Investors waiting for Palm to update its platform and improve its image may not have to wait much longer! Sources inside say that there are exciting things ahead!
On Monday, the company introduced its Palm “Software Store,” a rival to Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iTunes App Store, foreshadowing what could be a reveal of its new Nova smartphone operating system at January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Finally.
We’ve been waiting for a new Palm OS ever since Bono and his investing bandmates at Elevation Partners gave the company a financial lift last summer. That’s when former iPod design leader Jon Rubinstein joined the company as executive chairman, promising a new era of innovation.
Palm has seen successes since. The affordable Centro handset has been a top-seller, for example. But I’ve yet to see evidence of Palm recapturing its innovation mojo. Take the Software Store. With 5,000 smartphone programs, it’s a lightweight version of the iEmpire’s 10,000-applications-strong App Store. Nor is it distinct from what Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) created with Android Market and what Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) plans for its BlackBerry devices. A competitive advantage this isn’t.
Nova could change that. Maybe. Insider Mike Bell, also a former Apple engineer, waxed optimistic in a recent BusinessWeek interview. “I’m fundamentally convinced we’re onto something huge. Some of the stuff we’re working on here is mind-blowing — better than anything I’ve seen before.”
It’ll take something mind-blowing to get investors outside of Elevation excited about Palm again. The company already pre-released dismal earnings for last quarter that featured revenues coming in at about half of original analyst expectations. Palm will release its complete financial results this afternoon.
Investors have good reasons to be skeptical. History, for one. Churn, for another. CFO Andy Brown is leaving the company in January, just as Nova is to be released.
“IMHO makers of the world’s best buggy whip or eight track tapes. Maybe not all that bad but they have an incredible gap to cover,” wrote CAPS investor socialconscious earlier this week.
Harsh? Sure. But Palm has burned investors before. Can’t say as I blame them for avoiding the flame this time.
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Personally, I use a Centro and you know, it is using a platform that I would have hoped that Palm would have updated a bit more and even changed to look more like an Apple product, but I have to tell you, it is the most complete communicator that I have used to date!
My Centro currently allows me to:
1 – Work on my Google Email through IMAP.
2 – Work on Facebook through the Facebook App.
3 – Upload pix to Flickr, Facebook and Picasa through Splashphoto.
4 – Upload video to YouTube and Facebook through Cellspin.
5 – Use a Java based browser with IBM Java and Opera Mini.
6 – Update Twitter with MoTwit.
7 – Keep my life totally in track with my values and Time management with my Daily Notes, Comapass, Mission, Projects & Task List from Franklin Covey, not to mention my calendar sync.
8 – Access my Powerpoint, Word, Excel and .pdf documents through DataViz’s Documents to Go.
9 – Use Salesforce
10 – Skype my long-distance.
11 – Convert my phone into a broadband modem and connect it through Bluetooth to my handheld laptop replacement.
12 – Use Google Maps with a GPS type of functionality due to E911 access.
13 – Voice Blog with Cellspin.
14 – Take videos and pictures.
15 – Hold and store my passwords in an encrypted file accessed by Roboform.
16 – Use it as an mp3 player with bluetooth headphones.
17 – Use my Bible and take notes and highlight, keeping up with my daily reading plan!
18 – FTP
19 – Keep up with all my contacts and sync them with Airset online and Outlook.
As you can see, I USE my cell phone. And though the Palm Centro is no iPhone, it has its uses and the function of them all gives me the full gambit of virtual office applications I currently require.
If you add to that an amazing platform with less buggy Java, I have to tell you, watch out iPhone, watch out Google Android, you have some serious competition!
I say Palm, this move gives you my two thumbs up!
pd