Jon Rubinstein Appointed CEO of Palm
Palm, Inc. today announced that its board of directors has appointed Jon Rubinstein to lead the company as Chairman and CEO upon the departure of Ed Colligan, who is stepping down after sixteen years of leadership at the company. Rubinstein, who joined Palm as Executive Chairman in October 2007 to help bring innovation back to the company, assumes his role as CEO on June 12. Colligan plans to take some time off, then join Elevation Partners.
"I am very excited about taking on this expanded role at Palm," said Rubinstein. "Ed and I have worked very hard together the past two years, and I'm grateful to him for everything he's done to help set the company up for success. With Palm webOS we have ten-plus years of innovation ahead of us, and the Palm Pre is already one of the year's hottest new products. Due in no small part to Ed's courageous leadership, we're in great shape to get Palm back to continuous growth, and we plan to keep the trajectory going upward."
"I'm very proud of what Palm has accomplished so far," said Colligan. "We pioneered two major product categories and I believe we are on our way to defining the standard for the mobile web. I'm extremely proud of our team, and grateful to have played a role in turning Palm around. I know that Jon, the Board and the Palm executive team will do an incredible job driving Palm to new heights."
Source: Palm Inc. Press Release.
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RE: Wow
It was Ed that went looking for EP and sold them on the "idea" in for first place. If it turns out that his legacy is that he figured out a way to take a dying company and turn around it's fortunes, I guess he's looking pretty good after all. It'll be interesting to see the conclusions after a few years of what his leadership successes or failures were.
Hey Palm! Where's my PDA with Wifi and phone capabilities?
RE: Wow
[IMHO, we're directly seeing the result of a very poor launch]
RE: Wow
RE: 'Stepping down' my ass
This is the first time Palm has released a compelling innovative device in a pretty long while.
RE: 'Stepping down' my ass
That's not good enough to save Palm.
And so the CEO "steps down" a couple days after the company gets the REAL information back from their sales venues.
RE: 'Stepping down' my ass
50,000 sold is significant - while nowhere near iphone sales numbers. With enough positive feedback from users, AND steady h/w and s/w improvements from Palm - the sales will climb - and in a few years I'd wager an installed base well into the millions.
Calling this launch a failure is absurd - I think the only thing holding the launch back was only having 50k units available.
They should have held it back until the end of June and put it out there with 100k - 150k available.
I would hesitate calling you an idiot - I'll let others (freak?) do it for me.
RE: 'Stepping down' my ass
For whatever we might think of the Pre, it could be, like the Centro, we aren't the target market (or we are - I've yet to have my full-out molestation of a Pre). I think it will sell. It's too early to call it a flop. There is also the economic climate to consider too.
And dig this: people who want the new iPhone 3GS are mighty pissed that they'll have to pay *lots* to upgrade to one under their current contract. That could impact Apple's bottom line this year.
RE: 'Stepping down' my ass
I'm not the least bit surprised that Colligan's out, btw. I'm just surprised that Ruby is now the CEO-will this distract him from being the "hardware guy" role? Are Palm going to ride/flog the Pre formfactor to death ala the Centro & T|E?
By PALM STANDARDS, the launch is a smashing success. The only things making this a "poor" launch are inadequate units available in the channel, only an undersized 8gb version available, and the usual argument of the pros & cons of yet another Palm device debuting on Sprint. Now, I expect Pre sales to nosedive after its first month or two on the market are over, but in the first week, I'd say it's as successful as Palm could realistically hope for.
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: 'Stepping down' my ass
Of course people will be pissed about having to pay "lots" to upgrade to the 3GS.....but EVERY OTHER SUBSIDIZED phone on the market (smart & dumbphones alike) work on that same principle. What happened in the iPhone launch in '07 (unsubsidized + mandatory contract) to the '08 iPhone 3G arrival was unprecedented. Every bit of pain & scorn unleashed on Apple is ENTIRELY their own doing. That's what they get for cozying up too closely with AT&T. Had Apple listened to my plea 2 years ago to unleash a ton of reasonably-priced, GSM carrier-agnostic, unlocked iPhones onto the market, it'd have turned the US wireless industry on its ear. Instead we have the same ol' s**t of carrier exclusives, crippled/locked handsets, interminable delays due to "testing" and overpriced data plans. Bah!
