No wonder Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is so dismayed by the company’s Windows Mobile division: Most Windows Mobile users aren’t even aware their phones run it. In fact, according to the CFI Group, WinMo has such poor brand recognition that it was forced to group it in the “Other” category in its Smartphone Satisfaction Survey.
Discussing Palm’s first-quarter results earlier this month, the company’s leadership claimed that “the vast majority of new sales” for the quarter were generated by the Pre. Palm sold some 823,000 handsets during that period with sell-through of 810,000 units, so that’s an impressive feat. But only if the sales we’re talking about here were made to on-the-street consumers. And, according to Town Hall research analyst David Eller, it’s not entirely clear that they were.
Palm has begun rolling out webOS 1.2.0, a minor point release to its new flagship operating system, which boasts some 70 improvements. Notably absent from this update: The reenabling of iTunes synchronization, which Apple spannered when it released iTunes 9.0 earlier this month.
Analysts who follow Palm are already rolling their eyes over TheStreet.com’s claim that Verizon has balked at adding the company’s new Pre handset to its lineup. In a research note this morning, Deutsche Bank’s Jonathan Goldberg dismissed it as “off base.”
Well, now we know why Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said he expects to have “devices like the Pre” on his network by next year: The carrier doesn’t plan to offer the Pre at all–according to unnamed sources cited by TheStreet.com, anyway.
What Palm lacks in market share, it more than makes up for in mindshare. In fact, according to a new study from research outfit Interpret, Palm’s new Pre handset is second only to the iPhone in that metric, despite its disadvantages in the marketplace.
Though its shares are up more than 900 percent since January, Palm remains a “show me” story. So says Susquehanna Financial analyst Jeffrey Fidicaro, who seems to think the Street is putting a bit too much faith in the company’s next-generation platform, webOS, and the devices that run on it.
Palm this morning put a price on its public offering of 20 million common shares: $16.25 a piece. That’s nearly five percent less than Tuesday’s closing price of $17.07, but enough to generate about $313.1 million.
The USB Implementers Forum, the industry group that oversees the universal serial bus standard, has finally responded to Palm’s claim that Apple is “hampering competition” by locking the Palm Pre out of iTunes, and it’s not looking good for Palm. In a letter submitted to Apple and Palm today, the group dismissed Palm’s claim that Apple has violated its USB-IF Membership Agreement. It also took issue with Palm’s alleged use of Apple’s vendor identification number, which it says violates USB-IF policy.
David Johnson, the mergers-and-acquisitions specialist Dell hired away from IBM earlier this year, has clearly been busy these past few months. This morning, the PC maker announced plans to buy information technology services outfit Perot Systems for about $3.9 billion.
Geekfighting may never become its own UFC event, but following tech news this week seemed, in places, like a view to a big, well-funded cage match.
Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein likes to say smart-phone makers “don’t have to beat each other to prosper,” but it’s beginning to look like they–or, rather, Palm–might have to. Because while the Pre may have put Palm back in the game, it’s not clear how long it can keep it there.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper.
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
Spectacular in the bellowing Russian sailor sense of the word …
“If you spell something wrong on your insurance claim, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so …”
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