CNBC Article and Video Interview with Ed Colligan
A new CNBC article entitled "Palm Almost Ready for High Fives" has been posted under Jim Goldman's TechCheck column. In the new piece, Mr. Goldman paints a cautiously optimistic picture of Palm's future, as the company currently struggles through a grim twelve months filled with a series of layoffs, four consecutive quarterly losses, buggy products, retail store closures, and product delays. Goldman's articles goes onto shed some interesting light problems facing the embattled handheld pioneer and the imminent changes promised by CEO Ed Colligan as the company completes its transition from the PDA days of the 1990s to a smartphone-centric future.
The article essentially states that the Centro is the focal point of Palm's rejuvenated assault on the marketplace. What with the announcement of two million Centros sold, the little device remains the company's key to reaching both new demographics and retaining current customers. A 17-minute video interview with Ed Colligan is joined by Goldman's commentary (while two video windows are posted to the site, they have identical content and unfortunately do not form a two-part interview).
Interestingly enough, Colligan claims that the Centro is capturing many users who walk into a cell phone store to purchase a new free or $49 w/ contract phone and walk out with a Centro without mentioning that many of these price-sensitive users may not be able or choose to pay the additional monthly data surcharges. Yet a few minutes later while defending the formfactor and usability of Palm devices, Colligan knocks the 3G iPhone as a more expensive long-term proposition due to its increased service fees from AT&T. Goldman's questions to Colligan faintly echo this and similar concerns but never fully hammer home the issue of Palm's risky potential with a barely-diversified product lineup and an antiquated core OS.
Some highlights from Colligan's comments include his take that the Palm Centro targets an entirely different ("less pretentious", "lower income") demographic than Apple's wildly-popular, much-hyped iPhone. Colligan also doesn't consider the iPhone a "phone that I would carry" but does offer some praise with "they did some great work there". This faint praise offers a drastic turnaround from his comments less than two years where Colligan shrugged off the potential thread offered by Apple as a newcomer to the smartphone market. Quite a bit of interesting analysis is offered by Colligan, enthusiastically in his element, behind the Elevation Partners deal and the long-term goals and intentions of Palm's investors that I will refrain from summarizing here in the interest of brevity.
Another interesting comment concerns Palm's "two flywheel" approach to target B2B customers with longer product lifecycles as well as the price-sensitive, hit-oriented, fickle consumer marketplace. No references are made to the higher-end "prosumer" segment occupied primarily by the iPhone that Palm's upcoming Nova OS devices will presumably also target.
Suspiciously absent from Colligan's commentary is any discussion of the upcoming Nova OS, Palm's shift of the Treo line to Windows Mobile-only devices, or any focus on the core strengths of Palm OS, aside from general comments regarding the Centro's "ease of use". Also strangely absent are anything more than passing references to the "rebuilding" influences from Jon Rubinstein for Palm's future product roadmap.
Rubinstein, who arrived at Palm last year amidst much fanfare, has so far operated quietly and out of the mainstream spotlight, with the tantalizing tidbits offered by Goldman of Rubinstein wielding "enormous influence" at Palm are not fully disclosed. Unsurprisingly, the cancelled Foleo subnotebook, reported an immediate of Rubinstein's product purge nearly one year ago, does not merit a mention by either Goldman or Colligan. Despite the red-hot market for lightweight "netbook" subnotebook PCs, no mention is made in the course of the interview of the Foleo II promised by Colligan last year in his open letter posted to the Palm corporate blog.
Ultimately, this is an extremely interesting article for Palm pessimists and optimists alike, with the full video interview with Ed Colligan making for essential viewing material indeed.
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RE: Let me drag out that brilliant Colligan quote again
http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2006/11/17/that-funny-that-nasty-that-charming-man/
3 million
RE: 3 million
Ed's Foot in Mouth Disease
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/palms-colligan-centro-easier-than-iphone/
'Centro, the getto iPhone'
From the article: "Palm Centro targets an entirely different ("less pretentious", "lower income") demographic than Apple's wildly-popular, much-hyped iPhone"
How can Ed Colligan continue to be so enthusiastic regarding Palm's future?
