[Hands0n]

I can't say that I am altogether surprised at this latest article charting the fall and fall of Palm.

There was a lot of faith put into the Palm Pre, that it would somehow be the saviour of Palm. Several pundits thought it would be Palm's final shot before going Chapter 11. But Palm did survive the recession and made it out of the other side, albeit somewhat damaged.

Suffering from "cash burn" and "competition going against them" it is obvious that Palm needed to do something fairly significant to turn the tables. The Palm Pre was their attempt, but that seems to have failed so far, leaving a glut of some 600,000 unsolved units out there in sales channel's inventory. This is dreadful news for Palm and its likely chance of survival into the future.

It would be a pity to see Palm fail. But how do they turn this around?

Reports on quality of the Pre are not encouraging. It certainly puts me off the idea of having one. At a few pounds under £500 for a SIM-free these are unlikely to sell to any but the most ardent Palm supporter. There is plenty of perfectly good competition in the form of Android and WinMo, for example, that is much better quality.

For example, an HTC HD2 would cost you £50 less than the Pre and an HTC Desire is £80 cheaper. A Motorola Milestone is even £121 cheaper! So what would be the motivation to buy a Palm Pre?

Sadly, I don't see a future at all for Palm and fully expect it to go the way of other once-leading technology companies. It seems to be a sad inevitability.



Handheld computer maker Palm has said its income for the year will be far below expectations because of lukewarm sales of its smartphones.

Figures for the third quarter of the year show it shipped almost one million sets, but just over 400,000 actually ended up in customers' hands.

The company had expected to shift 600,000 models.

Palm shares fell 14% after the results were released. The company has now lost nearly half its value in 2010.

Full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8575903.stm

[Ben]

I think they did a few things wrong. If they'd slashed the RRP and retailed them SIM free unlocked and also on any network that'd have them then they would've done better. Trying to emulate Apple's iPhone sales strategy was a massive blunder; Palm has nowhere near the level of desirability and marketing control that is required to pull off such a move.

So perhaps they'll not be around for too much longer. Crazy thing is, I don't think 400,000 sales is too shabby for a phone like that. They over-reached. The Pre should've been the beginning of a whole new Palm, not their one-shot last roll of the dice. Very poor vision. Management reshuffle needed!

[miffed]

I agree with the pricing thing , and IIRC was the whole focus of the Pre's initial hype , that it would be SIM free for less than £200 ? I am sure I remember a buzz of that nature
Another problem I saw with the Pre , is that people were expecting it to be an iPhone with simply a different branding badge on it ! In is own right , the Pre is a neat little device , but it is no iPhone , thats for sure .
...And then there is the build quality - Awfully cheap and tack placcy feeling thing it is , sort of reminds me of my T-mobile pulse , which cost £91 , or the Orange Vegas which is £37 from Tescos ! Awful keyboard and too small IMO , maybe it is me getting old , but just because you CAN make things smaller , doesn't mean that you SHOULD ! no matter how good technology gets , peoples ears and mouths will always be about the same distance apart , their fingers will be the same size , the smallest size of text they can read will be more or less the same , Making things overly small is impressive and all that , but not overly practical - In fact , after using the HD2 for a while I even find the iPhones screen a tad on the small side ( Yes , I realise this is because my eyes aren't getting any younger , lol ! )
I'd love to see Palm have one more try - but this looks unlikely , sadly .