P.S. What I want to know in all of this is......where the *F* are Access (and Lefty) with a proper modernized successor to Garnet with the CLASSIC Palm OS PIM apps that we've known to love? We must learn a valuable lesson from Gekko's pain!!
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: 'Stepping down' my ass
RE: 'Stepping down' my ass
jca666us @ 6/10/2009 5:24:10 PM
OK; how is this a poor launch???
This is the first time Palm has released a compelling innovative device in a pretty long while."
Reading the posts from new Pre owners (http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre/) I'd say it was a flop & many will be returned. No bars, No Battery life (you nailed it Kris;), Dead pixels, Crappy sliders, Getting HOT as it sucks up the battery, Toy quality plastic, a little mirror on the back for picking stuff out of your nose? Palm's gone (as far as I'm concerned, RIP).
I'm amazed that people can have such personal gripes against a company that they refuse to see that Apple is where the latest technology is happening.
Gary
Tech Center Labs
RE: 'Stepping down' my ass
>pre/) I'd say it was a flop & many will be returned.
Every new product launch has issues - admittedly the Pre has quite a few more issues then even the last two iphone launches have had (it is a more complex device), but there have been issues with the iphone too.
What will make or break Palm is how they respond to them. If they're responsive, offer replacement devices and work to resolve the issues, then things should be fine. If they bury their head in the sand - then they're in trouble.
>No bars, No Battery life (you nailed it Kris;), Dead pixels, Crappy sliders,
>Getting HOT as it sucks up the battery, Toy quality plastic, a little mirror on
>the back for picking stuff out of your nose?
Let's see - the original iphone had issues with getting overly warm, there was the return issue with cracked screens, a buggy os update that went out, etc.
Considering how far Palm has fallen in recent years, it's amazing that the Pre is as good as it is. If Palm can survive, things will only get better for the platform.
>Palm's gone (as far as I'm concerned, RIP).
Maybe - maybe not. I think if Palm can prosper, they will get Apple to be more competitive in the future - then we all win.
>I'm amazed that people can have such personal gripes against a company
>that they refuse to see that Apple is where the latest technology is
>happening.
Apple has a better handle on usability and industrial design then Palm does - and they had a great idea with the iphone. That can be seen by the sheer number of imitators to hit the market and the obvious inspiration Palm has taken from the iphone. However Palm has likely been itching for an os that would enable them to throw a ton of features into their phones - they finally have that with webos.
RE: 'Stepping down' my ass
Did you mean ala the ipod or the iphone? Either way I like those odds. :)
Farewell, Ed Colligan
Relive the, um, magic.
RE: Farewell, Ed Colligan
Seriously, that was pretty insightful. My theory was Rubenstein was keeping Ed on as camoflauge to lull the competition into complacency. Ed being a no show at D just confirmed my thought he was no longer useful to Joel and so he was a dead CEO walking
"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill
RE: Farewell, Ed Colligan
http://www.palminfocenter.com/ss.asp?f=colligan-and-co-centro.jpg
RE: Farewell, Ed Colligan
RE: Farewell, Ed Colligan
So long Ed, and thanks for all the Treos...
RE: Farewell, Ed Colligan
Ruby
"Yeah. This is Ruby. Well... No, we had a problem...and, uh, we tried to do everything we could. Well, you know what I mean, he's gone. And we couldn't do nothing about it. That's it. Uh, he's gone...he's gone. And that's it."
4:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgKWKvVfqMQ
This is gonna be bloody!
RE: This is gonna be bloody!
jca666us wrote:
It will be hosted by Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer, and Doug Jeffries, chief financial officer.
Hmm, maybe Ed's feeling pretty good about being "elevated" at this point.
