- Posts tagged Palm Pre
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Palm Could Sell Phones For An Entire Quarter Off Carrier Backlog Alone
The company shipped 960,000 smart phones to stores and distributors in the quarter that ended Feb. 26, 23 percent more than in the previous quarter. However, the number of phones that were actually bought by consumers was 408,000
The bad news isn't that Palm only sold 408,000 phones (well, that's actually horrible news, but nothing compared to what's next). No, the bad news is that a backlog 552,000 shipped phones is sitting on carriers' shelves.
Think about it. Though trending downward, let's imagine Palm has 10% better unit sales in the coming quarter than the one just passed. They'd still have 100,000 phones in inventory without having shipped a single phone in the quarter.
Ouch.
Palm Pre: hanging on for dear life
Spots like this are born of rooms filled with nervous people.
via kensegall.com
Ken Segall on the new Palm Pre Plus ads.
Palm: on that slippery slope « Observatory
It’s going to take one hell of an effort, and possibly divine intervention, to right Palm’s ship.
via kensegall.com
Ken Segall "translates" Palm CEO Jon Rubenstein's letter to employees last week.
Is Smartphone Innovation Lost In The Rush To Copy The iPhone?
...a lithograph of the Mona Lisa is never going to be worth more than the original even if the lithograph is nominally "better" because it uses archival quality pigments and has brighter colors. People will always value the real thing more than a high quality copy.
via applematters.com
Interesting argument by Chris Seibold that claims the iPhone has stifled innovation because competitors are focusing only on making a knock-off, not on innovating to make something better. This isn't the iPhone's or Apple's fault, and Seibold doesn't say it is, but there's some merit to his overall point.
Look at the competition's ads aimed at the iPhone. They'd have you believe their "innovation" is, for example, using a hardware keyboard. Yet a hardware keyboard runs counter to a hand-held touch device. I wonder how many are used not because it's a Good Thing, but because they can't wait for a decent software keyboard to be completed before shipping the product. The Palm Pre sure feels like this.
For another example, look at Android's fragmenting market of phones with different screens, hardware keyboards, software keyboards, varying UI experiences from handset makers, etc. Google doesn't have the power (or desire) to prevent this, so it's touted as a "feature" of the platform being "open". Yet a fragmented market will limit Android's overall appeal and success. See Windows Mobile for an example of that. Millions of WinMo units sold, but all so different there's no UI consistency, and no cohesive entity -- like iTunes and the App Store -- to make a complete system that breeds customer satisfaction, loyalty, and a disincentive to go elsewhere.
In short, the only "innovation" from iPhone competitors so far has been to copy as much as they can, and then spin what they couldn't copy as a "feature".
Verizon Still Believes In Dictating Hardware Terms. Morons.
The latest buzz is that Verizon is not going to sell the Palm Pre anytime soon (or maybe any time at all). Sure, the Pre has had its issues. The keyboard is criticized as being cheesy, the SDK isn't much, there are no apps to speak of, and it's only on Sprint. All told maybe 800K have been sold, which is not particularly impressive.
Still, some felt that when the Pre was available on Verizon sales may take off. Ah, but they forgot that Verizon is still partying like it's the hey day of U.S. carriers. They still want to dictate terms to hardware manufacturers and force their own services upon users:
Another snag is that Verizon wants VCast, its applications and mobile media download service, to be featured heavily on its phones. This is in direct conflict with Palm's app store, according to these sources.
Verizon is clueless. A potential decent phone is being ignored by them because they can't use it to push their crap services? Isn't that an indication of a hopelessly out of touch company with a certain disdain for their customer base? Yep, that's Verizon alright.
More Apple-Bashing Nonsense: Since Microsoft Was So Bad, Shouldn’t Apple Be Stopped?
So Many Words, So Few That Matter
The only two things worth noting in the entire screed are these:As I write this, Apple doesn't quite have a monopoly in any given marketYep, thanks, that covers Apple.
Microsoft got into antitrust trouble because they behaved in a manner that was illegal, but only for a company that holds monopoly power.This is Paul's way of admitting that Microsoft was operating illegally. Though he normally spends most of his time ignoring their history or re-writing it, today he's coming clean. He added the last bit to setup the real purpose of his piece, which I'll get to shortly. The bottom line is you can’t abuse a monopoly unless you are a monopoly, and simply becoming a monopoly doesn’t mean you’ll abuse it. If you read the piece and think the above two quotes aren't the only ones that matter, I suggest you check your driver’s license to see if your name is Ed Bott, or Randall Kennedy, or Mary Jo Foley, or Rob Enderle, or… well, you get the idea.
Why The Confession?
What it boils down to is that Microsoft is incredibly abusive. The Microsoft Tax was real, stolen code was real, back door deals and threats of retribution were real. There are thousands of pages of sworn testimony and emails from numerous court cases attesting to this. Microsoft is a text-book monopoly abuse case. (Just like past abusive monopolies, when cracks in the armor appeared the founder ran off and began his philanthropy.) So why is Paul copping to Microsoft's true history now? Simple. If he claims Apple could become the same thing, maybe he can get the public and government to do what Microsoft and their partners can't: Put a dent in Apple's growth and prevent them from stomping most everyone in the marketplace with their superior products.Apple Abuse?
