Palm's Jon Rubinstein: 'I think we have a better product than Droid'
By Nilay Patel 
posted April 9th 2010 4:08PM
posted April 9th 2010 4:08PM
It's certainly an interesting thought experiment, but we've always said that the Pre's marketing had a lot to do with its failure on Big Red as well -- and Palm apparently agrees, since it's fired its ad agency and Jon told Fortune that Verizon's changing their ads as well. As for the buyout rumors? Well, obviously Jon didn't say much, but it sounds like he's not too interested -- although that can always change if the right suitor comes to the table . We'll see if Ruby actually manages to turn things around -- we've got some ideas on how to make that happen. Hit the source link for the full interview.One of the analysts on our earnings call asked if we had launched when Droid launched, and Droid launched when [we] launched at Verizon, would the story have been opposite? I said I think we have a better product than Droid, and customers would have been happier with it.
Palm... what are you doing?
@Sled digging themselves deeper.
@Sled
Putting their palms over their forehead.
@Sled Seems to me they should be looking forward, instead of backwards.
Its kinda wrong to just sit there, do nothing and say we have a better phone. Do something about it
@Sled
I find the fact that he said that they have a better product than the Droid and that people would have been happier with it to be a very weak statement and very telling of the poor position Palm is in.
By not stating that the Pre would have outsold the Droid, he is basically admitting that he does not have a product that can compete in the marketplace. It's not appealing to users and people have no interest in the device.
There is a big difference between "I think we have a better product than Droid" and "We have a better product than Droid"
@Sled
I'm sort of curious why Engadget is publicizing this. It was in a CNN Money interview. I think it would have been more shocking if he would have said, "I think we have a shittier product that Droid." Just saying, he's the CEO of PALM, not Motorola.
CE-oh no he didn't!
@Sled
Can somebody please make a bacon latte?
Oh... wrong forum...
I meant, can somebody please put up Picard ASCII palm to forehead?
@Sled
I am not sure if this man knows what he is talking about, maybe WebOS is a little better than Android, how many people have changed their palm pre? I even read in a forum someone who after changing 6 Palm Pre (because all of them broke, all caused by Bad Hardware), finally he decided to buy the Motorola Droid.
No, they have something else in the PALM of their hands. A hotdog maybe?
@Sled
At least he didn't say something really stupid like... "We have a better product than the iPhone." I can only hope that HTC purchases Palm and does something useful with WebOS. HTC has pretty good hardware and combined with WebOS should build a very powerful smartphone.
Well, he's right.
@Beatnik He said right off the bat that they had manufacturing issues and that was one of their biggest issues. Did you actually read the article?
@Sled
Telling the truth. I have used both webOS and Droid, and the Droid is great, but I honestly think the Pre is easily better overall.
@shadowj0
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@RottingOrange Agree! I've used both and WebOS is better (and unlike the Droid, the Pre doesn't look like an updated Razr).
@Sled
I wonder...Android+webOS...
Do it you bastards!
@Cin Were we reading the same article? Where in the article did he say that manufacturing problems were his biggest issues? I read that his impression was execution (intangible). He was not very forthcoming about the hardware issues. In fact, instead of discussing each of the manufacturing flaws and how they addressed them, he downplayed them. From the article, "there were a variety of hardware issues. Those are all behind us now."
Engadget reviewers obviously disagree with Ruby on the point that those hardware issues are all behind them. See the hardware review here: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/20/palm-pre-plus-and-pixi-plus-review/
Josh's open letter to Palm even recommended that they do the exact opposite of what Ruby is doing in this CNN Money interview, outwardly acknowledge and rush to fix hardware problems: http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/19/palm-this-is-your-survival-guide/
Timing issues is a less egregious error in judgement than allowing bad hardware. As the CEO, Ruby needs to grow a backbone. Admit to the bad decisions rather than downplay them. Make better decisions instead of replaying the same old bad ones.
@DeFlanko : The captain has decided to go down with the ship.
@Coswyn
The Direct result of setting the phasers to "Stun"
@Apple Google Microsoft
i wish i could down rank that one into oblivion all by myself. what a comment.
@MosesusedaniPad
Why would HTC buy Palm when their core business is making handsets running a variety of OSes? They don't have the software expertise to maintain their own OS and if they stop making Android/WP phones they stand to lose a lot of business.
@Sled
Mr Rubinstein can sit around and play "what if" games all he wants, but it doesn't change the fact that he's the one that made the calls, which ultimately brought him to his present situation. Also considering how both the Pre and Droid are great phones, it all boiled down to how clearly each respective companies, in collaboration with their service providers, pitched their product to draw the attention of their target audience. The results are apparent, so I think it's irresponsible to come out now with remarks like these.
@John Stathakis
Why not?
@Joe the Plumber : you are right. I felt mad when I saw that news. Engadget is actively participating to some kind of big troll that should make some companies hate each other.
@DeFlanko
Ha ha! Biggest D'oh ever!
Jon Rubinstein,
your product would be better if
1. the release wasn't postponed, I waited for one to buy back then, you moved the date to June, well guess what, I just bought an iPhone instead. It was a huge mistake to release it almost simultaneously with iPhone. And everyone knew that.
