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Roger McNamee says Pre launch was a "dream come true," hints that all Palm devices will have physical keyboards

by Nilay Patel posted Jun 9th 2009 at 11:08AM

There's never a dull moment when Palm investor Roger McNamee sits down for an interview, and his latest chat with Fox Business is no exception -- in addition to saying that the Pre launch was a "dream come true," he more or less implied that all future Palm devices will have hardware keyboards: "Our goal is to address all of those people who say I cannot have a real life without a keyboard -- I can't live doing one thing at a time." Yeah, it's not much, but taken in context it seems like he's saying that keyboards and multitasking will be Palm's major differentiators against the iPhone. That's not to say he thinks the Pre is destined to kill Cupertino's baby -- in addition to calling Apple "the most successful company in the history of Silicon Valley," McNamee also reiterated Palm's characterization of the iPhone as primarily a consumer-centric media phone: "If what you care about most is listening to music or playing back videos, the iPhone is probably the right phone for you." That's a pretty slickly-delivered backhanded compliment, if you ask us -- although from El Rog we'd expect nothing less. Check the whole interview after the break -- it's a good one.

[Via Everything Pre]

Continue reading Roger McNamee says Pre launch was a "dream come true," hints that all Palm devices will have physical keyboards

Palm live from D7

by Joshua Topolsky posted May 28th 2009 at 3:14PM

It's already been a crazy day for Palm news -- so who knows what Palm's Jon Rubinstein and Elevation Partner's Roger McNamee have in store (well, we have a few ideas). We're live at their D7 session and the fun is set to begin any moment, so stay tuned.

Thanks to our editor-at-large and gdgt co-founder Ryan Block for handling photo duties during the show!

Continue reading Palm live from D7

Roger McNamee self-parodies his Palm Pre superlatives: "it eats iPhones for breakfast"

by Paul Miller posted May 28th 2009 at 3:12PM

The ever-quotable, perennially unkempt Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners fame indulged in a bit of self-parody in a mock-commercial screened at D7 before he and Jon Rubinstein took the stage. While incredibly entertaining, the video also acts as a bit of damage control for Roger, who infamously stated that there would be a massive and sudden exodus from the iPhone to the Pre once those original iPhone contracts are up. Palm naturally distanced itself and "clarified" the comments, but that doesn't seem to have dampened McNamee's spirit: in the video he calls the Pre, among other things, "better than Viagra." Unfortunately for McNamee, he might've been better served by a damage control video after his time on stage with Walt and Kara: his semi-sexist "It has a mirror on the back... there's never been a phone like this for women before" line -- not to mention a general disregard for sane conversation -- isn't winning him many points with the crowd. Video is after the break.

Continue reading Roger McNamee self-parodies his Palm Pre superlatives: "it eats iPhones for breakfast"

Roger McNamee's wild predictions shot down -- by Palm itself

by Tim Stevens posted Mar 10th 2009 at 7:12AM

Remember wild-man McNamee's predictions last week of death to the iPhone and all sorts of other Pre-related wonderment? We read and we chuckled and we moved on, but someone took his statements a little more seriously -- Palm. Yes, the company Roger was talking up, the company in which his firm Elevation Partners owns a particularly large stake, submitted a document to the SEC that summarily disputes all of his hyperactive talking points. It's full of facts and figures and is completely dry, but, like an episode of Yes Minister, is also full of comedic brilliance. Here's the company's reaction to our favorite bit, about the death of the iPhone:

The statement in the second paragraph of the article that "not one" person who bought an Apple, Inc. iPhone on the first shipment date "will still be using an iPhone a month" after the two-year anniversary of that day is an exaggerated prediction of consumer behavior pattern and is withdrawn.

It's good to know that, even in these tough times, there's still some comedy left in the corporate world. More boardroom humor after the break.

[Via Palm Infocenter]

Continue reading Roger McNamee's wild predictions shot down -- by Palm itself