Palm Stock Maintains Pre Hype Boost

Palm Pre NewsweekTwo new analyst reports on Palm's stock have been published this week and they couldn't be more different. First the good news, Deutsche Bank has upgraded the stock to Buy and raised their target price to $10, stating:

"We see clear signs that [Palm is] capable of executing to plan and shipping the Pre at least on time," At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, he adds, "we found a lot of carrier interest in the device as well." [...] "Palm has been beaten down for so long that even a modest success could generate significant earnings leverage. Numbers in the next two quarters will still be dismal, but the Pre offers a meaningful break with the past."

The positive excitement over the Palm Pre has pushed the stock up over 150% percent since its unveiling at CES. As of today, the share price stands at around ~7.50, which of course is impressive given its 1.14 - 9.51 52-week range.

Despite the above not all analysts are aboard the Pre hype train. Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek maintains a sell rating on the stock with a target price of $0. Misek claims the Pre is not a "game changer" and that the initial exclusivity period with Sprint will "will likely dampen Palm's prospects in the U.S."

Mr. Misek also goes on to reason that Palm would need to sell 4.5 million smartphones in FY 2010 "to justify any meaningful return to current share prices." He also writes, "Although the share price has moved against us recently on higher Pre and WebOS hype than we anticipated, we believe the sheet will face as economic realities set in."

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Palm reports results in about a month

SeldomVisitor @ 2/24/2009 11:15:59 AM # Q
Since it appears Palm is going to miss their self-imposed target date of THIS month for the Sprint Treo Pro, revenue recognition for same probably ALSO will be missed (I'd have to reread their "revenue recognition" words in their financial filings to be 100% sure, but I'm at least 50+% sure of that). Because of THAT the "February quarter" is probably going to be MUCH worse than Palm already vaguely predicted.

That is to say, the earnings release and call in about a month could cause some stock price movement in excess of what is Palm-normal.

And if Palm doesn't REALLY disclose much more about the Pre - such as a European carrier (NONE of whom are in the Pre Pocket as of last words out of Palm employees - see one of those recent videos with an Indian manager talking) or maybe a better estimate of release date - or, on the negative side, ACTUAL mention that the Pre will be delayed past June - then even more price movement could be expected.

And THAT is to say, gamble on Palm stock positions of ANY type with money you can afford to lose...


RE: Palm reports results in about a month
D Avis @ 2/26/2009 7:57:14 PM # Q
"Per my call to Sprint today -
Palm Pre
March 15 Release Date
$579 MSRP
$299 with 2 Year New Contract
Original Release Date was Feb 15"

All of this is 100% wrong. I got an email EXACTLY like this asking about Pre, and then a correction that it was the Pro. I would have had to be an complete idiot to believe it since the Pre will be $150 to $200, and it isn't even in final testing until April and never ever was considered for either February or March.

These are usually peopel with $200 of Palm stock spreading these rumors, but you have to have an IQ of 70 to believe them.

RE: Palm reports results in about a month
SeldomVisitor @ 2/27/2009 4:30:15 AM # Q
> ...had to be an complete idiot to believe it...These are usually peopel with
> $200 of Palm stock spreading these rumors, but you have to have an IQ of
> 70 to believe them.

Why do I smell some Gecko-aimed comments coming?...

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The Fortune Sellers

Gekko @ 2/24/2009 11:36:51 AM # Q

"The First Law of Economics is that for every economist, there is an equal and opposite economist—for every bullish economist, there is a bearish one. The Second Law of Economics is that they are both likely to be wrong." - William Sherden – "The Fortune Sellers"

RE: The Fortune Sellers
CFreymarc @ 2/27/2009 12:56:57 PM # Q
... and the Second Law of Economics is that if you are wrong, you can apply for a research grant to study this new and unpredictable trend.
Reply to this comment

March 15, $299

Gekko @ 2/24/2009 12:28:18 PM # Q
Per my call to Sprint today -

Palm Pre
March 15 Release Date
$579 MSRP
$299 with 2 Year New Contract
Original Release Date was Feb 15


RE: March 15, $299
Ryan @ 2/24/2009 12:38:53 PM # Q
I think a lot of these reports are coming from confused/misinformed Sprint reps, who are not distinguishing the Treo Pro from the Pre.
RE: March 15, $299
Gekko @ 2/24/2009 12:42:45 PM # Q
trust me, i'm not an idiot. I asked the Rep 3 times to confirm - "Pre not Pro, correct?" and he confirmed back - "Yes sir - the new one - with the keyboard that slides down."

RE: March 15, $299
zuhmir @ 2/24/2009 1:25:37 PM # Q
The price is too high. Should have gone for 200$ in my opinion. The reason is that it's worth making less money now, in order to create a large WebOS community, which will encourage developers and ultimately make the Pre2 much more anticipated.

