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Is Palm Dying? Nah…

By: , 2/25/2010 11:30 pm | 8 comments

Whew…has it been a week for Palm news or what?

Before the week got started there was grumbling in the Twitterverse asking pleading DEMANDING that Palm release 1.4. Now that is nothing new. We all know a release is coming and we are all excited about it. I am sure there is a pool running somewhere…

Monday…all quiet on the home front.

Tuesday…Garner drops this little bomb on us.

Now for those of you who don’t speak “chart”, this basically shows that webOS grabbed ahold of a mighty .7% of the total smartphone market share. Now if you look at your history, a year ago Android was in about the same place…

From this news we started to hear some lamentations from the back of the room.

Wednesday the wailing and gnashing of teeth gets louder…Analysts start to predict the end of the world for Palm. SELL, SELL, SELL!! And people did. Palm takes a beating of Rocky against Drago proportions (love Rocky IV!) and drops (to date) about 20% or so…not good.

Thursday people start rending their clothes and sitting in ashes. Gizmodo practically writes an obituary for Palm (6 word summary…”man it’s a shame Palm died”), Palm updates it’s revenue targets for the quarter (read: not good!), and people start holding candlelight vigils for our favorite underdog…

Now, I don’t know about you, but I would not want to be Jon Rubinstein today. I mean sure, he has the rugged good looks and is probably a gagillionaire…but man…

Yo Adrienne!!

With that said, I, for one, am not anywhere close to counting Palm out. Lets look at the bright side, shall we?

Is Palm having a tough week? No question.

Is Palm about to fade off the map? No way. Palm definitely is still fighting, and I believe they have some tricks up their sleeves. This is a company that creates new markets (anyone remember the Palm Pilot?), and knows what people want (webOS is heralded as one of, if not THE best, mobile OS’s out there right now). If I were to guess…the best is yet to come.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and on twitter.

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About David Baxter

David is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of webOSroundup. When not toiling away at WOR he is usually with his family, at church, building a website of some kind or another, or playing a video game. @davidbbaxter
View all posts by David Baxter →
  • Gabe

    Finally some positive perspective! I view the current situation as a buying opportunity for the Palm stock!
    BTW: Things can change very fast. Look at the big trouble Motorola was just a year ago. Today, Motorola is all the big news about Android and such. Things can turn around for Palm very quickly, just like for everyone else. webOS is a great piece of technology, easy to use for an average consumer. Sooner or later market will recognize it too..

  • Gabe

    Finally some positive perspective! I view the current situation as a buying opportunity for the Palm stock!
    BTW: Things can change very fast. Look at the big trouble Motorola was just a year ago. Today, Motorola is all the big news about Android and such. Things can turn around for Palm very quickly, just like for everyone else. webOS is a great piece of technology, easy to use for an average consumer. Sooner or later market will recognize it too..

  • http://www.webosroundup.com/ David

    I completely agree. If webOS was a stinker, then the conversation would be completely different.

    The simple fact that webOS is amazing gives Palm the foundation they need to take it to their competition.

    David

  • http://www.visionaryonline.com David

    I completely agree. If webOS was a stinker, then the conversation would be completely different.

    The simple fact that webOS is amazing gives Palm the foundation they need to take it to their competition.

    David

  • Rebecca

    The lacklustre sales can easily be blamed on the keyboard, which showcases badly in stores. Just by looking at it, people’s first impression is that it’s just too small for decent typing. Then they pick one up and compare tactile typing between the BB and Pre/Pixi or any other QUERTY keyboard phone and the Pre/Pixie gets dropped quickly. Truth is, one has to actually use it in order to realize it’s not a bad keyboard.

    I would never have considered picking up a Pre Plus if my decision was based on the touch and feel of a store display. I did research, compared features, read reviews, then Tweeted for information. Hands down, for me, the Palm Pre Plus has everything I could ever dream of in a smart phone. And I think people will gravitate to that, but … the average person doesn’t buy based on research.

    Querty keyboards – virtual or tactile – are the main selling points of a smart phone. Fail in this and your sales will suffer. Palm needs to redesign this, and quick. Design a backlit keyboard that is similar to BB and/or a virtual keyboard like the iphone’s and it’s sure to be a hit!

  • Rebecca

    The lacklustre sales can easily be blamed on the keyboard, which showcases badly in stores. Just by looking at it, people’s first impression is that it’s just too small for decent typing. Then they pick one up and compare tactile typing between the BB and Pre/Pixi or any other QUERTY keyboard phone and the Pre/Pixie gets dropped quickly. Truth is, one has to actually use it in order to realize it’s not a bad keyboard.

    I would never have considered picking up a Pre Plus if my decision was based on the touch and feel of a store display. I did research, compared features, read reviews, then Tweeted for information. Hands down, for me, the Palm Pre Plus has everything I could ever dream of in a smart phone. And I think people will gravitate to that, but … the average person doesn’t buy based on research.

    Querty keyboards – virtual or tactile – are the main selling points of a smart phone. Fail in this and your sales will suffer. Palm needs to redesign this, and quick. Design a backlit keyboard that is similar to BB and/or a virtual keyboard like the iphone’s and it’s sure to be a hit!

  • livelife

    All the dome and glom is BS. Palm has missed targets and that was going to be the case from the begining.

    Verizon didn’t send out the email even telling people that the phone was available til feb 1st. This left a bad impression with analyst. The launch date was Jan 25th and a lot of the stores did not even get product until after that date. Which led to “Verizon is not supporting Palm.” Then you get the spin and people take it to the next level. Hence the rumor that Verizon dropped Palm. It’s a shame to see so many people want Palm to fail.

    Go PALM Go

  • http://none livelife

    All the dome and glom is BS. Palm has missed targets and that was going to be the case from the begining.

    Verizon didn’t send out the email even telling people that the phone was available til feb 1st. This left a bad impression with analyst. The launch date was Jan 25th and a lot of the stores did not even get product until after that date. Which led to “Verizon is not supporting Palm.” Then you get the spin and people take it to the next level. Hence the rumor that Verizon dropped Palm. It’s a shame to see so many people want Palm to fail.

    Go PALM Go