Is the Nova OS even relevant anymore? With WM 6.1 (made better with HTC tweaking), the upcoming Google android os, and the iPhone, where will the Palm Nova OS fit?
A lot of Palm OS third-party developers are not releasing updates or offering support anymore. People are jumping ship.
KAY
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
> "lower income") demographic than Apple's wildly-popular, much-hyped iPhone"...
It continues to surprise me that folks seriously discuss these two phones in a point-A/point-B manner when they obviously are aimed at completely different customer sets.
I mean, who CARES if the iPhone has widget X and the Centro doesn't?
The iphone, at $199, kills off Palm's OTHER PalmOS devices and probably their existing Windows devices as well, and if a Nova device or two is released, will be in direct competition with THOSE (by design).
The iPhone, though it's relatively really cheap, is NOT a low-level consumer device and, other than that price comparison, shouldn't be compared with a low-level consumer device.
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
The Centro is $259 in Canada, on a 3-year contract
For a phone worth $99, Canada certainly is getting raw deal. Especially since the 8GB iPhone 3G is only $199
So World Wide I think it is a fair comparison.
The last known classic PDA user.
I've recently upgraded from a Palm TX to a Newton MP2000!
http://newtonpda.googlepages.com
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
I figure far less of of THIS happens:
Customer:Hey, I'm looking for one of those smartphone things that's not TOO expensive
Salesman: Well, sir, here's the new 3G iPhone. It has a huge, high-res screen and GPS & wi-fi & gigs of internal storage (insert feature set here)
Customer: Forget it, that iPhone thing's too big to put in my pocket! And I absolutely must have a QWERTY keyboard. And that screen on the iPhone is so big that the person sitting next to me might be able to read all of my personal information. I don't need that! And the iPhone's not available in my favorite colors blue or pink! With the $100 I save buying this little electric blue Centro thing here, I can take my wife to a really nice dinner. On top of that, I operate on a strict budget and cannot pay more than $30 per month for any kind of data service, no matter what kind of device it's on. And I don't need any of that built-in memory stuff anyway, I just want to send e-mails and text messages. And that GPS and wi-fi stuff is just unecessary junk that will run a battery down even faster.
Salesman: You're right, sir. The Centro really does everything you need it to do without being hard to use. Let me get out one of the back for you!
than THIS:
Customer:Hey, I'm looking for one of those smartphone things that's not TOO expensive
Salesman: Well, sir, today's your lucky day. We have the popular new Palm Centro. It comes in all of the cool colors, is easy to use, has a full QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen. It does so much right out of the box and you can add lots of programs to it! And the best part is that it's just $100!
Customer: Wow, I love the ease of use and the price. And I've heard a lot of people have been happy with those Palm Pilot things over the years. Hmmm, but it's kind of cheap looking and doesn't look that professsional. The screen looks really tiny as well. You know I'm not a 20-year old anymore. And that keyboard is godawful! With a keyboard like that, I'd just as soon not have one if it'll give me a bigger screen. You know, I mainly just need to read e-mails when I'm not in my office. I'll only type them on a mobile device if it's urgent. You got another Palm or Centro with a bigger screen?
Salesman: Ummmm, no sir
Customer: Well how about at least a larger version of the Centro with a bigger keyboard, sort like my buddy's BlackBerry? Hey, and how about one with GPS built in? Those BlackBerries have had GPS built-in for a while now. That might come in handy when I'm on a business trip.
Salesman: Ummmm, no sir. This is the only Palm product we stock. In fact, it's the only Palm product they still make that works on our network.
Customer: But I remember being in here a few months ago and you had several of these Palm Treo things with bigger screens and keyboards. And they weren't this ugly either!
Salesman: Yes sir, well, ummmm, that is correct but we no longer carry those. This is the only device Palm makes that's available outside of Sprint. But if you can wait a while, they have a whole buncha new phones coming sometime next summer or so that'll have huge screens and GPS and wi-fi and all kinds of cool stuff!
Customer (if he's in an AT&T store): Forget it. Just give me this iPhone like everyone else I know. It does more cool stuff than this Centro and my kids'll think I'm really a hip dad now.
