
Sony has made an offer to buy Palm for $1.50 per share. Apparently Palm has one week to decide whether or not to accept the offer.

That's BS
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 7:30:01 AM #
.

La-hu-Tser!!!!!!!!!!

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 9:34:03 PM #
I returned my M505 today and bought a Sony. The manager at Office Depot said he had quite a few M505's returned. I se alot of returns at Frys too. So I don't think the M5XX series is going to save Palm. When did you ever see a new Palm model sell at a dsicoutn right from the start? Never before.

RE: La-hu-Tser!!!!!!!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 9:38:42 PM #
Palm appears to be screwed. They're doing everything they can to make it look like their sales are better this quarter because they realize that more bad news will be the kiss of death. Too bad the m500 and m505 won't sell unless they cut at least another $50 off the list. Expect to see $250 m500s and $300 m505s within two or three months. The only problem is that Palm won't have a replacement model available before Christmas and was depending on good sales of the m505 (at the original list price) to keep them in cash until early 2002.

RE: La-hu-Tser!!!!!!!!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 12:54:18 AM #
Talk about discounts, some online retailers are selling the 505 for LESS than the visor prism!!

Six Sigma ?? @#$%@#$%

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 10:54:11 PM #
Holy......

Saddling a struggling company with Six Sigma bloat isn't something to brag about. This is indeed bad.

Bunch of whiners

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 11:05:22 PM #
I visit this site quite often and usually it is very informative. Informative, not only in editorial content but with the content of the posts as well. But lately, the place seems to be consumed by a bunch of whining, negative commentary which only has the remote possibility of containing useful information by sheer accident.

Thinking back over the time that I have owned a Palm and been a frequent visitor to these types of sites, I have come to the conclusion that the release of any new Palm device (from any company) is like a rallying call for all of the whining, no-life geeks to run to the nearest internet connection and inflict useless self-aggrandizing commentary on the world.

I remember when the Palm V first came out and the whining and complaining that went on then. The buttons on the device were all wrong, the backlight was terrible, 2MB was not enough memory, using a fixed rechargeable battery was a big mistake, the screen was too small. The IIIc came out and the whiners said the color was terrible, the screen was too pixelated and too bright. The VII was released and the whiners cried, it does not allow full access to the web, web clipping was not viable, the device was to big, etc. The m100 was released and the whiners screamed, the device is ugly, it does not innovate and it is a step backwards for the platform. And each of these was going to be the swan song of the company.

As to Handspring, the whining that went on when it came out was of near legendary proportions. The launch was terrible, the customer service was terrible, the product was terrible, springboards are too expensive and a device with a proprietary expansion technology was a mistake and the company was dead in the water. The Prism was released and the whiners declared, it is a brick, it is pixelated, what was Handspring thinking. The edge is released and the whiners say it is too little, too late, it will never sell, it has no appeal and becomes to bulky with the springboard slot attached thus the audience it was built for will not buy it.

As my post is getting over long, I will just say that TRG and Sony have been the subject similar whining.

Amazingly, time cures all whining. The m100/105 sold like the dickens, the Palm V/Vx is the most popular Palm device ever, Handspring is still moving along, Sony has learned and added no features to their device line and TRG/HandEra continues to pushed the platform forward.

It seems to me that there is now such a wide variety of Palm devices on the market that there is one to appeal to every taste. So please do us all a favor, quit the whining and just enjoy the fact that the Palm platform continues to grow.

As to Palm's current problems, we know what growth is often accompanied by pain. As the "palm economy" grows, the keeper of the light, as it were, will have to make some changes and adapt. And not surprisingly, each new announcement of the efforts being made to adapt and change and respond to missteps is met with whining and negative commentary.

Will Palm ever be able to do anything to quiet the whiners, the naysayers and the forecasters of doom, I doubt it. It certainly appears, from were I sit, that Palm (or any of the licensees) can do nothing to make you folks happy.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 12:00:09 AM #
Wow...just hired and Todd Bradley has already making his presence felt by calling us a bunch of whiners!!

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 12:12:01 AM #
Many feel the same way. I have been seeing this negativity for as long as sites like these exist. I have come to the conclusion that if some can't dig up info on Palm, They'll make it up. There is not one company that could not be broken with enough economic pressure placed on it. Six months before, many people wished that they had owned stock in tech companies. Today is a different story. And I would have a hard time NOT buying the V form factor. Its a good product and a great operating system; no one will convince me or many others that its not a great device. Save your energy-You will need it to carry around windows
devices or are you doing that already?

