Tag: palm
This week's top five tech movers – B&W, Facebook, Android
Here then is this week's top five tech movers and its biggest loser
Why was the Apple launch so pants? The top 8 conspiracy theories
I thought it was underwhelming, the US financial community declared it pants and pulled a few % off Apple shares to show its displeasure and even the fan boys had trouble getting excited.
Yep, Apple's Rock and Roll, event on Wednesday turned out to be a as fluffy as a cotton wool factory.
Motorola unveils the Dext (Cliq) Android powered phone
Some mobile analysts believe the device is a watershed for the beleaguered US mobile firm. Some have even suggested that the company would pull out of the mobile market is it got as frosty reaction to the new handset.
O2 wins the battle for the Palm Pre
As predicted by yours truly a few hours ago, O2 will be the exclusive network of the Palm Pre.
O2 reportedly beat off competition from Orange – just as it did when it scored the exclusive rights to the iPhone back in 2007. O2 is already the market leader in the UK with a share of 27%. By stocking the Pre alongside the iPhone 3GS their lead will surely increase further.
Nothing has been confirmed by O2 officially and there are no price details as of yet either. You can’t imagine Apple would be too thrilled if the Palm Pre was a more affordable option than the iPhone 3GS though. I fully expect the pricing to be an exact match of the 3GS in terms of plans, although the handset itself might be a smidgen cheaper as it is in the US.
(via The Guardian)
Palm Pre UK announcement next week
A briefing for the UK press has been arranged by Palm for next week – fuelling rumours that they will be announcing release details for the much anticipated Palm Pre smartphone.
The phone was released in the first week of June in the US but us poor old Brits have had to wait with baited breath for launch details. As of yet we’ve heard nothing.
But this could all be set to change on 7th July. Hopefully, Palm will not only provide a release date but they’ll also give us network and price information. Rumours have circulated that the Pre will be exclusive to O2, although Vodafone has also been touted as a possible carrier.
I’m going to stick my neck out and say it will be available on O2 with the same contracts available as with the iPhone 3GS. This is purely a guess though. Just a bit of fun. Don’t come complaining if I’m wrong.
(via T3)
Palm Pre unboxing VIDEO
It’s real. It has to be. It sounds like they’re at a trade show and those people have got name tags and everything. That’s way too much budget for someone making a fake Palm Pre unboxing video.
If you’re into packaging, you might be interested in the leaflets, the use of the colour orange and the fact that it’s all shaped like one of those Jawa transports. If you’re into phones, it’s probably just nice to see the thing.
(via Gizmodo)
Why the Pre won't save Palm
Regular readers will know that we were fairly taken with the Palm Pre handset when it debuted to great fanfare at CES in January. It’s a touch screen device crammed with sensible features that uses Palm’s innovative new operating system, Web OS. In kinder economic times, it would be a sure-fire winner and enough to re-establish a once great brand.
But in spite of those green shoots you keep hearing about things are still brutal, especially in the smartphone market, and Palm has probably left it too late. There’s an interesting post in WallSt, a respected US financial blog, today that highlights 12 brands that won’t make it through the next 12 months. There’s good news – apparently Crocs, makers of those hideous plastic shoes, are on their way out, but the worst news of all for us techies is that Palm should in theory be toast by the end of the year.
Sure, it is only one blog’s opinion but, without the Pre and the recent injection of $100 million capital, the company would have disappeared anyhow. Its trading position is awful with the company only selling 482,000 handsets in its last quarter, down 42% from the same quarter the year before.
Can the Pre save the day? Well it has mountains to climb and here’s why…
1.) Bad choice of partners
In the US, Palm is with Sprint which is the third most popular carrier. It’s been haemorrhaging subscribers for a while and is definitely in need of some high profile handsets. However, it probably won’t have the reach to ensure the Pre gets enough market share. In Europe the deal is apparently with Telefonica (though I could find no confirmation of this) the company which famously already has a certain iPhone on its books. Even if it has fantastic reasons to sell the Pre, I can’t see it pushing it too hard against its golden handset.
2.) Handset market is too crowded now
In the US, Palm is up against Blackberry, which is rapidly making in roads into the consumer space, and Apple which is obviously doing amazingly well. In the UK, add to that list Nokia, with its new range of N series handsets, plus touch screen smartphone lite models from the Koreans and HTC’s Windows phones, and the competition looks fierce. That’s without even considering exactly how big a splash Android is going to make when they finally launch more than just the one handset.
3.) Apple and Blackberry users are not going to buy a Pre
Both brands command huge loyalty leaving the Pre a smaller slice of the cake to shoot for. Enough said.
4.) Palm probably doesn’t have enough money to market the Pre as it would like
With those crippling losses there’s probably less to spend on online marketing. If Palm could push the device online, then at least it would have a chance to compete. Unfortunately, its rivals are still relatively cash rich; for example Samsung spent £27 million on advertising in the UK last year and is expected to spend more this time around.
If Palm does go, I will be rather sad. Over the years, I have owned a string of Palm devices, including some by its off shoot company Handspring, that uses the Palm OS. Also, for a time in the early noughties Palm’s PDAs were as cool as handheld devices got. I am guessing that there might be a taker for its new OS, but we’ll have to see about that.
Unseen Android-based HTC better than Palm Pre, mobile exec claims
HTC could soon be about to rain on Palm’s parade if the boasting of an executive from Australian telco Telstra is any indication.
Apparently, the new Android-based handset is “better and more functional” than the touchscreen Palm Pre with Palm Web OS just unveiled at CES.
CES 2009: Palm's new Web OS in detail
Previously known as “Nova”, Palm has just rechristened and launched its new OS “Web OS”. It’s an amazingly dreary name for a concept that could reshape how we use our mobile mobiles. The bottom line is that Palm is bending head-over-heels to make their platform easy for developers – so easy that they reckon anyone who knows HTML, CSS and XML will be able to write an app.
The UI is very iPhone-like. You flick the display to scroll around, and there’s various gestures that you can use, too. Everything’s managed with a ‘cards’ metaphor, where you see a deck that can be rotated with a finger and shuffled. The biggest feature, though, is something called “Synergy”.
CES 2009: Palm shows off rumoured touchscreen device – the Palm Pre
The rumours were true. Palm’s got a brand new device to go with its spangly new Nova operating system. All we knew previously was that it had a portrait touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, but now there’s a bit more info to go with it.
That touchscreen measures 3.1″ diagonally, at 480×320 resolution. The slide-out keyboard doesn’t come straight out – it sorta curves. There’s oodles of connectivity – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and EVDO. There’s a removable battery, microUSB connector, support for USB mass storage and – YAY! – a 3.5mm headphone jack.
It’s running the new Nova OS, but more about that in another post. It’ll be available in the “first half” of 2009. In the meantime, for more CES coverage, click here.
(via Gizmodo’s liveblog)