Customer (if he's not at an AT&T store): Forget it, I'm going across the street to get an iPhone for just $100 more
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: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
Customer (under 30) - What's Palm? I think I saw some kid on the playground with one, I thought it was a toy.
The last known classic PDA user.
I've recently upgraded from a Palm TX to a Newton MP2000!
http://newtonpda.googlepages.com
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
Salesman: Why? What's wrong your iPhone? You're the envy with that phone.
Customer: Applications load slow.
Salesman: What do you mean? I need an example.
Customer: Watch this. Let's tap on Settings and count to 6 while we watch it load.
Salesman: Well, that's the way Settings works. It has to collect all the information. Have you added any applications that has eaten up your memory.
Customer: Not really. However, I did sync my music from iTunes along with my email, contacts and calendar.
Salesman: Oh, that's your problem. You shouldn't use up all the memory.
Customer: I only synced 1,000 songs. It still has more than half of it's 16 GB of memory remaining.
Salesman: For better performance we suggest that you leave more than half of your memory free.
Customer: That sounds just like "PC" on the commercials. But speaking of performance, is the battery supposed to burn out in 5 hours?
Salesman: Did you have your 3G turned on and your wifi?
Customer: That's why I bought it. ;)
Salesman: We suggest that you turn them off when you don't need the extra speed to save battery.
Customer: It sure would be nice to have a wifi button on the outside to just turn that on and off so that I wouldn't have to make 4 touches on the screen menus.
Salesman: Hmm. Well, if that's the only reason you want your Centro back, you might should reconsider because you will really miss the full browser, the beautiful screen, and...
Customer: Did I mention that Safari and the Stock widget crash regularly. Some of my contacts have been duplicated 8x on my Exchange Server. And this all happened since I got it at noon today.
Salesman: We can send it back for another one if you like.
Customer: No thanks. I think I will just take back my, cheap, quick, copy & paste, ignore-call-with-text, keyboard shortcutting, tethering, speed dialing, category arranging, task managing, one-handed little workhorse Centro.
--
That's my experience today with my new black 16GB iPhone 3G that had been on back ordered for 2 weeks. The problems are real even if the story is novel. Tomorrow the iPhone goes back. So much for being envied...I have work to do. (BTW. My Centro will once again sync faithfully with my MacBook Pro using The Missing Sync.)
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
Next Customer in Line: Boy that was a real genius.
Salesman: Well some people are just born slow.
Next Customer in Line: I'll take an iPhone for both the wife and I and a Centro for
the 13 year old.
Salesman: You sure you don't want Centro's for all of your household?
Next Customer in Line AND Salesman: Bwhahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!!!
Next Customer in Line: Oh your killing me. Actually just make it 3 iPhones.
The last known classic PDA user.
I've recently upgraded from a Palm TX to a Newton MP2000!
http://newtonpda.googlepages.com
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
The last known classic PDA user.
I've recently upgraded from a Palm TX to a Newton MP2000!
http://newtonpda.googlepages.com
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
Then again, maybe a future development will be to allow Settings shortcuts on the Home screen. Two taps then.
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
Garnet: Old, underpowered, & unstable but a superb, easy UI & superb PIM functionality
BB: Ugly fonts, no touchscreen support & still too-email centric...but rapidly improving
WinMob: Powerful but a horrible mish-mash of old & new UI elements and generally ill-suited for handheld devices
iPhone/Touch/OS X: Fast, stable, powerful but too dumbed-down in both hardware & software. And now reports of stability problems with the new 2.0 units.
It's funny....ont the surface, ALP (from what we saw) & NOVA (from the tidbits we've been told) would appear to offer the most compelling combination of ease + power. But I don't think we're gonna see those two OS on any shipping devices so we'll just have to be content to pick from the 4 evils above. I'll personally stick with Garnet through next year (at least), thanks, though I wouldn't rule out picking up a cheap 2nd-gen iPod Touch later on just to play around with & use as as web browser.
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: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
>>>It's funny....ont the surface, ALP (from what we saw) & NOVA (from the tidbits we've been told) would appear to offer the most compelling combination of ease + power.
