When will PalmOne go out of business?

[hypachris2]

I think we should start an online betting pool and guess the month/year when PalmOne will go out of business.

According to this usenet thread http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&th=55fa257430fefc9a&rnum=1 , the author predicted that PalmOne will go out of business in June 2005. He wrote it when Sony abandoned the Clie line. He didn't know that Tungsten T5 was flawed though.

With the T5's flaws in mind (plastic case, no wi-fi, no voice recorder, no vibrating alarm, no led, no OS 6, buggy OS 5.4, hard resets wipes out flash RAM, etc) can anyone guess when PalmOne will go out of business?

My prediction is that PalmOne will die out by summer of 2005.

[Mr Sheen]

Thank you Madame Irma

[StoneRyno]

I'm don't think they will. When consider sony they got a ton of different products. But saying Palm will go out of business because of some different problems is like saying Microsoft will go out of business because of all the people that despise the company :)

I personally like the company and look forward to seeing what model(s) come out in the spring. I'd hate to think that companies will fold to Pocket PC. We need companies to try and keep Microsoft from monopolizing every field of business. They have 99% of the OS market and pay the other 1% just so the goverment doesn't shut them down. Its obvious they are tying to do the same with mobile devices and most likely will try to do the same in the video game platform market and what ever other markets they decide to try and take over. But enough of my anti Microsoft rant as it could end up doing more harm than good. :)

[StoneRyno]

Hoever I was curious on the finacial part of palm so I had a look at investor relations section with info from 2004 here is an excerpt....

"palmOne shipped approximately 1.1 million Zire(TM), Tungsten(TM) and Treo(TM) devices during its fourth fiscal quarter, and approximately 4.1 million devices during fiscal year 2004 -- bringing the total number of devices shipped to-date by palmOne to more than 26.4 million."

and

"Revenue for the full fiscal year 2004 was $949.7 million, up 13 percent from the $837.6 million reported in fiscal year 2003."

I'd say they are doing pretty decent.

[WuWei]

When will PalmSource go out of business (or be bought by someone)? They lose money every quarter.

Who would want to buy them, Microsoft? ;) That would be one way to get Palm OS on the latest hardware. Maybe the two Palms could get back together.

[LexLuther]

Maybe the two Palms could get back together.

Personally, I am a PalmOne fan and rather enjoy the 'sound of one hand clapping'.
:D

[technical1]

If they don't come up with a true Flagship product to make up for the T5's lackings & problems in the 'magic' spring release period of '05; start hoarding all the peripherals & apps & accessories you will want; because the bell will toll for PalmOne.

Let's not forget how well loved & respected their tech & cust support is...... NOT!!!

[StoneRyno]

When will PalmSource go out of business (or be bought by someone)? They lose money every quarter.


I don't think they are losing enough money to be concerned. When you compare the loss from continuing operations to the full revenue of 2004 you get 1%. The numbers seem big when you look at them but the loss really isn't that much. They probably would have had a net gain if they had cut back just a little bit in some of their expenses. Cash and equivlents of $203,069,000 for 2004 and $204,967,000 for 2003. They should be able to operate (assuming they continue with this kind of loss) for 20 years if not more. The loss for 2004 is signifcantly lower than the losses seen in 2003 2002 and 2001. I would assume based on how much they have cut their losses they must be doing something right. I'm looking at 1st quarter 2005 but have not looked at it enough to add to this post and its time for me to head to dinner. Yesturday was my birthday and dinner is one of my presents from the family :)

[technical1]

@Stone Ryno,

Happy belated, hope it was a good one.

Yes, the financials are there; but they reflect the savings of money b/c they use poor quality offshore support that everyone hates, & disappoint with products & there is no more Sony in US making PalmPDA's, people will vote w/their feet & go to PPC & then the bottom line will show the reality: terrible cust & tech suppt, buggy & disappointing products that are supposed to be _the new flagship product_ & make people spend more on pda's fm P1 (or should I say PU?), just won't cut it when it comes to customer retention. Then the $$$ will give a different story.

[Gero]

humm you seem to get this thread every time P1 bring out a hand held.. the hand held is generally slatted by the forums as not meeting our (and thats 'our'.. not the consumers) expectation, yet the models go on to do really well...

I expect in summer 2005, P1 will be doing even better financially, whilst STILL bringing out pda's that get slatted in this forum as not meeting 'our' expectations.

Just my 2 cents

[Gero]

@Stone Ryno,

Happy belated, hope it was a good one.

Yes, the financials are there; but they reflect the savings of money b/c they use poor quality offshore support that everyone hates, & disappoint with products & there is no more Sony in US making PalmPDA's, people will vote w/their feet & go to PPC & then the bottom line will show the reality: terrible cust & tech suppt, buggy & disappointing products that are supposed to be _the new flagship product_ & make people spend more on pda's fm P1 (or should I say PU?), just won't cut it when it comes to customer retention. Then the $$$ will give a different story.

Isnt terrible customer support and new products that are buggy on release symptomatic of all new technology?..

I read the ppc sites... seems ppc's are just as buggy as P1 devices and i've yet to speak to a customer support peron.. EVER that really new what they were talking about...

I can imagine P1 would go down for that..

[jjesusfreak01]

When I heard of all the flaws of the T5, I thought to myself, "Palm sure pulled a Merck". Of course, what they did was worse, because Vioxx had to be thoroughly tested before being sold. Only their long term studies showed problems with the drug. With Palm, a few weeks of end-user testing would have uncovered most of the bugs in the handheld. This is unforgivable, and they should go out of business. They will not though, for two reasons. Firstly, Sony is out, and there are way too many peopel that hate PPC. Secondly, those who do not hate PPC will buy Palms products because, they are Palms products. I wouldnt mind Palm going away, except Sony isnt here to continue the Palm OS for us. Sony really should consider jumping back into the US market, to take advantage of Palms plunge.

[hamsammich]

Sony should have released the VZ90 in the U.S., and THEN they could have quit selling here. That thing is SWEET. If only P1 could come up with something half as innovative as that, I'd be sold.

:(

[WuWei]

With Palm, a few weeks of end-user testing would have uncovered most of the bugs in the handheld.

True, but they had to announce in order to get the T5s in buyer's hands for Christmas. I am not excusing their mistake, but I think once they reached this point they need to ship while doing as much as they can to limit the impact on customers. Only the Grinch would be happy if they missed Christmas; that would be a financial disaster.

I think the November 3rd shipping date was a sign that P1 was trying to make things right. Observers pointed out at the time that pre-announcements like that are usually terrible for sales.