I am posting this message against my own interest, because I hope to buy PALM at as low a price as possible in the IPO. But the article you posted is simply nonsense, and I would like to point it out.
And then there's the matter of competition, which is getting fiercer. First, Palm must fend off the new Handspring--a company run by Palm's founders, Donna Dubinsky and Jeffrey Hawkins--as well as other manufacturers.
HandSpring is far from competing against Palm. The fact that it can't even set up an online shopping store, you know it lacks people in operations. Nonetheless, the Visor is the type of design that Palm would love to see more. HandSpring is raising the bar in PDA designs, and no doubt, this will lead to great products from the likes of Apple and Sony, which will kill any CE devices out there, including those from Casio. Go HandSpring go, because part of Palm's success is riding on it.
The uglier battle is with Microsoft, a company that doesn't like to be No. 2. At the moment, the Palm OS has a comfortable lead over Windows CE, an adaptation of Microsoft's desktop system that consumers so far have found awkward and rather short on useful features. That could change. Rogers Weed, Microsoft's marketing chief for handheld, claims his engineers have spent the past 18 months improving Windows CE, making it simpler and adding options such as an MP3 player and an e-book reader that are as good for entertainment as business. And remember who we're dealing with.
MP3 Player and Ebook Reader are applications, not part of an OS. The author of this article is simply clueless. What Palm may have to work on is porting the OS to more powerful processors such as the 32bit MIPS or ARM. Once Palm goes to a more powerful processor, multimedia applications will be there.
In reality, we know Palm OS is already running on very powerful processors. Otherwise, why would the "graphics claim of famed" Apple be using Palm, and why did Sony announce to add audio and video applications to Palm OS?
Microsoft already owns a lot of desktop investors' eyeballs and has a virtually bottomless marketing war chest to spend luring them to Windows CE-based handhelds. "It's easy for Palm to sign deals and do press releases," says Weed. "It's another to get in the trenches."
Hasn't Microsoft been very powerful and rich for the last many years? Palm still kicked its butt. This is not simply signing deals and doing press releases. Look at what the consumers are buying -- Palm, Palm, and more Palm. Palm certainly didn't put out the news releases that CE lost Philips, Compaq, and Everex.
MSFT has no leverage from PC to Handheld Computer. This is a new paradigm, just as IBM didn't have much leverage from MainFrame to PC.
He'll also have to raise morale among engineers and marketers, who are said to be feeling shell-shocked with all the changes.
Palm engineers are some of the most arrogant engineers in the valley. If anything, they should tone down their "I am a bad ass" attitude. They don't need to raise their morale; they need to "lower" them.
Khan |