2. You screwed up with releasing full fledged SDK on time. Result? Minuscule number of apps.
3. Keyboard is awful. Unless you are a 12 year old girl with tiny fingers, it's very uncomfortable. You should have either gone with horizontal slider or virtual keyboard and bigger screen.
4. Yeah, it needs bigger screen
5. Crappy build quality. Keyboard falling off from the display hinge for one. And you kept pretending everything was fine.
6. Awful marketing. After I saw that female hygiene commercial you created, I was uncomfortable buying Pre, cuz I don't use tampons.
Should have showed how awesome WebOS is (multitasking, aggregated contacts etc) instead of weird dancing chicks.
7. Lack of mainstream media (TV) marketing.
...
WebOS is beautiful, great OS, but you failed on hardware, timely release and marketing.
@The Advanced Kind Is it a heretical statement to say Rubinstein is right? They DO have a better product than the Droid. It's less buggy, leaps and bounds a better design and intuitively useable. It's a fantastic product.
The problem is that they don't have the resources to grow that product into something better. A buyout from HTC, as Engadget suggested today, might actually put the platform where it belongs.
@alex2792 for the patient.
Superlatives are killing me.
@Sarcasme Their potential of webOS is killing me. Why oh why do we still have an aged palm device in the UK? Their marketing is so focused on America and was clear at CES 2010 when they spoke about what they were doing at Verizon. It just frustrates me how they could be doing so well but so many decisions have been the wrong ones.
@Sarcasme You do palm, just make overclock for pre plus official
@Sarcasme
This just in: Palm's Jon Rubinstein sued by Lucas Arts for uttering the word "Droid" in public without prior written consent.
As a Sprint/Android user, I have to admit, things might be a lot different if they launched on Verizon as well.
Nothing would have changed if they launched on Verizon, Verizon sales reps hate palm devices, and simply refuse to sell them, it's just like windows mobile, they do the same thing.. It took something completely new that the reps have never seen before and my ex told me they were kind of forced to sell and learn android. I think that since the Verizon reps are dumb and refuse to actually learn anything besides what is easy or what they are forced to do.. anything they already hated would not have succeeded at Verizon
I don't think my comment was in english
@Dank Dillweed
Release time changes Nothing, BAD HARDWARE, always broking.
@Beatnik
*Breaking*
@Dank Dillweed
I agree, if the Pre had been released first on Verizon, we would be talking about a very different story. There was such HUGE pent-up demand for the Droid, not just because it was an Android phone, but because Verizon had no premier smartphone to compete with the iPhone. The Palm Pre, for all its hardware faults and lack of apps, had the potential to be that smartphone, and if it had been released on Verizon, I bet its ailments would be long-forgotten by now.
Heck, before the Droid was announced, I was thinking of jumping to Sprint for the Pre and their cheap Everything plans. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was tired of Verizon to stop giving us clunky, outdated phones. And then the Android floodgates opened...
@Dank Dillweed
I still think he should stop saying what-if's. They made a huge mistake by launching the Pre with Sprint and by having mediocre hardware. Saying this just makes the company sounds arrogant rather than admitting its own mistake...
@pk
It was no mistake by launching the pre first on sprint considering at the time nobody wanted palm and how sprint has a better 3g network than att is the only one that competes with vzw in 3g coverage/reliability and specially lower price plans. Their mistake was really horrible advertising.
Remember the iphone it came to ATT back then ATT wasn't shit. Their 3g network was even smaller to what it is now and right now is still small. I just don't understand how they have so much money yet 3rd in 3g coverage behind sprint and vzw. The HTC EVO has big potentiall if htc comes with a good ad campaign they will sell lots of devices and is coming for sprint.
@periks19
I hear you man, but remember (and it still fighting it's way out), that Sprint had a terrible P/R problem. And Palm, yeah nobody wanted a Treo 9-gazillion, but if you build it, as they say, they will come. Only problem with that is, people will come when out of contract.
So, you're left with people who are hesitant to leave their current provider and join Sprint for 24 months, and people who are quite content with VZW. So guess what happens/ed? Well, we're discussing it.
I like WebOS and all, but wow... Come on Palm. You're getting your ass handed to you because you put out a junk phone (as to hardware quality) with a very good OS. Android is also a very good OS but happens to be on phones that are better quality (such as he Droid that he picks out here).
@htowngator It's also hard to embrace an OS that's alone and not doing so well. Both for consumers and developers you take a smaller risk choosing Android over WebOS.
@htowngator
Agree 100% about the hardware. Complete junk. My pre was bought last June and suffers from shutting while opening or closing slider (fixed with a piece of paper wedge between battery)
Crack starting from where the USB door USED to be. Hairline crack from the front button.
WebOS has so much potential if only it were on faster and better hardware.
My advice to Palm is get out of the hardware business and focus on getting WebOS on more phones and tablets.
@htowngator
I love WebOS but will get the EVO when it comes out. Palm needs better hardware, period, a solid device, like HTCs brick phones.
It's been 10 months since the Pre was released. Announce something, please!
@busdriver71
So, spin off the software division? Again?
Palm is losing it quicker than I thought.
Droid fans unite! He's disrespecting the robot man, that's a no no.