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 12:28:46 AM #
I have been reading a lot on this site and other as well and i have to say....Your right!!! And there's just to much negtive feed back from people that are never happy.......And to say am very very happy with my M505 and i hope palm get's thing's back in order....All the units (PDA ) out on the market will always have something better are worse on them....Some will work for people and other will not...So you if love what you got then stay with it... and if your unhappy with the PDA's out ....Then find the one that you will love and stick with it...Dont put people down because you feel that the PDA that they love are like suck's are what ever...It not your time are money that is comeing out of your pocket....

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 1:26:01 AM #
I have to disagree. Yes there are people on this board who have probably place too much expectation on a handheld before it was released. After the actual product comes out, those people usually voice their disappointment.

HOWEVER... in my opinion, the m500 and especially the m505 is not the case. Yes, the expectation of the m505 was high, but the negativity generated towards the m505 was far beyond simple failed expectation. The negative responses far, far, outweigh the positive responses. These criticisms are simply people "whining", these were legitimate complaints.

Most of the criticisms were centered on the poor quality of the screen, but it goes beyond that. Many people are criticizing that overall, Palm lacked innovation!!! Most if not all of the m500's and m505's features were lifted from Palm licensees. For example, 16-bit color was from Handspring and the SD slot technology was from SONY.

Now with the release of the HandEra and SONY Clie, people are realizing how much better the Palm OS can be. Compare with the Clie, the m505 is simply not worth the price. Now before, you people go on how sleek and small the m505 is, just realize that the Clie is only .16" thicker. That's roughly a stack of 15 notecards. If you think that's enoungh to justify giving up all the additional features of the Clie for the m505, you should go look at how thick 15 notecards are again.

Basically, people do not want to pay the price of a steak and only get a Big MAC.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 1:41:16 AM #
I couldn't agree more. It's difficult not to get annoyed with some of these geeks, whining about one or another model missing some or someother feature that they want, and therefore in their minds, the whole world wants. They somehow take this personal and feel compelled to spew one baseless conjecture or false fact after the other, not shying away even from personal attacks when Michael Mace takes time from his busy schedule to enlighten the folks visiting boards like this one one these very issues. These people should attempt to get a life, or buy a PocketPC so they will stop poisoning these forums.

Still love the Vx form factor
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 2:04:40 AM #
I, too, have been reading this site for quite a while. I am a former Vx owner who loved the machine and used it 5-10 times hourly in a busy clinical practice. I switched to a Visor Prism which the clinic purchased for me, mostly for the added memory (more medical textbooks) and for the wow factor of color. I have missed the Vx daily.... I really liked the size and over-all solid feel. It performed flawlessly day after day. I almost never saw a software error or crash and never lost data even when one occurred. I support about 21 visors in the clinic and weekly have a machine returned to me with a software crash leaving it empty of all prior data. My Prism has a cool color screen that I have used as a flashlight when returning to a dark house after a long night in the hospital. Yes, my co-workers view the color screen and comment on its cool factor. I am often trying to look up phone numbers while driving and can't see a thing on the screen -- Big detriment. Also, routinely drop the unit out of my shirt pocket since it is so much bigger and heavier. I have missed the Vx every since I got the Prism and would gladly return to a monochrome screen to regain the form factor. I just need more memory. I have anxiously awaited the m505's release and read reviews and comments on this forum as gospel. Unfortunately, I have not been able to see a working model yet. I am encouraged by the recent shifting tide with actual m505 owners sharing their experiences. Yes, there are other Palm OS manufacturers pusing the envelope in areas such as sound and graphics, but I continue to need a bunch of textbooks easily accessible and viewable under a variety of conditions. I think that this is Palm's roots and they have done a pretty good job at continuing to meet us where we need them. I anticipate pawning my Prism off on a co-worker and investing in Palm's newest device in the very near future.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 2:51:35 AM #
I am in the medical field also, actually the last year of a Peds. residency. I needed a handheld for mostly medical textbooks and patient tracker. I have to disagree with the doctor above, I have tried the m505, but the dimness of the screen was simply unacceptable for one thing, and the low resolution actually makes text harder to read. I just got the Clie, and this little machine is fantastic!! The screen is bright, especially in dimly lit patient rooms. The increase resolution makes text so much earier to read, similiar to reading text from a laptop. The Clie is not that much bigger than an m505, actually it's design actually feels more comfortable to hold. The Clie fits nicely in my white coat pocket.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 7:43:14 AM #
It appears that being small and being color is where it is at, and that is where I am going. If you have had a V , the 505 is going to be better. The same size is now going to show you color as well as more memory. Memory is like money-you can never get enough of it. I will not have trouble at nite seeing my Palm. Yes the edge is thin, but not small enough. I just tried at Best Buy to buy a 505, but they were sold out. The sale person told me that when they come in; they quickly go out. Beware what you read online-you don't know a person's agenda.

