Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) seems to be a company with little direction these days. In the minds of many, the company that basically invented the popular smartphone market over four years ago with its Treo PDA/cellphone product has done little since that time in product innovation. As a result, competitors like Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Research in Motion, Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) and Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are now chomping heavily into Palm's core business of smartphone production.When Palm acquired Handspring in 2003 and began setting the world ablaze with its Treo product, it was happy times for the company. The Treo line quickly became Palm's lifeblood as its PDA products (like the Palm Tungsten and Zire) continued selling in decreasing numbers. Those customers moved into smartphones, and the Treo was timed at the right moment to capture those folks.
Since then, the Treo has seen little in terms of innovation, even though it is a great product. But Apple's iPhone and the prevalence of Microsoft, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Mobile software platform on a bevy of devices from a whole handful of manufacturers have started to crush Palm in the worst way. Want a smartphone these days with a built-in keyboard (real or virtual)? You have plenty of choices, and many with new and exciting features (even if customers don't use them). Palm's Treo? The perception (and reality for some) is a stagnant product that is no longer even close to exciting as it was years ago. Therein lies a huge problem for Palm.
What else does the company have? It killed the odd Foleo product before it even hit the market, and while it still sells standalone PDA products, customer are not buying them. Many current cellphones perform all the same functions pretty much, and smartphones are the new PDA. Aside from "syncing contacts from Microsoft Outlook," what are the definitive features about Palm's products? Increasingly, it's hard to count them with even a few fingers.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-21-2007 @ 1:59PM
Ken said...
To recap, Palm has a really great product but because they haven't turned out something new this month we're to assume the company is failing, falling behind, and about to crash and burn.
Considering this is the second such article about Palm to be posted here recently, I have to wonder if the author(s) of these articles are being offered stock options with the competition.
It's starting to stink like a concerted effort at Corporate assassination.
9-21-2007 @ 8:40PM
Victor Agreda, Jr. said...
Actually Ken, you should read what Engadget has had to say about Palm. I think we all like to see competition in the marketplace, but shouldn't competition breed innovation? Or, shouldn't the other team at least show up?
As a guy who owns several Palm or Palm-powered products (spinning off their OS for a quick fix of cash was one of their huge mistakes), I'll tell you they are completely out of touch.
No, they don't have to introduce something new every 2 months. But how about delivering on new stuff every couple of years? Any tech company that languishes this long without even so much as an iterative advance deserves the market beating they get.
9-23-2007 @ 1:13PM
Ronald Quint said...
If you go to any store and you honestly set your treo side by side with any new smartphone, will you honestly see any new advances? I have, and I still keep coming back to the treo, overall ease of use, phone clarity, actual keys on the keypad, touchscreen, hotsync, I still believe the treo is head and shoulders above the others.
9-25-2007 @ 12:43AM
w. west said...
It is really sad to see what a lack of innovation
and insight can do to a company that could have
been a contender. Palm is like and artist who cre-
ates on great painting, then tries to rest on his
laurels for the rest of his life.... unfortunately,
Palm is no longer serious competition to anyone;
they have done nothing but disappoint any long
investor who had faith in the company. The ship
has sailed, and they've been left on the shore
holding an old paper bag with the Palm name in
it....... any takers??