But to suggest potential abuse by Apple down the road is kind of silly. What are they gonna do?- Threaten the non-Apple 90% of PC manufacturers that they must bundle iTunes on their PCs or Apple will crush them? Heck, iTunes isn’t even bundled now, customers have to download and install it. There is a bundled media player, but that would be Microsoft's.
- Sell music tracks with DRM tied only to their own players with no way to defeat it? No, that was Microsoft. Apple never did, and ultimately removed DRM on music altogether.
- App Store rejections? Compared to the ~70,000 apps approved, the percentage is tiny, and many were reconsidered and accepted. Most have shown to be a misunderstanding, or telling only one side of the story, or simple PR. Apple has admitted they're working on the acceptance process, that's not abuse.
- Refuse to let iTunes “see” third-party devices? Nope. The devices are seen as external storage free to drag tracks onto. They don’t use Apple’s wonderful “sync” because Apple made that an advantage of their software. Other companies are free to do the same.
- Refuse to let other companies write sync software for their devices? Nonsense. As I'll discuss later, RIM already has.
“I Know You Are But What Am I?”
For a while now, Microsoft and their press buddies have utilized a campaign to make Apple out to be just like them. They do this because they know they're hated while Apple is not. Windows 7 is a service pack? Yeah, well so is Snow Leopard. Windows 7 leaves XP users in the dust (upgrade to painful)? Yeah, well Snow Leopard doesn't work on non-Intel Macs. Windows is strewn with viruses? Hey, the Mac had a Trojan Horse so it's just the same. It's odd that no one at Microsoft questions this strategy. I mean, when the worst insult you can hurl at your competitor is that they're just like you, it reflects more on you than the competitor. It's an acknowledgment that you suck, but the competitor rightfully says “No, we're not like you, but thanks for admitting you suck”.What Thurrott Really Wants
The real purpose of Thurrott's piece is to get somebody, anybody, to stop Apple. So he threatens us with the only "weapon" he has, which is to claim Microsoft's been a tyrant for 20 years and, gee whiz, let's not let Apple be the same. He admits Apple isn’t there, but apparently Microsoft was so bad that we shouldn't even wait this time! Let's stop Apple before they’re guilty of anything. Wow. There are just a few things wrong with Thurrott’s plea:- Exclusive phone deals were (and are) commonplace, and he never cared until Apple did it with a vastly superior smartphone, crushing Windows Mobile in the process.
- Zune's software works with Zunes and not, say, the Palm Pre, but he never cared about this type of software being “open” until Microsoft’s failed while Apple's remained successful.
- Microsoft's Plays For Sure partners were completely screwed when the exclusive Zune came out, but he never cared about that.
- Every company is free to compete with Apple with their own software without any retribution from Apple or demands to "knife the baby". But Thurrott didn't care that they foolishly chose not to until it was obvious they missed the boat and have a lot of catching up to do. Catching up Thurrott apparently feels won't happen.
- Even the mighty Google is free to put Google Voice on their own mobile OS (Android) and compete in the marketplace -- which Apple reminded them they should do. But Thurrott doesn’t care because, like Google, he knows it's not compelling enough for people to consider as an alternative to the iPhone.
Is There No Alternative?
Of course there is. For example, Research in Motion gets it. They stayed true to their successful BlackBerry devices while toying with an iPhone competitor in the Storm. They've also brought their own desktop software to the Mac. They didn’t whine or cry like Microsoft or Palm. They're not trying to hack into Apple’s technology and leach their hard work and foresight. They're building their own. Instead of crying for help, they focused on their own core strategies and business plans. It's clearly paid off; they've been as successful -- maybe even more so -- in the iPhone era as they were before it. And if their new stuff isn't quite up to snuff yet, at least it's a start, and they’ll make it better (witness the Storm 2).But Apple Must Be Evil!
Thurrott's shameless begging for someone to stop Apple from something he admits they're not even doing reminds me that there are only two possible reasons for which these types of articles are written:- To stop Apple, or slow them down, in any manner possible except via the marketplace, where attempts by all comers have failed. In short, the articles are propaganda. Thurrott’s piece, and those of the rest of the Microsoft shill choir, fall into this category.
- Page hits, tied to ego and self-importance. Face it, if you write a "Microsoft is Evil" piece, no one cares. Everyone already knows it; it's nothing new. But if you write an "Apple is Evil" piece, people flock to it wondering if there's some smoking gun. Instead, it's just self-serving FUD, innuendo, and speculation. Arrington's recent ravings, as well as the aforementioned Calacanis crap, fall into this category.
Don't Tell Me There's No Apple Envy
After years of touting that Mac OS X "just works", I guess Microsoft finally decided to hang along for the ride. A reader sent in a page scan from marketing materials in their Microsoft Action Pack subscription, and look what we have here:
After years of touting that Apple's products are "Designed by Apple in California", I guess Palm decided to go along for the ride. According to jkOnTheRun, the new Palm Pre packaging has "a clear plastic card with the manual that says “inspired by and designed in California”".
Oh well. If you're gonna copy, copy from the best.
jkOnTheRun's Early Impressions of the Palm Pre
