The Year of the Internet

While many people are focused on the impact Apple’s recently announced iPhone will have on Palm and the rest of the mobile industry, I believe that Palm needs to execute on one of their key areas for 2007: the Internet.

Back to the Future?

Palm has been working with Internet companies to bring their brands to the Treo.  Orbitz, Fandango, eBay, Yahoo, and Google are just some of the brands that are available on the Treo.  To be more accurate, you can access these web portals from the Treo.

Looking back at the old “Palm”, the company before “palmOne”, you may recall the Palm VII and web clipping applications.  Web clipping applications, or .pqa files, were how customers of Palm’s other wireless Internet devices (Palm VII, VIIx, and i705) enabled you to get everything from news, to airline flight information, and even where the nearest Star Bucks coffee house was.  For those of us who used those handhelds, you will recall how easy is was to get information on the go, browse the web, and yes, get your email.

For many people, email is still the killer application for wireless mobile devices like the Treo.  Business customers and power-users have come to rely on the Treo for its flexibility to do many different things well.  The most important of these is being able to access the information that is needed, when it is needed on an easy to use Internet connected device.

Palm will need to continue this momentum they have recently built up by partnering with Internet companies that provide services that potential Treo customers are interested in.  To achieve this, Palm needs to learn more about their potential and current customers.  If Palm understands how we use the Internet they would be better positioned to deliver the kinds of solutions customers are interested in.  You have to wonder what products and services we might have today if Palm had never changed focus away from the partnerships they had built up in the past when the Palm VII was first introduced.  One has to wonder if Palm, not Apple, would have been unveiling a new killer smartphone last week.

The Future is Software

Using web clipping applications on a Palm VII wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.  Sure those little applications worked; however, the data network they ran on wasn’t anything like today’s high-speed data networks.  And unlike a web portal, a developer had to write application code to create the web clipping application.  Rather than spend time and money reinventing that wheel, I think Palm has something else up their sleeve.

We all know that the software on a given device either makes or breaks the deal.  Apple and Palm have done a very good job of making complex tasks easy to do.  If a customer can simply do what they want without having to read a manual then the software developer has done their job.

One of the things that I expect to see in 2007 is a new web browser for Palm’s devices.  Until now, web browsing on the Palm platform is been “good enough”.  A new web browser will be able to leverage all the great content that can be found on the web portals that Palm wants to partner with.  What would you want to add to a new Palm web browser?

Changes to the way web pages are rendered would be a welcomed change.  How many times have you had to scroll through many screens of banner ads that run down the left side of a web page before you actually get to the content you wanted?  Wouldn’t it be beneficial and a time saver if you could zoom in and out of a web page, similar to what will be possible in Safari on the iPhone?  You would be able to jump right to the portion of the page you are interested in.

Page rendering isn’t the only thing that Palm needs to think about.  If Palm wants to implement features like real time news feeds, RSS, and tabbed browsing?  Palm is going to need a powerful new operating system to help drive those innovations.  Palm’s licensing of the Palm OS Garnet source code gives them a lot of what they need to carry forward in a new OS while providing the flexibility to deliver new, easy to use and innovative products and solutions.

In conclusion

If Palm wants their Treo family of smartphones to appeal to more customers, then they need to provide more consumer oriented software and solutions.  It is no longer feasible to develop custom applications that require the customer to download, install, and upgrade application code when needed.

Internet access and web portals are where all of the action is these days.  To deliver solutions that customers want, Palm needs to focus on three things:

·         Build partnerships with the Internet companies who have “passion brands.”

·         Develop a next generation, easy to use web browser.

·         Deliver a new multitasking operating system that will drive the new software solutions.

The smartphone market is growing and more handset companies are trying to get their share of the pie.  Innovative software is the key to a platform’s success.  Palm looks like they now have the resources to execute on that vision.

What do you think?  Let us know in our forums.