Palm: The Pre Isn't Selling As Well As We Hoped

[JMcEntegart]

As it readies Wall Street for a disappointing quarter, Palm has said the company's cell phones aren't selling as fast as they hoped.

Palm: The Pre Isn't Selling As Well As We Hoped : Read more

 

[sinsear]

Team: Our cell phones aren't selling due to slow adoption, so let's blame the carrier.

 

[theuerkorn]

Well, honestly that's not due to the Pre itself but the lack of innovation between when Palm basically owned the PDA market and just now. I was with Palm all the way, but the last 3 years (before the Pre) were rough for most "followers", and I eventually jumped ship. Nothing personal, but I am happy with the competition now.

 

[Guest]

This wouldn't have happened if they had used Windows Me instead of WebOS!

 

[Pei-chen]

Well, if they used iPhone number as estimate for Pre sales of course they are going to be disappointed. Stop trying to be an iPhone killer and just make a phone that works for your particular market. Nothing is going to kill iPhone.

 

[marcusmurphy]

Those poor saps, don't they know Android is to blame... they will never realize their dreams...

 

[Miharu]

I was so dissapointed by the Treo.
So should I buy a Pre ? No reason at all.

Customers become dissapointed by older Palm product and see better outside.
Blackberry and iPhone are better hardware and software.

I think they don't realize how slow is their developement and their hardware doesn't change much over YEARS.
They just follow the wave (previously good in cell industry) but really bad now because product have new feature FAST (Palm miss the wave).
Who want an outdated Pre ?

 

[doc70]

Hints:
-put an open OS in there (Android, for instance) that anyone can develop for;
-hook it up to the app market;
-sell it unlocked and rooted so anyone can play with it; no artificial barriers should be allowed.
-lean back and enjoy the sales.

 

[Honis]

Q3 revenues of between $300 and $320 million, a significantly lower number than the guidance figures offered to Wall Street ($1.6 to $1.8 billion).

$300 and &320 million are actual quarter numbers. The $1.6 to $1.8 billion were the expected yearly totals. Please present the numbers correctly.

 

[doc70]

Oh, and last hint:
-stay on top of the hardware wave at least once a year and follow-through with good software support (drivers).
That's about it.

 

[gbismack]

WebOS looks like a nice mobile OS, but it has been extremely slow to get the products to market that made Palm OS successful. I work in the medical field; there was a time that EVERYONE had a Palm because of the selection of medical programs that ran great on their device. Windows ported many of these to their OS, but they never ran as smooth as on the Palm.

The iPhone has many of these programs now, some are FINALLY being ported to Android, but WebOS still supports very few, if any. The only option is to run it in their PalmOS emulator mode, which isn't very appealing at all.

Let's hope that Windows Phone 7 supports these programs...

 

[gbismack]

Oh, I also dont like their pull down keyboard. I prefer the slide out seen on HTCs, the Droid, etc; the small Palm keys are a pain. I have a Palm Treo Pro running WM6.5 as a hold-over for Windows Phone 7 with a slide out keyboard.

 

[sonicmachinehead]

Maybe they shouldn't have some Creepy woman trying to sell me their phone on TV. Find a better marketing strategy that doesn't look like a psycho talking about their phone...

 

[grumpysonne]

If they had offered the phone through Verizon upon release instead of 6-8 months after release,they would have sold a lot more.

I know several people that were salivating for the PRE but wouldn't come near Sprint with a 20ft pole. During that lag time, I purchased a new Blackberry because my Treo finally died and I needed a phone immediately.

My friends that waited for the PRE to hit Verizon had lots of time to consider other options that had been released or were coming in the near future that offered more competition to the PRE. Palm shot themselves in the arse by giving Sprint exclusive rights for the time that they did.

 

[hillarymakesmecry]

I too blame the Sprint Exclusivity.

I'd have bought a PRE on Verizon, but I got a Droid in the meantime. Good call Palm...

 

[Guest]

I've been a Palm/Visor user for a long time. I personally don't like the cloud scheme used with the new devices. I keep some sensative data on my device and have no control over the cloud security. So I've decided to keep my TREO 755 until it croaks then buy an Android powered device. Palm really has lost their market. They are like Sony was with the Walkman, they let the competition steal their market share from them due to a failure to innovate newer versions of their product. Palm has lasted this long only because of their long list of Applications supported by PalmOS. Now that WebOS is here even that advantage has been removed. It's sad to see this happen, first they abandon the expansion principle that made the first hand helds so usefull. Now they have shot off their other foot with this cloud stuff and lack of support for legacy apps, Maybe Bozo can front them some more cash to lose.

 

[marcusmurphy]

[citation][nom]gbismack[/nom]WebOS looks like a nice mobile OS, but it has been extremely slow to get the products to market that made Palm OS successful.[/citation]

WebOS was built to cater to entertainment users, same as the iPhone OS. Multi-tasking and the business functions are a native feature of Linux based Android and Windows bases Phone 7, with entertainment added to sell more phones. Unless Palm understands which audience to cater to, don't expect them to make a comeback.

 

[godwhomismike]

I'm sure now that it is on Verizon, they could run their commercials again, and hope to strike a cord with Verizon customers. Last I checked, there wasn't anything that great on Verizon anyways.

I thought the Palm Pixi commerical was pretty good too:

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbcnH0h69NY

They need to rerun those commercials.

 

[beergoggles]

Can we please hear the death knell for "laser-focused" or "focus like a laser beam" in corporate management speak? Whenever I hear that I just get the feeling that they don't have a clue of what they are talking about. Oh, and then when they say "your management will work with you to ..." like it's the workers fault that things aren't going well. Hey spatula heads, you guys are making the strategic decisions, not us. Don't bother pulling me into your circle jerk to blamestorm your way out of it and into your yearly bonuses.
/management rant

 

[scook9]

Love how they are blaming Verizon, a HUGE carrier that is doing quite well for their phone not selling.....