Survey Shows Palm Demand Lacking
The results of ChangeWave's most recent consumer smartphone research paints a bleak picture for the current webOS market. Their survey of over 4,000 prospective smartphone purchasers, showed poor prospects for the Palm line and uncovered a concerning lack of demand for future devices.
Overall the pollsters found that interest in smartphones is at an all time high with rising numbers of respondents planning on a near term purchase. ChangeWave found is that most of the current demand is being driven by the success of the iPhone and various Android powered HTC devices at the expense of RIM, Palm and Motorola.
On customer satisfaction Palm fared third overall with 34% of current smartphone owners saying they were very satisfied with their device. However this was quite a large margin behind the iPhone, which tallied a 73% very satisfied percentage. Most troubling for Palm was that nearly none of the respondents planned on purchasing a Palm branded phone within the next 90 days, down from just 3% during the first half of the year.
The full results of the survey and analysis can be read at ChangeWave.
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RE: Palm - I would be a pallbearer
I wouldn't blame Wifi solely on Palm. The carriers were heavily against it! In fact the first phone that had Wifi had it disabled by the carrier (Could have been a Samsung phone on Verizon). Also Wifi will kill your battery.
RE: Palm - I would be a pallbearer
webOS is Palm's delivered innovation after Palm OS. Palm Pre or Palm Pre Plus has built-in wifi.
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With great power comes great responsiblity.
RE: Palm - I would be a pallbearer
Not surprising
All the statements from HP indicate that they are going to increase the investment in Palm and webOS and webOS devices. However, this takes some time to ramp up. I would bet on a new high-end Pre replacement smartphone by end of 4Q (along with major webOS update) and a lot of new devices in 2011. A Palm designed/HP manufactured tablet is probably a given around 4Q 2010 or 1Q2011.
RE: Not surprising
Clearly that is not happening and Palm was purchased for its intellectual property. HP's CEO famously has said exactly that. Web OS will live on (printers not withstanding apparently) in the same way that the iPaq brand has. Which means it's there for the long time devotees, but it doesn't warrant remotely enough market share to warrant real innovation in HP's eyes.
Barring an incredibly visionary and dynamic executive from HP that is connected and respected enough to lobby for the Platform, Web OS will continue to stagnate and become as relevant as most of HP's previous acquisitions.
It's sad. Palm's most recent iteration, that of the Pre and Web OS truly had the capability to provide the best of all worlds in the mobile device world. Palm just lacked the muscle to make that vision a reality, especially in an increasingly cluttered market. While HP certainly has size, they haven't captured the technological zeitgeist since computing took place primarily on the desktop level. I don't see their culture changing just because they purchased the Web OS. They want to integrate that IP into their existing strategy, not make Web OS the platform from which they reinvent themselves.
I always hated the "Palm is dead" crap that has existed since the days of the Microsoft entering the handheld space. To me however, this is as close as it gets to dead (ironically, once the company is a part of technological behemoth such as HP). Palm isn't dead, and it will now never fully 'die' as long as there's a market for mobile devices. Rather it will go into zombie status into the future.
RE: Not surprising
Having a new device come out in 4Q won't hurt. They need to have something ready to come out during this years X-Mass rush.
HP needs a device that will be an upgrade over the Palm Pre Plus. They need an device that is bigger, looks sexy like the Pre but can do everything that the EVO can do and a little more. It also needs to come witj lots of applications available. Having weOS2 with major changes would help as well as aggressive marketing.
However they are going to need a kick ass device and soon.
Chance Favors the Prepared Mind.
RE: Not surprising
HP/Palm didn't have the talent to compete before and they sure don't have it now. and the competition is so, so far ahead.
Damn the Borg Hive Queen
RE: Damn the Borg Hive Queen
She was part of it but the real reason they went down the toilet so fast was the decision to walk away from an established developer community and thousands of apps and great pims and instead start making zen toys shaped like pebbles for some unknown market segment. In other words, some genius at Palm screwed the pooch!
