Palm's Ed Colligan laughs off iPhone
By Ryan Block 
posted November 21st 2006 4:41AM
posted November 21st 2006 4:41AM
"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone," Ed Colligan apparently laughed about with John Markoff last Thursday morning. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in." Ed, baby, sweetheart, a couple quick reminders. First: it's not hard to beat "decent," especially when your phones are on the 2004 cutting edge of design and you still haven't managed to slim it like a Q or WiFi it like an HTC. Second: PC guys already did figure it out -- that's why you're running Windows Mobile on your phones, remember? Not that we really have to continue, but third: as John Hodgman and Justin Long would have us remember, the sad, disgruntled differences between "PC guys" and Mac guys tend to transcend borders and cultures. Gates isn't Jobs, and Steve's phone certainly isn't going to be riddled with the same issues as our beloved WinMo. No, the iPhone will have its own set of annoying issues, but believe you us, Ed, Apple will "just walk in," so you'd better have a few and-one-more-thing-s up those sleeves of yours if you're thinking about stopping a mass defection.[Via PalmInfocenter]
You people just dont get what apple does. Apple is one of the most innovative companies to come around in a long time. Apple takes an existing product and designs easy to use FUNCTIONAL...i cant say FUNCTIONAL enough times.....they design easy to use functional software to simplify the process of using such device in a way that opens up it up to users who would never use it. What i mean by open up is this...MP3 players...wow they have been out for a long time now...yes they have..but what apple did is simple..it didnt make a better mp3 player...it made the same old mp3 player with software so good that everyone even your grandmother can figure out how to use it. Software so innovative that now everyone is syncing up their mp3 players with their macs...and dare i say syncing up with their pcs to load up their music and now pictures and movies. Its like what Tivo did for TV. Took TV and made it interactive in a way that changed the way we watched television. I garuntee apple will do the same thing with cell phones..The cell phone market is even more screwed up then the pc market was. NOTHING WORKS IN THE CELL PHONE MARKET...do you hear me NOTHING!!!! Let me explain. You cant easily sync your phone with your computer..(i dont wanna hear about you people who bought cables from ebay to sync your palms or any other phones that you have) verizon, cingular or any other carrier doesnt want you to sync...end of story...you cant get your pictures that you take with YOUR PHONE.....YOUR PHONE YOU ALREADY PAYED FOR!!!! off of your phone and onto your computer. THEY WANT YOU TO PAY FOR THAT!!!!...phones are mp3 players now?!?! wow must be free?!? nope pay for that too. pay for wallpapers...ringtones...movies clips...news clips....or any other garbage you want on your device that is completely locked from using any of its features...Apple will come in and make a normal phone that has a camera like every other phone and completely unlock it. NO FEES...syncing made seemless and easy...plays music from itunes that you can use for ringtones..no more paying for shit to get it on your phone...your own backgrounds...your own movies....your own everything...Like i said before they will take an existing product design an easy to use functional software package to go along with it and bam....INSTANT HIT...why because now everyone and their mother will be syncing cell phones and uploading their pics to myspace or whatever other thing they wanna use them for. Apple is innovative.
I think Ryan's probably off base on this one. I don't see Apple making a spontaneous jump into the 'smartphone' space so much as the 'feature phone' one.
I doubt Palm is going to be a target of Apple's nascent iPhone division for some time to come, as any such product will be aiming for the hipsters who rock out with ther RAZR and iPod, not the guy furiously tapping away at the spreadsheet his WinMo/Palm device.
Rest easy Palm, it's not Apple that's gonna kill you, just the march of time (from a former Palm loyalist who's sad to see them slipping further behind every year).
It doesn't have to be a smartphone to kill Palm's market share though!
This is funny reading for June 2009..
This is funny reading in June 2009.
Boy was he wrong!
As someone who started buying Palms back when they were called Pilots, and someone who is on their third Treo, I really think Palm should be worried. My 700p will probably be my last Treo, given how underwhelmed I have been with it. It has several key bugs (including the fact that it is generally quite slower than the 650 it replaced), most of which have not been addressed by Palm. Users have been fuming for months about the lack of an update, all so we can continue to run an OS that ran out of steam years ago (but at least lacks all the baggage of Windows Mobile).
Palm should be less smug and very concerned that anyone with bit of design savvy and attention to little details like functionality might come along...
Palm hasn't done anything radical or different since the 90's....If the iphone has a leather strap, it would still blow away any current palm device..
Nobody seems to realize that this is corporate speak. Ed could be shaking in his boots that another player is coming to market. Wheter it is a "smart" phone or not, another entrant is another entrant. He has shareholders and analysts that listen to every word coming out of his mouth. He CAN'T say that Palm or anyone else will be hurt by Apple if it enters the market whether he believes it or not because the market will repond negatively. He has to put on a brave face and claim Palm will prevail. Ever hear companies talk about a potential lawsuit? They will "always prevail" even though half lose.
jeffinToronto: (shout out to a fellow t.dot rez!)
