Wait. Palm Had Retail Stores?
Palm shareholders gave the company a kick in the Grape Nuts this morning in answer to news that it will shutter all but one of its retail stores by the end of the first quarter. The closure affects some 33 Palm locations nationwide, including airport kiosks. The only store Palm plans to keep open is the one in its Silicon Valley headquarters (which to the company’s credit is one more than Gateway kept open when it pioneered this particular brick-and-mortar exit strategy).
For Palm, which could likely use all the cash it can scrape together, the move seems wise. “It makes sense,” Global Crown Capital analyst Pablo Perez-Fernandez told the San Jose Mercury News. “They need to take every resource they have and focus them on their core product that will take them on a growth path.”
Assuming there’s a growth path to be found. And for Palm, which recently sacked a reported 10% of its workforce and just settled a class-action suit over defects in some of its Treo handhelds, that’s not exactly a certainty at this time. “They’re toast,” said Shareholder Value Management analyst Jeff Embersits.
Comments
This is good for Palm’s cash flow. Now if they would realize they own the rights to the BEOS software and make a BeOS mobile with a Palm emulator. They would control the mobile business with their first multi-tasking and media oriented operating system for millions of future smart phones.
Posted by Chris White at January 26th, 2008 at 5:33 amChris: Palm Inc doesn’t own the rights to BeOS. Access Co acquired the rights when they bought PalmSource. Palm Inc has a license for PalmOS 5 from Access, and that’s the extent of their rights to any of the old Palm OS technologies.
Also, I will note that “a BeOS mobile with a PalmOS emulator” was exactly what PalmOS Cobalt (aka PalmOS 6) was, and despite being available for sale for over a year, exactly zero vendors ever shipped devices based on it.
Posted by Doctor Memory at January 28th, 2008 at 2:34 pmHmm… was it really only just over a year ago that Ed Colligan said;
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
And I can’t even be bothered to find all the doomsayers when Apple first opened retail stores.
Now Palm, joins Gateway in shuttering the retail stores.
I wouldn’t like to bet on Palm still being around when Windows Mobile 7 is launched.
Posted by Gadget Gav at January 28th, 2008 at 6:26 pmPalm could have been building the whole widget when they bought Hands?ring and also owned the Palm OS. But they spun off the software, and started fooling around with Windows. They have been all over the map. And they’ll be off the map soon.
Pity, as I thought they were going somewhere with the Treo. But that was ages ago.
http://macthoughtcrime.blogspo.....label/Palm
Posted by András Puiz at January 29th, 2008 at 7:17 amIf Palm wants to survive, they will go on bended knee to Apple and do whatever it takes to license OSX for the next generation of “Palm Touch” devices. They will also fire their entire software development staff and start over from scratch. If Palm wants to survive.
Posted by Gary Longsine at January 30th, 2008 at 8:01 am