Gary
Tech Center Labs
www.talestuff.com
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RE: Damn the Borg Hive Queen
RE: Damn the Borg Hive Queen
NONE of the ads highlighted what the Pre could do or why people would want it. FAIL!
RE: Damn the Borg Hive Queen
gmayhak wrote:
LMAO!
She was part of it but the real reason they went down the toilet so fast was the decision to walk away from an established developer community and thousands of apps and great pims and instead start making zen toys shaped like pebbles for some unknown market segment. In other words, some genius at Palm screwed the pooch!Gary
It was sad to leave behind the some of the apps and Palm certainly failed to carry forward much of what was good about their PIM apps. I liked webOS so much I could forgive all of that.
But I couldn't get past the lagging hardware. So I place equal blame on launching with a device who's specs were barely average on Day 1 and well below average inside of 6 months. And their second device was spec'd out even lower. So here we are a year later with no successor to the Pre. Meanwhile HTC is putting forth killer Android devices on multiple carriers at a stunning pace. Now add Samsung and Moto to that list. Is it any wonder Palm/HP can't get any attention?
Put webOS on EVO-like hardware and I will be back.
Sharp Wizard->Palm IIIx->Casio EM-500->Dell Axim x5->Sprint Mogul->Sprint Treo Pro->Sprint Palm Pre->Sprint EVO
Graffiti on Android
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2010/07/15/access-offers-graffiti-as-freeware-for-android/
No idea if it is the original or that lousy Graffiti 2.
RE: Graffiti on Android
Sharp Wizard->Palm IIIx->Casio EM-500->Dell Axim x5->Sprint Mogul->Sprint Treo Pro->Sprint Palm Pre->Sprint EVO
RE: Graffiti on Android
Worst - virtual keyboard with small keys.
Bad - non-slide-out keyboard
OK - slide-out keyboard
Better - virtual keyboard with big keys
Best - Grafitti (but for capacitive touch, you probably need full screen access, so you'd have to find a way to toggle back and forth between grafitti mode that wasn't too cumbersome)
Palm I Great
RE: Palm I Great
I still want the next Web OS Device
I would however expect Apples number to come down somewhat with the iPhone 4 reception fiasco.
webOS- Timing killed it
Maybe if it had come out before Android it might have had better chance to at least secure a #2 position with a little momentum to hopefully make further gains with V 2.0.
If you think it's only advertising that separates Apple and Palm, well...
RE: webOS- Timing killed it
RE: webOS- Timing killed it
http://www.digitalcomicsapp.com/files/lol/eminemiphonebandaid.png
Hey, abosco, you getting one of those?
RE: webOS- Timing killed it
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/23/apple-takes-on-droid-x-with-latest-smartphone-video/
Tech Center Labs
www.talestuff.com
www.iTalentProductions.com
RE: webOS- Timing killed it
Apple becomes a bigger crybaby, attacks Droid X
http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-opinion/50805-apple-becomes-a-bigger-crybaby-attacks-droid-x
>>>Apparently Apple still needs to feel better about itself after its iPhone 4 press conference earlier this month, as it is now seemingly on a mission to belittle every other smartphone on the market.
>>>In what has become one of the most childish responses to a serious internal error in the history of consumer electronics, Apple has refused to accept any sort of fault for designing its newest iPhone in such a way that it makes it easy to accidentally obscure the device's antenna reception.
#PRFAIL
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Palm - I would be a pallbearer
Like the rest of this community, I started my gadget life with early Palm PDAs, and even have recently purchased a Zodiac (in a moment of weakness).
I have fond memories of all the devices I've used, and feel that Palm made really only one or two critical business errors (other than the Foleo) that sealed its fate:
1. No innovation to the OS after version 5
2. WiFi not incorporated into any of the Palm OS smartphones
Rest in peace, Palm.
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"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."
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