Gregg Eldred

I have long had an affinity for Palm devices, which has led me to my current smartphone, the Palm 755p. But, as everyone knows, the market hasn't been good to Palm lately. They are competing against the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices. And the results haven't been pretty-Palm currently holds about 8.5% of the smartphone market, a distant third behind Apple and RIM.

An article on Internetnews.com is less than rosy about Palm's long term viability, saying:

"Palm lacks differentiation, it lacks the global scale of Nokia, the wow design of Apple, the operator-customization of HTC and the sticky e-mail service of Blackberry," Mawston said, adding that at the very least Palm needs to push out a flagship product pronto.

While the article discusses the possibility of bankruptcy or the purchase of Palm by another company, there may still be some life in Palm:

So can Palm stop the slide? Palm is readying a new mobile handset platform for early 2009 -- a development that was needed much earlier this year, noted analysts. The company has also lured major talent such as Apple's iPod innovator John Rubinstein and Apple's senior vice president of product development Mike Bell.

I am hoping that Rubinstein and Bell can help design an innovative product from Palm and return the company to some prominence. But it looks like it is an uphill battle against formidable opponents in a very difficult economy.

Link: Internetnews.com: Is Palm Past the Turnaround Point?

Technorati tag: Palm

Comment posted by Craig Wiseman12/01/2008 09:12:43 AM
Homepage: http://www.Wiseman.La/cpw

There are some striking similarities between the way Palm has handled it's business and the way Lotus has handled it's Notes/Domino business (up until recently).

I'll have to think about a blog entry on that one.

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