RE: March 15, $299
jca666us @ 2/24/2009 1:31:21 PM # Q
With a pre at $299, a $199 iphone makes an even better deal.

RE: March 15, $299
Gekko @ 2/24/2009 1:49:06 PM # Q
>The price is too high. Should have gone for 200$ in my opinion.
>With a pre at $299, a $199 iphone makes an even better deal.

why would Palm do that when they have a significantly better product?

RE: March 15, $299
SeldomVisitor @ 2/24/2009 2:07:49 PM # Q
I think a lot of these reports are coming from confused/misinformed Sprint reps, who are not distinguishing the Treo Pro from the Pre.

RE: March 15, $299
Gekko @ 2/24/2009 2:42:50 PM # Q

as opposed to your clearheaded/informed friends in the yahoo chat rooms?


RE: March 15, $299
SeldomVisitor @ 2/24/2009 3:14:13 PM # Q
[You know the difference between a chat room and message board, right?]

Anywho, YOU are active on Treocentral and YOU have read the 479 rumored release dates for the Pre/Pro/Centro-with-TealOS.

February 15th wasn't EVER a realistic rumor for the Pre but CERTAINLY was for the Pro.

In fact, it was SO realistic Ed Colligan Hisself said:

== "...Well, as I said, we will continue to release Treo Pro around the
== world. We expect to announce a major new carrier partner here in the
== U.S. this quarter..."

Yes, Palm is apparently going to miss that date for the Pro. And, strangely, those same TreoCentral posts are NOW saying the Pro is coming out on...March 15th!

Meanwhile, Palm managers (that same Indian guy, for example) are STILL saying that things like copy-n-paste need some work.

Pre coming out in three weeks.

No.

Uh uh.

AIN'T gonna happen.

BTW - did you read the "deleted message thread" on TreoCentral before it was removed?

June.

[hmm...since YOU post to Treocentral, maybe we should discuss this in the context of your Treocentral chat buddies?]


RE: March 15, $299
twrock @ 2/24/2009 3:17:07 PM # Q
Is there an echo in here?


"twrock is infamous around these parts"
(from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)
RE: March 15, $299
twrock @ 2/24/2009 3:17:11 PM # Q
I think a lot of these reports are coming from confused/misinformed Sprint reps, who are not distinguishing the Treo Pro from the Pre.


"twrock is infamous around these parts"
(from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)
RE: March 15, $299
twrock @ 2/24/2009 3:17:14 PM # Q
Ok, yeah, there is was again.


"twrock is infamous around these parts"
(from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)
RE: March 15, $299
SeldomVisitor @ 2/24/2009 3:17:50 PM # Q
Here's an article on Precentral that was based off the now-deleted message board thread on Treocentral!

- http://www.precentral.net/palm-pre-release-date-may-not-be-until-june

Here's a thread dedicated to asking what happened to the deleted message board thread!

- http://discussion.treocentral.com/palm-pre/176956-what-happened-pre-shipping-info-thread.html

RE: March 15, $299
SeldomVisitor @ 2/24/2009 4:04:00 PM # Q
Point 21:32...giggle...definitely NOT ready for prime time (can you imagine doing that with an extensive doc/spreadsheet/email?):

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjN_oSbO_cM&feature=related

Point 29:03 - copy-n-paste comments.

March 15th?

No way.


RE: March 15, $299
jca666us @ 2/24/2009 4:36:36 PM # Q
>why would Palm do that when they have a significantly better product?

I think it's for the market - as opposed to Palm's marketing - to decide if Palm has a significantly better product.

In some ways it looks like a better product, but there are an awful lot of gaps that Palm will need time to fill in to compete with the iphone and to demonstrate that they offer a significantly better product.

There's no app store - YET.
There's no SDK for C compiled apps - YET.
There's no Palm OS compatibility for old users.
Questions regarding the stability and battery life.
Questions regarding OS updates.

etc.
etc.

Just having copy and paste along with a better camera does not make it an iphone killer.

Regardless, Palm can't make any mistakes in the release and execution - otherwise they're toast.

$299 sounds a bit pricey and they would need to sell an awful lot of Pre's to turn the company around.

I hope they can do it, but I have my doubts.

RE: March 15, $299
mikecane @ 2/24/2009 4:57:09 PM # Q
March 15th: NFW.

RE: March 15, $299
Gekko @ 2/24/2009 7:04:21 PM # Q
>March 15th: NFW.

and there you have it. another prediction from the guy who's been consistently wrong about EVERYTHING - like CES - "it's not going to be a phone!"

RE: March 15, $299
AdamaDBrown @ 2/25/2009 12:14:44 AM # Q
Gekko said:

why would Palm do that when they have a significantly better product?

