Palm posts $22m Q3 loss, says it liked its chances against Droid had Verizon launch been sooner
By Darren Murph 
posted March 18th 2010 5:19PM
posted March 18th 2010 5:19PM
We're listening into the earnings call right now, and so far we've heard a few choice quotes. Jon mentioned that Palm has "aggressive roadmaps on the software front that we're working on," and that there were "no changes to our planned carrier launches." We'll let you know if he introduces the Pixi 2 or anything."Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong. The work we're doing to improve sales is having an impact, we're making great progress on future products, and we're looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners. Most importantly, we have built a unique and highly differentiated platform in webOS, which will provide us with a considerable - and growing - advantage as we move forward."
Update: The call's over. PreCentral points out a choice quote from Rubinstein:
In other words, Palm -- regardless of Verizon's positioning -- feels like the Pre Plus could've been a legitimate contender as a halo phone for the carrier had it been able to launch sooner, though that opportunity has obviously long since passed. We're not so sure we agree that the Droid and the Pre Plus play in quite the same space, but if nothing else, we like the chutzpah -- now it's time to deliver some new hardware.We had an arrangement with Sprint that when we launched with Sprint that they would invest in marketing and carry the product and for that they would get an exclusive for a period of time. That really determined when we could do our launch at Verizon. I agree with your premise that if we could have launched at Verizon earlier, prior to Droid, that we would have gotten the attention that the Droid got and since I believe that we have a better product, I think we would have even done better.
Ouch.
@CaptainPlanet
Hopefully The Rube wasn't kidding about there being "no changes to [their] planned carrier launches." I've been on suicide watch all week since the "delayed AT&T WebOS launch" rumor started.
. . . and by "suicide," I mean buying an iPhone like everyone else.
Dark Side, indeed.
@CaptainPlanet
And the Palm Pre was being touted as the smartphone that would destroy the iPhone. What a crock. Palm was struggling to stay in business before the Pre came about because of its lackluster attitude of updating its older smartphone OS. The obvious question is what company is going to buy Palm and use its WebOS. I doubt that Palm can survive on its own as fast as it's burning through cash.
@Rubinstein The Pre and the Pixy were nice tries, but Palm will die anyway.
@CaptainPlanet Jon Rubinstein, he's a hero, gonna take Steve Jobs down to zero. He's our powers magnified, and he's fighting on the Palm's side.
@CaptainPlanet
Ouch it is. I got pre plus a week ago. Wonderful device and OS. But guess what! It lasts 2hrs pandora streaming and couple (2min) calls.
I'll be returning it as soon as incredible is out, still in my 30 days.
They should have fixed the battery thingy before they put a "plus" at the end...
@MosesusedaniPad That may be the truth, but I am def pulling for Palm. They are the underdog of smartphones and WebOS with HTC would sell like hot cakes. Come on Palm, we are pulling for ya. We need the competition to keep big companies like Apple honest. Look at the last two iPhone refreshes. If we don't have competition Apple will sell us a service like the Video camera and make us get a new phone.
@Drago I hope not. I love mine. The perfect marriage for me, however, would be Nokia buying them. Great hardware *&* software.
Palm.. too little, too late... IMMINENT FAIL!
btw.. literally too little.
@Judah Rosenthal
I agree. N900 style device (maybe thinner) with WebOS would be awesome. To be honest though, Nokia just needs to pick a OS and stick with it. And support its high-end devices for at least a year
@Lord Vader Father, let go of your hatred! I feel the good in you... the conflict.
@HighestRanked2 I would have to agree with you. Microsoft has to be the most anti-technology company in the world. They don't create new markets because they have a passion for it, they go where competitors have marked viable and poison it.
MS's profile seems to be crush the competition with closed-technology, and then go complacent effectively killing that market and technology. That's what they did against the Apple II, then Netscape, MS Money vs Quicken (although Quicken won with worse tech), vs Sun and Java with .NET, and that's what they did against Palm, and now they're going after the iPhone.
Apple's success OTOH is they successfully synergized open-source tech with their own contributions to (Obj-C, NeXTstep, BSD, OpenGL) and created a pretty good OS. They they copied MS's idea and used a small-subset of their desktop OS to put on their mobile device. The difference is Apple have made it a primary focus of the company instead of going half-way like MS with Win32 in WinCE with only enough effort to dominate Palm. Meanwhile, MS goes 180 degrees synergizing with their console instead of sticking with their original desktop subset strategy effectively pissing the rest of us off for violating MS's backwards compatibility legacy.
@Smart People Play Tuba
Does it HAVE to be an iPhone? Perhaps you can look into the fine selection of Android devices available for human consumption.
@shacker
Actually, now that the Nexus One is going to be available for AT&T, I may get that instead. I don't want to told what I CAN and CAN'T install on a phone that I paid for (thanks anyway, Apple).
@MosesusedaniPad well, as far as features are concerned, i'd say the WebOS platform does indeed 'kill' the iphone. Palms problem isn't that the product isn't good enough to compete. The problem is that they did a horrible job communicating the devices to consumers (marketing) and making it available to a large number of consumers (launching on sprint exclusively).
@CeNeTti if that is your only complaint, go buy a Seidio extended battery
@CaptainPlanet Sounds to me like either Palm shouldn't have made the Sprint deal or should have been thankful Sprint took a chance on them. Oh wait, both companies are circling the drain and will either die together or die alone.
Does this mean I should get out of the stock?
IMMINENT FAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLL!
