Palm WebOS, Pre and Pixi – Where Are We Now?
by Joseph Berthiaume on March 23, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Final Words
To paraphrase a great quote from Anand’s original Pre review when comparing the Pre and iPhone: There are some things that Pixi does better than the Pre. There are also some things that the Pixi does not do better than the Pre.
Recently Palm CEO Jon Rubenstein sent out a company-wide missive following Palm’s preannouncement of its less-than-stellar financial results. In it he admits that the launch of Pre/Pixi – Plus on the Verizon network did not go as well as planned, and explains that Palm and Verizon Wireless have met and mapped out a strategy to jump start sales. It was apparently obvious that Verizon didn’t do a great job of pushing Palm’s products, and that Verizon’s sales staff just wasn’t knowledgeable of them.
This week Palm followed up on that pre-annoucement by posting their Q3 earnings which were uh, not good, nor was the guidance the company offered for its fiscal 4th quarter. Following the call, shares dropped nearly 30% amid another flurry of downgrades. Sales were and continue to be poor and there now appear to be a growing inventory surplus.
How they change this over the next 6 months and how sales across all networks over the next year look, will be very important to both the future of the WebOS platform and Palm itself. Niether the Pre or Pixi has made major inroads, at least not in such a way to appear as more than a blip on the radar. Gartner’s latest results show that WebOS devices accounted for a mere 0.7% of smartphone OS’s in 2009. That’s, well, not very much and isn’t a good sign for devices based on an OS that was so well received. Is there just no interest from the general public? Is it smartphone fatigue from the consumer? Even with the release this year on Verizon of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, Palm hasn’t exactly seen major market penetration and the consensus seems to be that we’ll see more of the same when Pre Plus and Pixi Plus hit AT&T later this year. (Update: if you believe the rumors, it appears that release is now being delayed – more bad news) With the dismal sales data, resulting flurry of downgrades from Wall Street and precipitous drop by their stock, you have to be a little worried about the future of both the company and thus the platform.
It really is a shame. WebOS is truly a revolutionary, game-changing OS that does things that none of the top smartphone OS’s can do (yet). Palm has a lot to be proud of here, but they are clearly coming up just a bit short, especially in hardware, and that’s coming at a bad time for the company, especially given the speed at which the industry is moving. Microsoft’s announcement of Windows Phone 7 has cast another hot coal into an already broiling fire. Will we see Palm license the WebOS to phone OEMs as a means of gaining market penetration and staying financially solvent? Will we see a brand new WebOS device – and WebOS 2.0 - before year’s end, and will it turn the industry on its other ear?
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
45 Comments
View All Comments
jamawass - Thursday, March 25, 2010 - link
Even Palm's Tungsten T pda had a rock solid sliding mechanism. Used it for 7 yrs till it died.sheltem - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
I can't remember where I read this but in an interview last year, Sprint was the only carrier willing to give Palm a chance. That is why Palm went Sprint exclusive.wewter - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
I, too, have fallen in love with the WebOS interface. The only thing I am not liking about the PrePlus that I have right now is the keypad, which seems to stick sometimes and shoot me out a random number of letters no matter how hard or for however short a duration I press the key(seems like a software issue).The true multi-tasking environment the PrePlus gives you is second to none. I actually had an argument in one of the vzw stores with this woman who was droid-obsessed. Absolutely ignorant of the multitasking and what that means -- but she did have a point with the free voice turn-by-turn directions. And the GPS on the PrePlus doesn't mesh so hot with GoogleMaps; it's initial accuracy screams for improvement. Customers are not going to front 9.99/mo for a VZNavigator service when other smartphone users get the same for free.
Chadder007 - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
I actually like WebOS more than Android. It seems to flow better. Palm really made a bad deal when they selected Sprint to come out with their phone first though.tviceman - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
This is a shame. I absolutely love my palm pre and can't imagine using a different phone OS for a long time.Frixto - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
HelloI too was quite surprised when the Pre was announced. It´s a shame what´s been happening so far. I live in the Dominican Republic and so far only one carrier has it (wich is on a CDMA network).
Are there GSM versions? Why are they so slow to push the devices on to several carriers?
techer - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
I think AT&T will have a bigger impact compared to Verizon's efforts in selling the Palm Pre. They are the top nationwide network titans but Verizon has more interest in selling the Android phones. This is Palm's opportunity to make a serious comeback with compelling back-to-back commercial TV ads and billboards promoting it's huge presence and unique capabilities through AT&T.I have the Palm Pre from Sprint but would love to get my hands on the GSM version of the Palm Pre so I could travel around the world knowing I'm carrying the best multitasking mobile device that allows me to switch SIM cards and lets me share my Internet connection and Local Area network with laptops I authorize and grant access to (BTW, that's monthly-free WiFi routing of course)
Some of my friends don't know what the Palm Pre can do, but the minute I demonstrate the high-end 3D games like Asphalt 5, they're instantly impressed. Family and friends are relying on me to keep them posted on when it will be available for AT&T so they can make the switch.
While app counts are growing significantly for the Palm Pre platform, more low-level high performance apps are also surfacing. And low Palm stocks don't seem to have an effect on productivity. Palm Pre developers are now cranking up the numbers with near expectations to surpass the number of Blackberry apps.
kelloggs - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
I've had both the pre and the pixi and i gotta say, the pixi really is a solid WebOS phone. The build quality bump over the pre alone made it worth the "downgrade".Johnmcl7 - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
As ever, AT seems to completely ignore the N900 throught out the article even finishing off with the incorrect claim 'WebOS does things no other smartphone can do (yet)'. The N900 can multitask better than WebOS and unlike WebOS it's had full flash support since its release.Also it's a bit strange praising WebOS heavily for its great multitasking while claiming it's not possible for it to be usable on Cortex A8 hardware just a couple of days ago in the W7 article.
I was a big fan of Palm's older PDA's and therefore was very interested in the Pre but after trying one out that was the end of my interest. The interface seemed strange and the hardware didn't appeal much with a low screen resolution and poor keyboard. I much prefer a hardware keyboard simply because it doesn't take up any on screen space and I find the speed better as well as preferring the tactile response. I'm disappointed Android handsets seem to be moving away from hardware keyboards.
Tegeril - Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - link
There's always at least one Nokia apologist.