We are not whining, we are simply holding Palm accountable.
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 8:28:36 AM #
We are holding Palm's feet to the fire and we have a right to be disappointed with a new hyped product offering that does not meet the innovation standard advancement or quality level set by the competition. And Palm better take heed, because sooner or later, if they don't get their act together, we'll ALL be using PocketPC's whether we like it or not. Anyway, stop your annoying preaching.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 9:48:21 AM #
We whine becasue we're passionate!!

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 10:44:13 AM #
Save your passion for someone that wants to hear it. I would much rather hear from one who thinks the glass is half full. Besides,what could you say to the company that they have not already thought about themselves. Do you really think that everyone associated with Palm are saying to each other, "OOPS...what do we do now." Many tech companies are fighting to stay in the game. Many companies are sick, but no dead. So let's stop singing the suicide songs and start contributing somethng positive.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 11:31:40 AM #
Quit whining about people whining. Its do nothing "zen of Palm" idiots like you that run Palm and are running it into the ground. Palm is in big, big trouble. They may not make it. They have been gouging us with high prices and little to no innovation for years and now they are being overtaken by their own licensees and by Microsoft. So there is plenty to "whine" and be "negative" about you schmuck. Many of us saw this coming and have been saying so for awhile. Now alot of people are saying it.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 12:00:47 PM #
I am the original poster of this comment and I was actually very enthused by the commentary in response which was very thoughtful, even those that did not agree with the general premise.

I had not intended on posting any further comment until I got to the comment that used the words "idiot" and "schmuck" to describe me. This individual has chosen (probably unintentionally) to illustrate my point far more eloquently than my original post could. Under any circumstances could this be considered useful information worthy of being shared with the community that this site has worked so hard to cultivate?

In my original post I sought to refrain from stating my personal preference of Palm device as I thought it was irrelevant to the issue I was attempting to address. But now, (since I am here anyway) I would like to add my two cents to the comments that have followed.

I own a Palm m505 and am very happy with it. I am familiar with all of the other Palm devices and the one that I prefer is the m505. Granted, I have not seen the new Clie but its additional features hold no allure for me. For my money, the m505 has the best combination of features to suit my needs. I am an attorney (I just know I am going to regret saying that) and have to wear a business suit every work day and prefer to carry my Palm in the inner breast pocket of my suit. As a result, the form of the Palm V was perfect for me. I decided that I was not going to upgrade until there was a Palm device that offered color and had additional storage in the Palm V form factor. The m505 fits the bill. It works for me and I love the device. In my opinion the screen is definitely better than the screen on the Palm V I was using just a few weeks ago and is useable under a much wider variety of lighting conditions. And I have got to tell you, that every geek and non-geek that sees the thing it action is amazed and impressed. Is the screen the best color screen on the market today in a handheld, probably not, and I don't care. The device does what I need it to do. My only real disappointment is that the implementation of the expansion slot is not seamless but I remain confident that once the developer community gets into supporting it this issue will be minimized if not completely resolved. It may take some time, the same way it took some time for developers to support color. I can be patient and remarkably, the programs have already started to come out, so maybe I won't have to be too patient.

Ultimately, my needs may be different from your needs and a different Palm device may be in order for you. To each his own. From were I sit, the Palm market is better because there is more choice and variety amongst the devices. Palm, the company, is taking one approach to advancing the platform, Sony another, Handspring another, HandEra another and Symbol yet another. Each one gives us the ability to chose the device that runs the Palm OS that suits use. To me that can't possibly be a bad thing. Would you rather return to the days when the only Palm device available was the Pilot 1000?

Oh, and please stay passionate, I know that I will.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 12:35:07 PM #
Palm is afflicted by "bunker" mentality. They thought only they knew what customers want and can get away with all this palm economy, zen simplicity and marketing jingle. But the rest of the world moves on and innovate. bigger screen, finer resolution to prevent grids, adding audio capability, tweaking the OS facilitating better add on memory, etc etc... Meanwhile Palm is trying to push more of the same. yeah right.... like that's gonna happen. at least change the design for gawd sake.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 12:42:44 PM #
One thing is clear about people who says m505 is better than everything else including Clie n710.

if you ask: have you actually seen the screen? and have a hands on experiance even for a short period?

the answer is always, ALWAYS,.. no.