@HerbieDerb $PALM on the same day multiple analysts have this thing pinned for $0 price target.. sorry if you are in it now dude.. perfect example on the conference call this morning of a f^%k up CEO imho.. BTW check this out:
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2010/03/19/the-worst-insider-buy-in-history/
..cant help but LMAO.. wish i was short $PALM pre-cc. Good Luck ;)
@CaptainPlanet Coulda woulda shouldn't DIDN'T Jon.
I'm really waiting for a new hardware refresh. I really like the Pre's capabilities, and especially how polished webOS is. But I don't want to purchase it, only to find out there's a much improved version coming out in under a year or so.
@Prevacator
WebOS Tablet by the end of the year Mr. Rubenstein - I'll take two thanks :)
@Prevacator
I just got a Pre Plus for Verizon on eBay about 2 weeks ago, I used the Droid too, have been pleasantly surprised with the Pre, not to mention no having to sign a new 2 yr contract with Verizon in the process.
@Prevacator
seriously...if they made a phone in a non candybar/slider form factor i'd seriously be thinking about it. especially if they did some kinda of qwerty slider similar to the touch pro 2 with LARGE keys. every time i pick up a pre in a verizon/sprint store and try to use the keyboard, i feel like the phone is laughing @ me because of my somewhat puddgy finger tips
@Prevacator
i'm also waiting for a new phone from Palm, with a bigger screen and faster proc.
I think the best thing for us WebOS fans would be if RIM bought Palm. A combination of BlackBerry hardware and WebOS would be awesome.
I'd like a bigger, faster Pre, please, Jon.
Ta.
@archkron I could do without bigger as long it was faster and had a higher-res screen. Oh, and more memory.
@archkron
I don't even think a Pre 2 could save them now.
If Palm would just sell an unlocked GSM Pre themselves, I bet people would be all over that. That way we wouldn't have to wait around for AT&T to f%$# it up with all their crapware the way they did with the Backflip. Fargin' AT&T.
@archkron
yea that was one of the things that turned me off to it was how friggin small it is. i love webOS and have been a Palm fan for a long time with the Treo line but the first time i held one, i thought "there is no way i could use this thing on a daily basis". i have a TP2 now and plan on getting a WP7s device when my contract is up but i'll listen if Palm wants to try again.
Come on Palm give me Pre 2 with webOS and bring some press back to us!
Palm makes Losses each quarter, every year, how much cash has palm got left from the good old days to stay in bussiness, either way Web OS is the best palms currently got.
@OCEAN CLAK They're on the TiVo business plan apparently.
@OCEAN CLAK
Palm is fine, they still have well over $500 million cash to operate. They've had at least that much the past 3 quarters. I think they'll be ok in the long run. Their continued expansion out to multiple carriers seems to be slowing the bleeding. Hopefully they'll be announcing some new hardware soon.
Come on palm, I want a pre2 for AT&T and pronto.
I personally hope Palm can stay competitive because they bring a unique perspective to the smartphone industry.
Palm, give people a beefed up Pre 2 or maybe a N1 with WebOS and your earnings will go up. Thats what "consumers" want.
@techobsessive Totally. If they resolved the hardware issues, improved battery life, gave me AT LEAST 32 GB storage, and made this thing faster, it would be a near perfect device.
I mean, if they released an HD2 style device, it would make this girl pretty happy.
@techobsessive what consumers want is a 22 inch screen, manly, and phallus shaped. At least that's what I get from some of the other discussions.
The thing is, the Pre really isn't that bad, but it is so obsolete it cannot compete with modern smartphones. We really need the following things from the next palm device:
1.) MicroSD support -- this is ESSENTIAL
2.) Better camera resolution, 5mp still and at least d1 @ 30fps video, preferably 8mp still and 720p @ 24 fps video, but I doubt that will happen.
3.) More Ram -- the PrePlus was a great, keep going in this respect.
4.) Bigger screen with higher resolution -- at least 3.5", preferably 3.7" with WVGA resolution.
5.) TV out support
6.) Better applications, but those will come -- the NDK looks promising
@DoctarPeppar Never heard of an NDK.
On an off note, the PDK looks promising.
@Mitchell R
You know what I meant, lol.
Trolio :P
I really want palm to make a 3rd phone that is of a different form factor, like a landscape slider.
i also think webOS looks great. everything i'm looking for, but the hardware quality of pre needs to step up. better screen and less plastic feeling of a phone. COMON PALM I WANT TO BUY YOUR STUFF, JUST GIMMIE SOMETHING SHINY :o
Palm needs to go the route of IE9 and get some hardware acceleration rendering the html/javascript/css stuff throughout the entire OS. If WebOS was as fast as iPhone 3gs it would sell like hotcakes.
I fear my favorite choice for a mobile OS will soon be a fading memory. I guess there is still Android?
WebOS is the best mobile operating system out right now, bar none. I've played with Android, BB, WinMo, and paid close attention to WP7, and I have yet to find anything that can be as productive as the Pre while still managing to incorporate many "media-friendly" features.
Sure, it's not as "polished" as the iPhone OS, but you have to take into account that the iPhone OS hasn't really changed since it was first released 3 years ago. New features added, yes. But nothing drastic.
WebOS has only been around for 1 year. It has bugs, as all phones/OS do when first released, but it has been growing in maturity by leaps and bounds since it was first released.
@Kunta Kinte Too right, I own a Pre and I've never owned a phone that comes even close to it and I've owned some pretty fancy phones, heh.
Make a keyboard-less, 3.5 inch screen, 32GB storage, new Palm device and I'm in.
500,000 phones not sold?