Joseph Ramelli

Palm's Pre Launch Has Made RBC Bullish

Apps are becoming increasingly more important to success of Smartphones and thus I like to compare the launch of a new Smartphone to the launch of a gaming console. Sega Dreamcast was a great gaming console that was really ahead of its time, but developers were hesitant to jump on-board because they questioned the ability of Sega to sell enough systems to make their investment in developing games pay off. Consumers were hesitant to buy the Dreamcast because they didn't see enough "must own" games. The situation became a circular conundrum with both the developers and the console purchasers waiting for the other to step up. I see Palm Pre being in the same situation, with not many third party developed apps available come launch day.

The other thing that makes me seriously doubt Palm Pre being successful is what consumer really wants more choices in Smartphones? It is not like iPhone and Blackberry users are unsatisfied, in fact quite the opposite as both products users are fanatical with customer satisfaction rates that are off the chart. Oh and one other thing, Apple is coming out with a new iPhone soon and a major upgrade to the OS of existing iPhones that my tech savvy friend said addresses "90% of users requests."

I see the Palm Pre as going down as one of the worst highly anticipated consumer electronic flops in history and that is why we recently shorted the stock. I think that the launch will be so horrible in fact that Palm will have trouble keeping up the appearance of "shortages" for much more than a week. I am certain that the Palm Pre is a great product, but many great products throughout the years have ended up in the boneyard.

Straight to the Moon, EMIS!

The link to B12 data did not work correctly, here is the correct link:
www.emisphere.com/oral...

Smallcaps Flush with Cash

I wrote an article about BroadVision(BVSN) a few days back, a company that definitely fits B. Riley's criteria.

The Texas 'Wind' Emergency, the Smart Grid and the Dumb Grid

Great article. Very insightful. Thanks.

Cytori Therapeutics: Soon to Be Sold to Olympus?

"Gross margins were up 20% sequentially to 72% during 3Q08 thanks to cost-cutting in the form of reduced R&D + G&A expense, offset by higher marketing costs since the 1Q08 launch of the Celution System."

Gross margins are calculated before R&D and G&A and thus would not benefit from reductions in these expenses. This is accounting 101 stuff. No offense, but you should really understand this before posting an article on seekingalpha.

Market Punishes Perfect World for Earthquake; Buying the Dip

The reason for the stock sell-off is not the Revenue Guidance, it is because the company said margins are going to come under pressure because of increased spending. Increased spending has nothing at all to do with the earthquake. In my opinion it was pretty bad that the company said that they are going to have lower margins with out quantifying how much lower. I think the stock breaks lower again today.