Yagottabe Kidding

Google Phone May Be Data Only, VoIP Driven Device

It is WELL past time that someone comes out with a data-only cell phone that is OVERTLY data-only (instead of the under-the-covers data-only (!) that all sell phones are already).

Hope it's true.

Time for carriers to mimic cable companies and supply us with dumb pipes.

Novatel: Comparing 'Sell Through' vs. 'Sell In' Numbers

Understand that =PALM's= definition of "sell-through" is NOT, repeat NOT, "sales to end customers".

Palm's definition of sell-through is "sales by those to whom we have sold-in" (*).

Why is this of import?

Because, as noted above, Palm had an 85% customer, Sprint, that served as a wholesaler to other venues like BestBuy, Walmart, Radioshack, etc.

That is, when Sprint turned around and sold Pres to, say, BestBuy, those Pres were counted =by Palm= as "sold-through" even though they were in warehouses and on shelves yet to be sold to end customers.

We don't know what wholesale customers Sprint has other than the above; they COULD include even other wholesalers - thus Palm sells to Sprint (that's "sold-in"), Sprint sells to Wholesaler X (Palm counts that as "sold-through"), Wholesaler X sells to Retailer Y, Retailer Y can't sell the device and it sits on a shelf.

Sold-through.

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(*) There's a very small and insignificant "sell-through" that goes directly to end customers from Palm via Web sales with no "sold-in" in-between.

Garmin Plans to Launch Android Phone

IOW - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Weekly Shorts Review: Garmin, TomTom, Nintendo, Palm

Nokia isn't going to pay billions of dollars for Palm.

No one is.

It's WELL past time to put this silliness to rest.

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A few years ago when Palm actually had some pretty good-selling devices, like the Centro and Treos (planned or out), Palm's BoD decided the BEST future for Palm was to sell the company.

And they could not even though they had hundreds of millions in cash, no debt, and said devices. [this is all revealed in Palm's SEC documentation about the original Elevation Partners transaction]

NOW Palm is heavily in debt, has massively more shares outstanding, has Preferred Shares that have priority over common, and have a weak product that apparently didn't even live up to expectations.

And the stock price suggests billions upon billions of dollars to buy it out.

Why does ANYONE reasonably think any company would NOW be insane enough to buy Palm anywhere near the current price if they weren't insane enough to buy it really cheaper a couple years ago?

Did Galleon Always Have Too Much of an Edge?

I think the more interesting story will be the large-net-full of those OUTSIDE Galleon who are caught and exposed. THAT could be the real Market Shaker.

Apple Gaining Ground in Smartphone Race

The survey was NOT of "4255 consumers" but instead "4255 high income high education senior tech-field consumers".

I think that may have import w.r.t. how well this survey is representative of the general phone consumer population.

Google Redefines GPS Navigation Landscape

> ...And it is only available for Android 2.0 phones...

Is that right?

Full Featured Cell Phones Going the Way of the PDA

If a phone sells for $50 does it matter if we call it a dumb phone, feature phone, or smart phone?

It's still a $50 phone.

The question is not (and should not be) whether the "smart phone segment" is dramatically increasing, but whether the TOTAL phone market is increasing.

Because a $50 phone is a $50 phone no matter what else we call it.

When Will Nokia Wake Up?

Perhaps Nokia has decided the "smartphone segment" isn't much of a segment relative to their other segments so are participating strictly because they have a need for a presence.

When featurephones have all the capability that smartphones have with, literally, some minor details excluded (in fact, pundits are going through excruciating convolutions to define "featurephone" and "smartphone" now so they don't totally overlap), why produce a smartphone?

Poor IT Management Goes Mainstream

I hope the real story behind this data loss comes out. In this day of fully-redundant RAID arrays it's kind of hard to lose data unless you wipe the data programmatically.

How Big Will Android Get?

Good grief - someone actually noticing the ridiculousness of number of significant digits used by some sites!

What!? Did you take a math course or something and actually REMEMBER what it taught?

'Bout time someone did.

Good article.

Android, iPhone Ride Rising Tide

How is "marketshare" computed? Do those who calculate "marketshare" rely on sell-through numbers from the various manufacturers? If not, how else do they get (number of units sold by manyfacturer X)/total units by everyone)?

Now that we know Palm reports "sell-through" numbers that INCLUDE sales by their main (Pre) distributor, Sprint, to retailers (and, quite likely, even sales to distributors - those who sell to retailers )- that is, NOT end-consumers and NOT part of any "marketshare" - how is their marketshare number computed?

Oracle's Larry Ellison Rips into Cloud Computing 'Nonsense'

A rose by any other name?

Or is that "A rose by Yet Another Name"?

Palm Has a PREcarious Channel Issue

I'm not sure what your reply is saying vis-a-vis what we NOW know "sell-through" means when Palm says the word, but at least we NOW know "sell-through" does indeed include devices that are NOT in end-consumer hands - exactly as you guys said (and MUCH to the surprise of Palm-observers far and wide!).

That's really all that matters - that little factoid screws up all SORTS of analysis, even off-the-cuff statements like "The X is being well received by the end consumer" for all 'X'.

And when you're discussing "marketshare" WHAT number is being used to represent Palm;s devices in that market? Could it be...gasp!..."sell-thr... as reported by Palm?

Palm Has a PREcarious Channel Issue

According to AllThingsD Palm has finally admlitted that their use of "sell-through" includes sales by those to whom they have sold to other non-end-consumer venues.

>>> UPDATE: This just in from Palm …
“The sell-through data we post reflects carriers’ sales to their customers. For example, Sprint customers include consumers who buy in a Sprint store, and Sprint retail partners such as Best Buy and RadioShack. We rely on our wireless carriers to provide us with sell-through data, and we note this fact in our 10Q.”
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So forget everything you assumed about "sell-through", including its utility as a measure of a particular device's success.