The IT Nerd

The Boy Genius has used his connections to get Palm to give him a walkthrough of the Palm Pre, and they let him video tape it. Great job! Here’s the video:

Now Palm, can we have pricing and availablity PLEASE?!?!?!?

So the Palm Pre and their new WebOS has hit the streets. Will this save Palm? If you look at the stock market as an indicator, then the answer is yes. However, I believe that the answer is much deeper than that. When you look at the facts, I think the answer is no. I think Palm is still dead.

Here’s how I see it:

1. The Pre and the WebOS look to be wickedly cool. However when the cool factor wears off, they still have to stack up against the likes of the Blackberry OS, OS X on the iPhone, and Windows Mobile. If Palm popped up with a device like this two years ago, it would likely have thrashed the competition (or at the very least scared them). Coming out with it now may be too little too late.
2. Palm has tied themselves to Sprint. In case you’re not aware, Sprint is a struggling telco that is bleeding cash and customers like a gunshot victim in L.A. While i’m guessing that Sprint will invest tons of time and money into marketing the Pre (so that Palm doesn’t have to), none of that matters if you don’t have customers to sell to.
3. The Pre uses EVDO and not HSDPA. Palm must have missed the memo that HSDPA is what most of the planet uses for wireless data and they would have been better served to use that standard on the Pre. But I suspect Palm’s desire to get a carrier that would bend over and take it like a prison bitch play ball with them supersedes the need to make a smartphone that not only could be used outside North America, but would be available to a wide variety of carriers world wide. At least it has WiFi so Pre users who buy it from Sprint can go to Europe and still get their e-mail.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve had several Palm devices over the years and my wife currently uses one. I happen to like their stuff and I would really like it if they did succeed. But I think that this is a hail mary from them, and one that is doomed to fail.

Too bad.

UPDATE: Palm must have read this post as this just appeared on PCWorld.com. According to Palm CEO Ed Colligan, the Pre will be in Europe in “the first half of the year” which is the same vague timeframe as the release in the US via Sprint. Since it’s for Eurpoe, it would have to be HSDPA to make it comparable to the EVDO version of the phone in terms of capabilities. It should be noted that Colligan did not mention the names of any carriers (such as Vodafone, Orange, O2, etc.) that would be carrying the phone. Which could mean that they may be still working out those details, or this is smoke and mirrors.

I guess we’ll find out in “the first half of the year.”

UPDATE #2: Palm really has to get their act together and sing from the same song sheet. According to this story, Paul Ghent, vice president of sales for Palm Europe says the timeframe for a European Palm Pre is the second half of the year. Not the first half as the CEO of Palm claimed.

This is starting to look more and more like smoke and mirrors from Palm. Another reason why this product might be doomed to fail.

Recently I’ve been predicting the demise of Palm, but they’ve hit the stage at CES today and announced something that MAY keep them from a slow painful death:

• They have a new Palm OS that has been rewritten from the ground up.
• They have a new keyboard and touch screen smartphone called the Palm Pre that will be exclusive to Sprint

At this time, I’m following their CES Press Conference live via this Engadget text feed. As soon as official info is posted, you’ll see it here.

UPDATE: The Palm Pre has the following specs:

• TI’s latest OMAP CPU
• Stereo A2DP support
• EvDO Rev. A (Good luck using that outside North America)
• 802.11b/g
• GPS
• Bluetooth
• 8GB storage
• 3.1-inch display, 320 x 480 touchscreen with multitouch functions
• 3 mp camera with LED flash
• MicroUSB connection, USB 2.0 jack
• 3.5mm headphone jack

Availability is “the first half of 2009” according to Palm. That’s uber vague.

UPDATE #2: Palm’s new “Nova” OS is a web based OS platform. Anyone who knows CSS, HTML and XML will be able to develop for the OS. That should open the platform up to a lot of people… In theory.  The UI itself is simple and touch-based, with flick scrolling through lists and gesture support. The launcher comes up over apps without leaving them, and you can quit apps by just swiping upwards. It also uses a “deck of cards” metaphor for dealing with multiple applications. It also has the “Synergy” sync system which promises to  “automagically” manage your contacts regardless of where they are. You also get consolidated instant messaging from multiple services (unlike my BlackBerry which at the moment has FOUR IM CLIENTS on it). Typing on the keyboard brings up an instant search which pulls up apps, contacts, and even web queries. All apps have access to a popup notification system. All in all, it sounds neat.

UPDATE #3: The Palm Pre charges wirelessly. No, I’m not making that up. An option is something they call “The Touchstone” uses magnetic induction charging to keep your device charged. That’s sounds cool.

UPDATE #4: If you’re wondering why I haven’t listed a price, it’s because I can’t find a mention of one. WTF?

UPDATE #5: Palm’s stock just shot up over 13%. Sounds like the market likes this news.

UPDATE #6: The “Synergy” services inside the “Nova” OS works with the calendar services too.

UPDATE #7: Palm’s stock is currently up by 25%. The market REALLY likes this news.

UPDATE #8: Here are photos of the Palm Pre.

UPDATE #9: Palm’s stock is up way over 30% right now. Wow!

UPDATE #10: Palm’s website was just updated seconds ago. There’s also a press release for Palm’s “WebOS” as well as the Pre. I guess they dropped the “Nova” name for their OS as it was apparently an internal codename.

UPDATE #11: Palm’s stock closed up 34.85%. If you bought their stock in the last couple of days, you’ve just made a pile of money.

Palm came out with this press release yesterday and the news isn’t good if you’re a Palm fan:

The company announced that it expects to record revenues for Q2 fiscal year 2009 in the range of $190 million to $195 million. The revenue decline vs. the company’s Q1 fiscal year 2009 and Q2 fiscal year 2008 is a result of reduced demand for maturing smartphone and handheld products. The company stated that while it had expected these factors to pressure revenue in its November 2008 and February 2009 quarters, the difficult economic environment has greatly intensified the negative impact on product sales.

It sucks to be them. But they have plans to try and stop the bleeding:

The company is currently implementing several cost-savings initiatives, including reducing its U.S. work force, consolidating its European operations, and shifting responsibility for Asia Pacific sales, marketing and administrative support to its U.S. offices. The company expects that by Q4 fiscal year 2009, these actions and other cost-savings initiatives will reduce quarterly operating expenses by approximately $20 million vs. Q1 fiscal year 2009 levels.

So, despite the fact that nobody is interested in buying Palm products anymore, the smart phone market has a ton of choice that is much better than what Palm is offering at the moment, and their next generation OS is years late, does any of this cost cutting matter?

My opinion? No.

It actually made me sad when the news that Palm is laying off up to ten per cent of its staff and cutting some product offerings hit Valleywag. Palm used to have a rather nice handheld OS and I have owned several Palm products over the years. But increased competition and increased focus in terms of churning out Windows Mobile OS devices has put Palm OS into the position of being a distant also ran. To be fair, there are rumblings of a new OS coming. But it may be too little, too late for Palm.

Given that the smartphone market is basically made up of Apple, RIM, Google OS, and Windows Mobile, I doubt there’s room for another company in this market. Palm’s days may be numbered.