Significantly better how? Because it's Palm? No dice. And even if they did, Apple has a hell of a lot more star power than Palm does, so Palm would have to have an obviously superior product at a lower price in order to compensate.

RE: March 15, $299
freakout @ 2/25/2009 2:56:49 AM # Q
why would Palm do that when they have a significantly better product?

Significantly better how?

he was joking - quoting Colligan @ CES.

That said: Pre fixes all the hardware limitations of the iPhone, and the UI seems superior in many respects, from the multitasking to the gesture area to the focus on one-handed use. Then there's Synergy...

Still early days, of course, and we must take all with a grain of salt till we can actually own Pres ourselves and put Palm's claims to the test. But it seems obvious to this little black duck that Pre is shaping up to be "significantly better" in many respects. The ball's in Apple's court now.

RE: March 15, $299
twrock @ 2/25/2009 5:38:48 AM # Q
Pre fixes all the hardware limitations of the iPhone....

Not to squash your enthusiasm, but I do recall that neither product has a memory card slot. I think that is a significant limitation of the iPhone that the Pre doesn't fix.


"twrock is infamous around these parts"
(from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)
RE: March 15, $299
jca666us @ 2/25/2009 7:03:00 AM # Q
>That said: Pre fixes all the hardware limitations of the iPhone, and the UI seems
>superior in many respects, from the multitasking to the gesture area to the focus on
>one-handed use. Then there's Synergy...

That said, Pre is still pre-release.

Pre only comes with 8 gig - iphone is up to 16 gig.
iphone has an app store now and supports both web apps. and compiled apps. - Pre supports multitasking web apps.

How will Palm support pre-owners with firmware updates - will it be palm's old "bait and switch" or will there be rigorous and timely updates and bug fixes?

>Still early days, of course, and we must take all with a grain of salt till we can
>actually own Pres ourselves and put Palm's claims to the test.

Agreed - however Palm can't screw up the execution, otherwise they're toast. How many times has Palm released devices with glitchy hardware and buggy software?

>But it seems obvious to this little black duck that Pre is shaping up to be >"significantly better" in many respects. The ball's in Apple's court now.

Well, apple is releasing a new iphone this year. It's a question as to whether the Pre is significantly better - if you don't drink the koolaid - you'll objectively view the Pre as somewhat worse in many respects (to the iphone).

To me the pre is very different from the iphone - and different is not the same as better.

I think Palm needs to really think through the pricing of this device - especially if apple lowers prices on the iphone and introduces both a hardware and software refresh this year.



RE: March 15, $299
freakout @ 2/25/2009 10:16:34 AM # Q
I do recall that neither product has a memory card slot. I think that is a significant limitation of the iPhone that the Pre doesn't fix.

You got me there. ;)

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I'm with Mike on this one

Nycran @ 2/25/2009 1:50:18 AM # Q
I also think March 15 is not going to happen. The Palm demos have been largely smoke and mirrors up to this point. We haven't even seen telephony working! My crystal ball says end of May, maybe June.

BTW - Palm doesn't have to complete with Apple head on. There's plenty of market space for Palm to grow and thrive without digging into Apple's share.

RE: I'm with Mike on this one
SeldomVisitor @ 2/25/2009 3:59:57 AM # Q
As an aside - there's NOTHING wrong with "end of June" since Palm has been saying for months now "first half 2009" instead of what they USED to say "early 2009".

Other than The Damn Competition not sitting still it seems to me like Palm's doing just fine with the Pre at this point in time.


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More appropriate name would have been 'Longhorn'

Tuckermaclain @ 2/25/2009 5:55:14 AM # Q
Overdue. Overbudget. Overhyped.

RE: More appropriate name would have been 'Longhorn'
SeldomVisitor @ 2/25/2009 6:09:58 AM # Q
Ouch!


RE: More appropriate name would have been 'Longhorn'
BaalthazaaR @ 2/25/2009 8:33:53 AM # Q
There never was a Longhorn... After all they pulled out of it, it became Shorthorn.
RE: More appropriate name would have been 'Longhorn'
abosco @ 2/25/2009 9:26:47 AM # Q
I was thinking "shoehorn".

-Bosco
m105 -> NX70v -> NX80v -> iPhone -> iPhone 3G
RE: More appropriate name would have been 'Longhorn'
Gekko @ 2/25/2009 9:28:05 AM # Q
RE: More appropriate name would have been 'Longhorn'
abosco @ 2/25/2009 4:48:01 PM # Q
Your wife is cute, Gekko.

-Bosco
m105 -> NX70v -> NX80v -> iPhone -> iPhone 3G
RE: More appropriate name would have been 'Longhorn'
freakout @ 2/26/2009 2:23:14 AM # Q
bwahahahahaha! So cultured. She makes the Queen look like a crack-smoking porn freak.
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