Yagottabe Kidding

The Unlocked Phone Movement Gets a Big Boost

> There is definitely a price war brewing...

Can companies like Palm handle a price war?

I don't think so.

We're going to see some...er..."consolida...

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?

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?

The Commoditization of the 'Dellphone'

Commoditization of the cellphone space is exactly what that RBC "analyst" didn't take into account. Lack of profit margins will kill the less-than-nimble. The HTCs and Nokias of the world, able to spew out a dozen phones every couple months, should do okay (but not liking it) but whither the two-phones-a-year companies like Palm? Can they afford perpetual 15% margins?

iPhone 3GS Owners Are Happy, Good for Apple

That survey was invalid simply due to lack of respondents - the results MIGHT reflect reality but surveying only =200= iPhone users (WHICH 200?) is so into the noise-level of iPhone users it's just silly.

And they "surveyed" 40...yes, only 40...Pre users at the same time.

Why is this even newsworthy?

Palm Pre: Are Returns Slowing Growth?

The 117,000 number was changed to 55,000 in an update in the original article; it should be changed here, too.

I'd like to know where EITHER number came from, however, since I've NEVER seen such a number mentioned in years and years of Palm/Handspring watching.

Palm Pre: Gauging Success Will Take Time

The Pre hasn't saved Palm, Elevation Partners did with literally MASSIVE investments - THREE of the them. We'll have to see how the Pre does, not Saturday, but a few weeks down the line when non-early-adopters express whatever interest they're going to express in it. In between now and then the Pre must PROVE to be a robust piece of hardware and software or those early-adopters buying Saturday are going to FILL the web with their complaints of crashes or hardware malfunctions.

And, of course, there's that small matter of...you know...Apple.

Does Palm's Pre Have Anything on the iPhone or Storm?

The "problem" with the Pre is it's not right for a celebrity to use two hands - they have to be holding the Pre up to their ear while glancing to the side at someone with a crinkled-nose smile while waving cutely with the other hand. If they do that with the Pre you don't even SEE it.

Did you see that Microsoft set of tweets that just happened and is being "reported" around by the Engadgets of the World? "Hold off on getting an iPhone/Pre" Yikes!

Still No News on Palm Pre Release

>>> "...The entire universe is excited about the Palm Pre..."

Only early-adopters know about this device; the rest of the Universe hasn't got a clue about it.

Palm's Pre: Likely to Break

> ...But it's hard to believe they will have a glitch free phone right out
> of the starting gate when supposedly this one has a lot of new tech
> on it...

I'd actually be MUCH more concerned about their (necessary for WebOS/Synergy) server farm having teething problems; it's unlikely they have tested it with a simultaneous load of, say, 50,000 to 100,000 Pre owners.

Smartphones: It's the Software, Stupid!

For once a SeekingAlpha blog entry has beena breath of fresh air!

Your total lack of mention of the Version 0.9 WebOS and underlying Linux et al of the Version 0.9 Pre is, truthfully, a wonderful thing.

It is about time at least ONE person has placed that yet-to-be whatever-it-is in the proper place w.r.t. the industry.

Apple: iPhone Now Accounts for 50% of Mobile Web Traffic

Though I wouldn't doubt the conclusion of the Subject TOO much, it should be noted that the statistics being gathered are for web pages on which the statistics gatherer has ads which undoubtedly is a VERY small subset of mobile web pages out there.

Smartphone Update: 2008 Q4 Market Share

> ...As HTML5-based applications begin to permeate the
> mobile space...

Those do not hold a candle to native applications and developers understandably are WAY leery of an environment that reveals their source code to all.

It is doubtful there is a huge market for cloud-based applications that allow hiding one's source on a server "out there".

Sector Overview: Handsets

Oh boy! Yet Another "Dell Buys Palm" rumor!

I guess your last attempt at this wasn't overt enough, huh?

Say...why can't Dell contract with HTC just like Palm does?

Oh...nevermind!