http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/ Engadget Comments for Palm shareholders approve Elevation Partners sale http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/Now, how to turn the company around? I really don't see a good fix. They need to throw everything out and restart from the ground up. Forget about the software, Run Windows or lynix, but the palm OS is run its life cycle. The new Treo 500 launch yesterday are a joke. A Treo with no touch scree WTF? There are plenty of cooler phones on the mark with touch screens, I predict another flop for Palm.]]>Sep 12th 2007 5:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/
They just want an attractive phone that can do the basics well - and on the evidence so far, the Treo will deliver just that.

It's going to be offered free with Vodafone contracts in the UK and it looks to be an impressive package.

It's not for me mind - I want more features in my phones - but I wouldn't be so quick to declare something 'a joke' when you've never even seen the thing, let alone used it.]]>Sep 12th 2007 6:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/Sep 12th 2007 5:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/
People criticize the iPhone for being simplistic, not open to developers, and lacking basic features (correct on both counts). Palm is in the other boat (not the 'one slowly sinking'), they have everything they could want from field use medical software to GPS. If they just managed to buy out some of the better third party apps instead of making bundling deals, simplified their line to a one (1) real phone and one (1) PDA with each being complete, then they would have a chance to at least exist in a niche market.

With Palm phones I have always looked at the features missing from each model or only available on the wrong network, although not network dependent features, and decided to 'wait for the next product'. There just hasn't been a next.

Who wants a phone or PDA where you not only have to learn different input methods, but also need to learn different operating systems?

Simplify, load up, sell in volume, just put out a decent product at a good price. Your best friends were users and hackers, not telcos. Running windows on a phone doesn't make it a more desirable phone or PDA. Either Palm gets some guidance that does not include listening to every idiot in the world or they are going to have all their IP sold off at auction.

Who trusts Elevation Partners? Is that big words for High Fools?


]]>Sep 12th 2007 6:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/Sep 12th 2007 6:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/
Faslane]]>Sep 12th 2007 6:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/
On-topic, I think it's all been said. Hiring a couple of former Apple guys isn't going to bring Apple's success to what is sadly an almost-dead company. It'd be great if the miracle happened, but I don't see it.

Fred Anderson... Wasn't he the CFO who took (deservedly or otherwise) all the flak for the stock options irregularities at Apple? Not sure I'd want to be getting into bed with him just yet.
]]>Sep 12th 2007 6:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/Sep 12th 2007 6:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/If you're in trouble, you have nothing to lose.]]>Sep 12th 2007 7:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/
The iPaq's hit the market and started offering features that Palm didn't have but everybody thought Palm would counter and get very soon. Palm casually complied?

If memory serves me correct. At one point in time Palm was being sued for not competition strong enough in the market or something like that. That is a very strange lawsuit?

Palm was unconditionally King of the handhelds and a lot of us wanted it to stay that way and we would have showed our support by Purchasing their products, which we sorta did. However Palm they just sat on their a$$ and let the competition; not take over, but just breeze on by. Very strange?

They are already selling devices with Windows preinstalled. I hope this is not the official beginning of the end for Palm. ]]>Sep 12th 2007 7:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/Sep 13th 2007 9:45AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/
hey hey, my my]]>Sep 12th 2007 9:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/It's never too late for a company to turn its self around when they still have people willing to invest.

You only need one hit product to be a success. Just ask the worlds #2 mobile phone maker. Or the leading maker of portable music / media devices.]]>Sep 13th 2007 7:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/palm-shareholders-approve-elevation-partners-sale/For some reason, this reminds me of Atari setting up a bogus competitor named Key Games to defeat the exclusive arcade distribution agreements that were common in the 1970s.

Getting Elevation to essentially take over Palm and using ex-Apple people just sounds like an easy way for Apple to gain control of Palm without triggering a bidding war for the stock. Then add a licensing agreement on the iPhone hardware to Palm and Elevation then selling its stake to Apple seems like an easy and profitable way to thwart the 5 year AT&T exclusive contract by enabling Palm to sell an "iPhone" to Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile here in the U.S.

Is such a theory a long shot? Yep, but Steve Jobs was also once an Atari employee.
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