Analysts Continue to Downgrade Palm

And the hits just keep on coming. After yesterdays surprising revenue warning, the analysts are chiming in today with further negative reports and many are beginning to question Palms long-term viability. Tech Trader Daily has a good round up of analyst notes and MarketWatch has published a detailed article on the situation as well citing many of the same sources.

Jim Suva, at Citigroup reports: He Maintains a Sell rating, but adds Palm to his "Top Picks Live" list, as a short. Target to $1.20, form $3.75. He says the consensus "is underestimating the fundamental product issuees leading to even more sales and profit pressures ahead." He has "concerns for liquidity" for FY 2010 due to lack of cash flow and increased competition. "We are not convinced Palm's new products," due in the 2009 first half, "are strong enough or will come fast enough to overcome current product and economic challenges."

Shares of Palm stock today opened at another all time low in the ~1.20 range. It is currently trading down about 15% at 1.61 with a couple hours remaining.

Update: Palm shares actually closed higher today, up 0.14 at 2.02 for a gain of 7.45% on an overall market rally.

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Request

abosco @ 12/2/2008 1:29:58 PM # Q
Can we have some sort of a Reagan-style funeral? Put a Pilot 1000 and Vx in a coffin and we can all walk through it, paying homage?

Or should we just place Palm Inc. in the Palm Graveyard?
http://www.palminfocenter.com/graveyard.asp

If anyone wants to make a quick buck and speed up the process, they can short-sell Palm.

-Bosco
m105 -> NX70v -> NX80v -> iPhone -> iPhone 3G

RE: Request
LiveFaith @ 12/3/2008 7:07:56 AM # Q
Paint the coffin COBALT blue while your at it. :-o

Pat Horne
RE: Request
joad @ 12/3/2008 9:08:12 PM # Q
That color is SO 2007...


Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.
RE: Request
CFreymarc @ 12/4/2008 5:01:37 PM # Q
Has Jeff Hawkins said anything public? In the past, his comments have helped out PR issues.
paint it black
Gekko @ 12/4/2008 5:18:14 PM # Q

I see a Centro and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
I see a line of cars and they're all painted black
With flowers and my love both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a new born baby it just happens every day
I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my Centro and it has been painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black



RE: Request
SeldomVisitor @ 12/5/2008 4:28:04 AM # Q
> Has Jeff Hawkins said anything public? In the past, his comments
> have helped out PR issues.

(1) Jeff Hawkins said Jeff Hawkins is a former officer at Palm in his last SEC filing, a filing about the sale of a large number of shares of Palm stock:

- http://tinyurl.com/hawkinsselloff

(2) One of the better comments to help PR issues made by Hawkins was, during THE introduction of the Fooleo at the All Things Digital schmooze, was "I wish it had a more powerful processor" (perhaps a slight paraphrase).

RE: Request
CFreymarc @ 12/5/2008 3:14:26 PM # Q
Thanks Seldom! There was a rather sad crowd over at St. John's Burgers on Lawrence a few weeks ago. It was a pretty somber group. Who knows exactly who they were but one comment overheard pretty much said it all, "If we go out, it'll be cause of the project cancellations and quality being lost due to outsourcing so the *plural expletive* could keep making their mortgage payments on their houses in the hills." That rang true to me.
RE: Request
SeldomVisitor @ 12/5/2008 3:21:55 PM # Q
> ..."...quality being lost due to outsourcing..."...

That's an interesting comment - I =just= made a similar comment on a Sonus Networks Yahoo message board! Sonus apparently canned a bunch of high-priced Americans and outsourced a boatload of positions to India. According to Sonus the India programmers are a factor of =3.5= less expensive! You cannot argue with that shortterm economic picture. But as I commented in that yahoo post:

- http://tinyurl.com/outsourcehit

RE: Request
SeldomVisitor @ 12/5/2008 3:52:40 PM # Q
On first reading your comment I thought you were discussing Palm folks...but I now see that St. John's is quite a way away from Palm HQ (Gogogle Maps (and street view) rule!) so unlikely...guess this sort of thing is happening a lot in a lot of places, huh?

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N97, 5800

tompi @ 12/3/2008 10:15:38 AM # Q
Have people seen the new Nokia phones? Multitasking, high res, slim, great camera.

Does the company with the first touch screen phone have anything comparable to offer?

RE: N97, 5800
Colormeweb @ 12/3/2008 6:01:05 PM # Q
Yeah its cool until you realize there are no programs to put on it. Symbian has a poor developer community.
RE: N97, 5800
hkklife @ 12/3/2008 7:04:41 PM # Q
Microsoft's WinMobhardware partners along with Nokia & RIM are all trying to wrap sleek new hardware around crusty old OSes not primarily designed for the "Mobile Web 2.0" era and/or intuitive touchscreen input. This is where Apple (and to a far, far lesser extent, Google) continues to be waaaaay ahead relative to everyone else in the smartphone sector.

In some ways, RIM, Nokia and the likes of Samsung and HTC in the same boat with Palm and its crusty old OS but at least the former companies on the list care about their hardware specs & styling. Palm cannot be bothered to care about the OS or the hardware at this stage of the game.

Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

RE: N97, 5800
joad @ 12/3/2008 9:15:33 PM # Q
Palm hadn't a clue for a long time about where their strengths truly are/were.

The simplicity and flexibility of the OS and the huge range of programs available for it were why everyone stuck with them through their years and years of mis-steps. People tolerated the inroads toward WinceMob because they thought that once they pushed out one of those phones to appease the fanboys they'd finally concentrate on finally getting out the new and improved operating system we've been promised and expecting since the early part of this century.

Instead, they dumbed down the (real) Treo into a Centro, and keep spinning their wheels with new color releases.

Sad, they coulda' been a contender. "It's the OS, stupid."


Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.

RE: N97, 5800
mikecane @ 12/4/2008 7:08:34 AM # Q
I've only read a report of the N97. There's a 5800 too? Didn't make any blip on my radar.

So is that it from Nokia? Two more weak-ass phones?

And their death spiral continues.

Buh-bye, Finland!

NEXT!

RE: N97, 5800
SeldomVisitor @ 12/4/2008 8:15:15 AM # Q
> ...There's a 5800 too?...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njEG9CcMs74

RE: N97, 5800
mikecane @ 12/4/2008 2:54:27 PM # Q
"Here you can touch ... and touch ... and touch ... and TOUCH THIS FRIKKIN UNRESPONSIVE SCREEN!!!"

Yeah, Apple is in waaaay trouble now.

ROTFLMAO.

Those Finns. Now they do comedy. Or is it simply their usual farce?

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