Hey Palm! Where's my PDA with Wifi and phone capabilities?
Ed Out Ruby In
What Ruby did for Apple was the practice for Palm !
We can only expect good things to happen.
As for weak Pre sales, I am not sure that Pre is the anchor of Pakms survival but rather Web OS, they talking about the next 10 years and if we are already foaming at the mouth wth Pre and its fantasticness ....we can only truly enjoy all that Palm is going to bring fwd in the future, EOS is looking like a Berry killer ! which is great and you know a 16gb and 32gb device options are on the way !
We are on a strong road to where we should be, Palm is for those in the know ! The rest of the world we soon wake up ! Marketing takes time !
WE ARE BACK !
Treo600>>Treo680>>Centro>>Pre
The difference between Ed and Ruby
Palm, Inc, the maker of the Treo smart phone, will continue to focus on ease of use and reliability rather than design, Palm CEO Ed Colligan said in an interview at the 3GSM telecommunications trade show here."We think that will be a greater driver of purchases in the future," he told MarketWatch in the interview. "We don't want to follow design fads."
That was early 2007. Now is a different story.
Palm on Facebook:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/7124/palm-addresses-pre-design-challenges-on-facebook/
‘Design' was the highest goal on the Palm Pre project.
Interesting.
RE: The difference between Ed and Ruby
RE: The difference between Ed and Ruby
RE: The difference between Ed and Ruby
Palm pioneered the illusion of simplicity, so it's particularly shocking, that Colligan quote.
Dell to buy Palm?
http://techblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/06/dell-hoarding-10-billion-rumor.html
I'm very skeptical of this. I can't see Palm selling when they still have cards to play: the EOS, getting the Pre on other carriers, and whatever that codename zepfloyd is A Dell acquisition would be a huge distraction and also come well before a big possible uptick in value (economy willing).
RE: Dell to buy Palm?
RE: Dell to buy Palm?
Yup.
Short the stock of any company that does that.
Ed the PDA-Killer Colligan resigns
One crippling problem resolved, but now the other is that the Palm Pre needs to be available as a GSM unlocked phone, under 500$.
RE: Ed the PDA-Killer Colligan resigns
== "Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today announced that Douglas C. Jeffries,
== previously chief accounting officer at eBay, will join Palm, Inc. in January
== 2009 as the Company's Chief Financial Officer. Andy Brown will transition
== out of the CFO role and stay with the company through January..."
This PR-Fluff was made in mid-December.
Contrast that with the surprise "He's gone!" announcement about Colligan.
Resigns?
Think "Shotgun Wedding"...
Palm already 'lost' to Apple
IMO, Palm's decline started with G2 and continued with the Life Drive (w/o a phone radio!) and Fooleo products while failing to innovate with their successful Treo line. The best thing that can happen to Palm now is to take the exposure the Pre if offering and sell the company to someone with the distribution channels to roll out a few million units quickly (Dell?).
rpa
Palm Pilot >> Palm Vx >> Tungsten E >> GSM Centro
RE: Palm already 'lost' to Apple
1. Superior hardware compare to the $99 iphone 3g
2. Multitasking web apps
3. Better PIM apps
Why someone would buy an iphone over a Pre
1. Superior hardware to the Pre
2. More stable OS
3. Greater number of apps. and better quality apps
4. Better multimedia support
5. Voice Control
6. Better itunes support
I refuse to mention the keyboards - it's a draw - Pre's tiny hardware keyboard is a piece of junk (imho) while the iphone's virtual keyboard may not be for everyone.
Someone may buy Palm, but I think webos has unleashed Palm - and will enable them to (finally) experiment with different form factors (tablet). They will need further cash infusions (Dell?) to bail them out though - we'll see what their latest earnings report indicates.
BTW, Palm is far from dead - as long as fanatics like freak are out there, willing to buy any piece of junk with a palm logo on it.
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Wow
I still didn't see this coming. Did anyone else?
Current PDA: Treo 600. Lineage: Too long to list...