I'd run to an ER right now if I were you. Someone has apparently stolen your brain while you were asleep.
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
Then again, maybe a future development will be to allow Settings shortcuts on the Home screen. Two taps then."
Yes.
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
Wow what a colossal bad move on your part to return your iPhone. The 2.0.1 iPhone OS update came out two nights ago and fixed the app loading speed issues, among many other things.
It pays not to be a spaz.
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
If so - I want one!
Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
-Bosco
NX80v + Wifi + BT + S710a
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
Understand that up until recently, pioneers like Palm had to custom-integrate their own chips, systems software and user applications, then go sell that "platform" to a carrier like Verizon for further customization and branding before they could ever see one of your dollars. That was life up until the 700p.
Nowadays, nobody makes their own chips and systems software. Anyone can go to Qualcomm and buy a set of chips that support CDMA, GSM, WiFi and Bluetooth for pennies, complete with drivers for Java, Linux or Windows -so there is no more need to write your own operating system, just run BREW, Linux or Windows Mobile, though while transitioning to one of these platforms, you can certainly run legacy system software, hence the 755p and Centro.
So Palm OS has served its purpose and the thousands of applications and millions of users can evolve into running unmodified on Garnet VM on Linux (Nova). Plus for those developers of the great applications they can rebuild their software very easily to run on Linux (outside of the Garnet VM), to use its more modern features to serve iPhone-like experiences to the new users who are nowadays able to pickup free Palm Centros and run them on dirt-cheap networks like Cricket, MetroPCS and Sprint. Access (keepers of Garnet) also have a whole bag of stuff from their former Cobalt project that will finally come of age running on Linux and they'll begin to migrate the core Palm apps out of the Garnet VM to run natively in Linux.
So the combination of GarnetVM-on-Linux with its thousands of applications and millions of users will then compete against Android-on-Linux (by Google) and the legacy-cruft from the late 80s: Cocoa-on-OSX (by Apple/NeXT) and Windows Mobile. These four operating systems will then duke it out on the same exact chipsets, packaged in only slightly different form-factors and marketed in vastly different ways, but it's all functionally equivalent. What's more is that any application or look or feel that becomes popular for one platform will quickly be re-created for the others, simply because of the sheer numbers making it profitable to do so (Palm has sold millions of Garnet devices, Microsoft has sold millions of Windows Mobile licenses, all of China/Taiwan/Japan are making devices for Google Android and people are really killing each other in the streets for iPhones).
So no way Palm OS is dead, especially with free Centros and Linux-migration on its way. Also, using iPhone in a meaningful way involves trusting Apple and its contractors (on-shore and off-shores) with your data (music prefs, tasks/events/photos/GPS/email/contacts/voicemail/social security number as they sync through iTunes and MobileMe). The young kids don't know any better and, as usual, Congress is 10 years behind this issue but you will have only yourself to blame if/when that disaster waiting to happen does. With all other solutions, you're only sharing such stuff with your phone carrier (which operates under very well defined laws, regulations and FCC governance) not some company in silicon valley with notoriously unstable employees and contractors.
If you're on a dying 600/650/680/700p/TX and can grab a free Centro or 755p. Otherwise, if you don't already have a smartphone, maybe consider going for a Nokia 7XX/8XX (with Garnet VM) and a Bluetooth-tether to your cell-phone until Palm drops its 9XX series running Nova.
...and if there is some cool app on the iTunes Music Store that you want on your Treo, then contact the developer and tell them. If they aren't responsive, then contact a PalmOS developer and tell them to build it (there are some really great developers out there who don't eat if they don't please you -forget the fat thick-headed ones who are prancing around declaring how Palm has let them down while going to pour everything they own and can borrow into Apple's proprietary framework and iTunes distribution system that charges them 30% forever and can put them out of business as soon as Apple decides it likes a different product better or wants the market in-house to help leverage more quarters out of our pockets).
RE: 'Centro, the getto iPhone'
uh...bosco has an iphone. i don't think he's going back to frankengarnet any time soon.
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Let me drag out that brilliant Colligan quote again
They'll put that on his grave marker. In Potter's Field.