True to a certain extent, but the cellphone market has some pretty distinct segments. There's the 'computer in my pocket' types, the 'I just need the basics' people, the 'crackberry' crowd, 'media junkies' etc.
I'd bet ya, dollars to donuts, that the iPhone (at least for the first couple of iterations) is going to aim squarely at the media junkie crowd. Sure, Apple COULD be working on a full-fledged smartphone, but I suspect that even with Cupertino's famed secrecy, that there'd be some pretty significant leaks prior to the release of a mobile OSX type device.
Though I think Palm has it's head in the sand sometimes (that's why I switched to WM5 and don't regret it), they'll likely be pretty safe from an iPhone release, because of the market segmentation.
Such naivete. Have you forgotten ROKR already? Why do you think Jobs' magic pixie dust will make it different?
And what good is an expensive phone that can't run third party software? Most new phones already play music.
And if it does succeed, do you honestly think Nokia couldn't come out with three variations in six months that duplicate the functionality?
Oh, that's right. iTunes. Congratulations on your captive market. Milk it for all that it's worth.
One fact to keep in mind, which has me convinced that the Apple iPhone will kick some major ass: Apple did NOT make the iPhone for a long time because, as Jobs himself admitted, the market was "too competitive". Meaning, Apple couldn't see a way to improve over already-excellent Nokias etc.
But now things are different. The iPhone will come and blow all other phones out of the water. Not features-wise, but ease-of-use-wise. Why? Because smart phones with camera, organizer, mp3 player etc are a whole different ballpark to plain old phones, and the cell phone makers are truly struggling to make them easy to use.
I have a brand new Nokia N73 which can do everything, and which I tested beforehand - it was the best to use of all the phones I tried. Beat Samsung easily. But its still awkward. I would never use it to listen to music - too many roadblocks in the way, the Nokia sync software is completely broken, on-board storage space laughable. I could think of about a hundred needed improvements starting with a hardware key lock button.
And that's just me. Apple can probably think of more, and come up with better solutions, so the time is ripe for them to enter the market. The N73 will go up on ebay as soon as that happens - it's a decent phone, but seriously, I excpect the iPhone to be way better. I expect it to be iPod-good ;)
This is funny reading in June 2009, boy were you wrong!
Wrong? That the iPhone would be a toy without third party software? That iTunes would be the center of it all?
The iPhone payed for my house. How did you capitalize on your zealotry, fanboy?
Laughing huh? Well I wonder if he was laughing when 144,000 Treos went out without mics? Dumbass...He needs to get his crap together and build a decent Treo.
The ass end of the market speaks! Its funny how they have been losing ground to the major players in the space Symbian/WinMo to the extent where PalmOS barely exists yet think that someone won't come up with a better device than what they've got? Foolishness
Yes "its an opinionated post, bla bla bla. It's a blog not a news site, blah bla" I think the pertinent issue here is the 'mass defection' statement. I have been a plam user since palm 2 and an apple user since OS7. 3 weeks ago I bought the TMO Dash because I was sick of being assed out by Palm and their laggardly position towards hardware refreshes for the US carriers (or in general). The Dash is a fantastic device, it has its issues, but my Treo 650 had plenty of its own, I just learned to work around them. As far as the iPhone (vaporware thus far) we shall just wait and see. Being as mission critical as my smartphone is I will not be buying a first-gen item such as an iPhone anyhow, thats for all the high shoolers to fiddle with in class...
I wounder how long you actually waited before buying your iPhone!
right back at ya Alan. Len - Apple sold tons of computers before being able to run Windows and continue to sell tons of iPods, so the third party issue isn't that big of a deal. I agree with Alan that when they come to market with a phone it will be directed at the iPod crowd who have phones, not at a business market that currently use Treo or BB's. Apple is very good at designing products that are pleasing in form and function and I have no doubt they will do the same thing for a phone. Regardless if others have greater functionality, they tend to put together a compelling product that Aplle faithful will buy.
Hey Ryan:
"It doesn't have to be a smartphone to kill Palm's market share though!"
Uhm, I suspect that Apple doesn't have to release a phone at all for Palm to kill it's own marketshare. :)
But seriously, I can't see too many people trading in their Treos (Palm or WM5), HTCs etc for an MP3 phone. I don't think it'll make much of a dent in that space.
It'll definitely eat into the recently popular slew of MP3/media phones being hyped on TV these days from SE, Nokia et al (at least that's the hype coming from Canadian carriers as they see the mp3/phone combo as a great space to be in).
Not to slag TOO much on Palm, but I lost faith in them a couple of years ago, and they haven't done anything since to impress me (though I still hold on to my Palm software licenses just in case) :)
Ed, it's not me, it's you. Get your act together before it's too late, if it isn't already.
I am a Palm codependent. They are Netscaping their existence away, no one even understands what name the OS, hardware co. etc. is this week. I want a small modern clamshell running the Palm OS, not a brick. The Samsung i500 is great, but I want something slimmer and less precious.
Hint: pay someone to put one of your phones in their pocket (not cargo pants) and see what it looks like.
"...and you still haven't managed to slim it like a Q or WiFi it like an HTC."
