Palm revenue craters as Treos fall out of favor
The Centro is keeping Palm afloat, but it needs more than pretty colors to get back on track.
(Credit: Palm)With revenue falling to dire levels, Palm may need a Christmas miracle to stay afloat next year.
The latest dose of bad news? Revenue for Palm's second fiscal quarter, which ended last week, will be just $190 million to $195 million, the company announced Monday ahead of its December 18th conference call. Wall Street analysts had been expecting Palm to record $331 million in revenue, an astonishing 41 percent gap caused by "reduced demand for maturing smartphone and handheld products," Palm said in a press release.
Last week Palm revealed plans to cut workers and refocus its business as it copes with a poor economy and strong competition from the likes of Apple and Research in Motion. Palm's Treos were once very popular, but they have looked positively ancient against the iPhone and new BlackBerrys such as the Storm and Bold. If it wasn't for the Palm Centro--which doesn't really break any ground on the software front but costs an attractive $99--Palm might already be dead.
The company's fortunes will be determined by a race against time: if Palm can get products using its Nova operating system--which scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2009--out in the market before sales of Treos dwindle to zero, it has a chance to regain its perch atop the mobile computing world. Otherwise, Palm is stuck in a moment and it can't get out of it.
Tom Krazit, a staff writer for CNET News, focuses on all things Apple. He has covered traditional PC companies such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, chip companies such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, and mobile computers ranging from Research In Motion's to Palm's. E-mail Tom.
One reason I'm holding on to my TX is because I use SmartList To Go for taking database data with me. There aren't many alternatives for this. So if Nova runs SmartList To Go, as well as providing for better, newer software, I could be persuaded. I'm not yet, but I could be.
They are one generation away from market dominance. IF THEY PULL THEIR HEAD OUT and show us that they are not one generation away from corporate death.
1. concentrated on a stable, never-crashes OS;
2. provide wi-fi and great browsing experience/email;
3. provided a good keyboard like Blackberry
4. better support, quick fixes/firmware updates
and it would've complimented their strengths:
1. many useful Palm apps
2. very good synching, including Documents to Go, with full support for Mac and Windows
3. easy to use interface
4. affordable
Unfortunately, they
The iPhone could (should) have been from them.
They are dead in the water. But I will miss them.
I'm not sure why they keep their OS that way. They could have pour in resources to it and develop a competitive OS such as Blackberry's or even Nokia's to stay afloat.
In my case, I really prefer Palm OS over Windows Mobile because it is stable and faster but multimedia support and the interface is outdated.
How about if Apple will buy Palm? Do you guys think it will happen?
I hope all those developers who said they despised Apple for restraining their talents have gone to Palm to help rebuild that once perfect platform.
That said it's the hardware. Treo's are yestertech. iPhones current tech.
My Treo 680 is a good example of everything right--and wrong--with Palm. As with all Palm products, the interface is simple, intuitive, and very useful. I enjoy it and hope to for years to come. However, consider the following.
1. No Wi-Fi, 3G, or GPS. The 650 did not have these, but that is because the 650 was built before they came into their own. I will even concede that the 680 was launched before 3G and integrated GPS were the next big standard things in mobile devices. But to not have Wi-Fi, nor even the ability to install a Wi-Fi card, was inexcusable. Now if I want to surf the internet I am stuck with T-Mobile's glacially slow Edge network. In fact I doubt I access the internet more than once a month from my Treo--it is that slow.
2. Proprietary headset and hotsync connections. In a universe of standard headset connector jacks and mini-USB ports, Palm had to go and build their products requiring a separate Palm-only cord and headset--and this is after the Tungsten E did NOT have them! Again, why? Want to listen to music on your Treo? Plan on using the issued-with-the-phone headset or use an adapter. Your nice headphones you just got for Christmas? Nope, they won't work sans adapter. All those extra mini-USB cords you have sitting around just waiting to be used to hotsync? Nope, they won't work either. Better not lose the ONE cord you have for the Palm, or you will be buying another. And yes, I know that Apple has a proprietary charging/syncing cord...but lets face it, in a universe of old and new iPods, most people probably have more than one lying around, and if they don't, their neighbor does! I doubt the same could be said of the Palm cords.
3. I wanted to download the Gmail app for mobile devices (as opposed to checking my Gmail via the afore-mentioned slow Edge network). Whoops! Looks like the Gmail app requires a Java plugin that some of the early 680s came preloaded with, but now don't. It seems like Palm had a legal issue with IBM about a year ago. How does something like that happen AFTER a product launch?
4. For every time that I successfully hotsync, there are probably four or five times that my Treo locks up. I have learned to use the dB scan utility that I downloaded, and that usually fixes the problem, but should I really have to?
Well, rant over. I still think that Palm has good products for non-tech-savvy customers such as myself. There is still a lot good about what they have to offer. But it is obvious to me that Palm has suffered from weak and unfocused management for years now. It is telling that the company that pretty much invented mobile devices is rarely even mentioned in discussions of mobile computing.