My observation has been true so far.

RE: Bunch of whiners
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 2:00:31 PM #
You can always tell when one is losing the battle of words: they reach into their limited vocabulary to pull out personal insults. Its hard to comprehend why one thinks that whining will get them anywhere. Maybe they still live with parents at home and whining still works.

Who's Todd Bradley?!?!?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/1/2001 11:53:15 PM #
And why is everyone bashing the poor guy. Please explain, I don't know who he is.

RFA
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 11:54:29 AM #
RFA

Great!

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/2/2001 4:27:45 PM #
I think it's great that Palm is bringing in new management to get the company into shape.

It's amazing to read some of the responses of people who are still bitching about the m505's screen.

Look guys, every pda has tradeoffs...the clie has a great display, can play mp3's, higher resolution, but it's only 256 colors (and it supports the memory stick).

the m505 supports 65,000 colors, but it's low res, and a slim form factor, and it's supporting SD/MMC cards.

For me, looking at all of the features of the available palm os pdas, I prefer the the m505. I own one and I don't regret my purchase for a minute - I also own a prism which has been relegated to being a doorstop...

i think the clie, and the handera unit, are great and they're highlighting features we'll see in future palm pda's.

Rather than bitching, look at the positive - we have a choice wrt which PALM OS PDA we purchase. This diversification is only going to help the PDA market grow...

RE: Great! BUT WAIT!!!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 12:02:49 AM #
>the clie has a great display, can play mp3's, higher
>resolution, but it's only 256 colors (and it supports
>the memory stick).

The limits of the 256 color is the software, the Palm OS 3.5. The Clie has a separate graphic controller chip, the MediaQ (MQ-1100) chip that will support 320x320 resolution and 16-bit colors. Therefore, once SONY release their Palm OS 4.0 which supports 16-color, the Clie will have 320x320 resolution and 16-bit color display!!! How nice is that?

Yeah, the Clie supports the memory stick, and so will the next Motorola ARM processors!!!

So what else can you justify getting the m505 for? The form-factor? Please!!! That argument is getting too old, the Clie is only 0.16 inches thicker than the m505. I can't see any justification for giving up everything that the Clie provides for 0.16 inches!!!

Another note...people are saying that they love the Palm V form factor, well you know that the m505 is actually 0.10 inches THICKER than the original Palm V. I don't hear people complaining about that!!!



RE: Great!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 12:51:25 AM #
While I agree that the CLIE N710C makes the m505 look like a piece of crap (it is) even the CLIE would probably be slow if it had to do 16 bit color in addition to having the High-Resolution screen.

RE: Great!
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 2:17:45 AM #
Actually, what the SONY did was assign all the graphic processing functions to the separate MediaQ chip. This graphic controller chip will handle the increase to 16-bit color, so there will be no noticable slow-down of the clie main processor.

Read more about the MediaQ chip here:

http://www.thecubicle.com/mix_mingle/sockets/archive/jan/mediaq.htm


RE: Great!
Midknyte @ 6/4/2001 12:08:35 PM #
The new Clie is not slow, per se. I played with one and found it to be as fast as or faster than the Vx, but not as fast and responsive as the M505.

As to the "What does the M505 have other than form factor?" - Two words, "Wireless Modem". The Clie will not become an M505 killer until if/when this is available.

In light of having to re-invest in all peripherals (Thanks Palm!) with my next handheld and the desire for mp3 and wireless capabilities in the "SAME!" device, the HP Jornado is looking ever more attractive...


Gateway FIRED this guy!!!

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/3/2001 7:11:00 PM #

http://www.thestreet.com/tech/hardware/1448690.html


OK, now fire Satjiv Chahil...

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/4/2001 11:41:06 AM #
...completely instead of just taking half his responsibilities away.

STOP FIGHTING

Azureguy @ 6/5/2001 10:40:27 AM #
Ok, that's it, can't people read? THIS IS PALM INFOCENTER! Not CLIE, HANDERA, OR ACER (for variety!) INFOCENTER! This site is devoted to Palm OS systems! They all run it, we love it! If you want to argue over what is better, go elsewhere. No more bashing!! Every PDA has positive aspects and negatives, so stop fighting over them. Because when it comes down to basics, they're all Motorola processors running Palm OS. (Kinda like black and white people!! We're all people, right?)
shutup. the fighting is the fun part.
I.M. Anonymous @ 6/5/2001 6:41:08 PM #
.

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