I'm not defending Palm here, but it's important to point out that HTC manufactures most of the Treos. At this point, I think it's safe to say that the omission of WiFi is deliberate.
I should clarify. The omission of WiFi is a deliberate decision, it's not due to engineering limitations.
The last person that laughed at Steve Jobs was Micheal Dell. That was when his company was worth more than Apple.
This Palm guy is whistling past the graveyard. If Apple could simply create a cell phone which DOESN'T SUCK, they would have everything else on the market beat.
First, there's nothing wrong with Palm's comments - they might be wrong or the kettle calling itself black but that's his public opinion - privately it might be different. Frankly, I think one of the last people Apple is worried about is palm - palm has spent more time and money than any company on name changes, name re-absorption and re-orgs - with their last major upgrade to their OS - color sometime 8 years ago. They've been fortunate their only two competitors are MS (the inept one) and Blackberry (corporate sales and busy with a lawsuit). Look at a palm or any PDA from 7 years ago and today - other than a few with state of the art features like EVDO - but the OS underlying that EVDo model - it's all pretty much Palm 1998 1.9.
You can be sure Apple is not releasing a phone that's 1.93 but more like 4.0
I think it says a lot that he is already playing down a product that is not even announced. He is the CEO of palm and he is talking about a rumor about Apple, clearly its on his mind.
I like my Treo 650 a lot but its not ideal. Its too thick and the screen is too small. The UI is slow, pressing speakerphone takes 3 seconds to have an effect. Syncing does not work that well anymore. I frequently find that numbers are missing from my addressbook. The saving grace of the device right now it Google Maps - but that also killed Traffic, Palm's solution.
I really like having a keyboard so that may keep me on palm for a little while but there is an opening here. I looked at the Pearl and the form-factor is amazing. I have the UI on it but the device, that ball, smokin.
Ed Colligan, you're an idiot. You can hardly afford to be a smug bastard seeing how Palm has basically been dead in the water since the Treo 300/600 line. Those were the last great devices from Palm, and hey, wait... they were from that little company you had that actually made good devices, Handspring. I was actually excited when you became CEO of Palm, because I thought some of that great Handspring magic would have worked its way into the Palm line, but no...everything from you guys since then has been evolutionary garbage bolted onto an old OS that can barely support its own weight, much less robust applications.
I've been a Palm OS user for 8 years, (Palm III, Palm V, Palm Vx, Handspring Visor, Visor Edge, Tungsten E, Tungsten T3, Treo 600, Treo 650) and guess what? I bought a Cingular Blackjack the other day and have been introduced to what a real phone can do. I've about had it waiting for your stupid Treo 680 to come out.. wait, you're trying to market the same phone I've had for a year and a half now by taking the antenna off, taking a few MILLIMETERS off, and redesigning the Phone app? Wow, can't wait to throw my money at you for that one. Then you say it's going to come out in a month, and almost 2 months later it still hasn't shown up? No more.
You're systematically screwing over your most loyal customer base, the ones of us who have been here for years, never ever would've thought about leaving the Palm platform, and who are on the largest phone technology in the US, world even... GSM. You're a moron, Ed Colligan, and you deserve everything that is coming to you in the years ahead. You've turned this one-time Palm loyalist into a non-believer. You think Palm users will continue to just take what you're giving them because of loyalty to the platform? Loyalty is earned, and can just as easily be lost. You don't have mine anymore, and I think that's going to be a trend if you don't straighten Palm up.
Don't get me started on the whole merger/sale/name changing stuff that's been going on for the past few years (Palm -> PalmOne/PalmSource -> Palm/Access) and how you've let the Palm OS walk out the door on you. What is your problem?
i will look forward to a phone made by apple, whenever, or if ever it comes out.
Ed Colligan: the latest entry to my douchebag list :)
As far as marketing goes for the iPhone name, people are simply going to walk in and say:
You got the ipod phone??
No buddy, I don't think there is any confusion
Most technologies in smart phones/pda have matured to a commodity level. We're way beyond pioneering this sector (Mr. Colligen seems to be stuck in the past). You can walk into a handful firms in Asia, and have them cook up a working prototype (jammed with redundant features) in no time.
That's why Palm is such a tough sell on wall street(TiVo Syndrome). The key is to differentiate one phone from another. The dream is to erase the line between regular phones and smart phones (NOT in term of technical capabilities). That's where Apple comes in. The timing is perfect and I'm very confident that Cupertino will fly past even the most bullish expectation. They will do it with ease.
I am seriously thinking of postponing purchasing a new mobile until Palm is released. Ranjith
This is Apple. They single handedly redevloped the entire music market and NOBODY knew 2 weeks before it happened. The iPod? no one knew. iTunes Music Store? No one knew. Trust me. They can pull what ever they want out of a magic hat and leave a whole, unassociated industry scratching their heads going, 'Damn, why didn't we think of that...."
It's like you were psychic. (Reading this in 2009)
No, honestly, you are a true student of history. Let us not forget what Apple has done, the next time they "shock the world" with a new product.
Ed my man, they did just walk in, and they're taking up market share quite quickly.