Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein reportedly released a memo on Tuesday that seemed to announce a shift from the webOS platform to Android. The memo was supposed to be up on Wikileaks at midnight, which it never was. The important part of the memo reads, “While Palm is incredibly proud of our engineers who spent timeless work and effort to bring us this advanced operating system,consumers simply have not caught on. To provide a better future for ourselves and customers, the only logical choice is to transition our hardware and software to the Android platform.” According to Wired’s Gadget Lab and Engadget, a source inside Palm says that there is no plan to switch to Android and that the company is committed to webOS.

There is no question that Android is hot at the moment. Even Rubinstein said that the DROID’s launch at Verizon before the Pre Plus was one of the reasons why his phone is selling poorly at Big Red. But there are things that Palm can do with its OS. Considering that many analysts who hated the hardware of the two phones love the OS, Palm could license webOS to another company who can make superior handsets. Whatever move Palm makes-and time is running out-dumping their home grown OS for the same software everyone else is using seems unlikely.
source: Slashdot via GadgetLab and Engadget

Things are not going well for Palm. It’s hard to believe that when the Pre was introduced last year, things looked so promising for the manufacturer. Now, the stock is down to $4, the Pre and Pixi have been flops at Sprint, enhanced versions of both failed to sell at Verizon despite high hopes, and AT&T is having problems while testing the pair of webOS phones for its network. So, you ask, what else can go wrong? How about Verizon deciding to pull the plug on promoting the Pre? According to the Examiner, Big Red will stop promoting the Pre at the end of the month. The site’s tipster says people are coming into Verizon stores with the Pre in mind, but are flipped to the Android flavored Motorola DROID by reps. In L.A., industry analyst Paul Mueller blames several defective Palm units for some of the problem. Mueller says, “When a device gets returned, people hear about it. It may  not be publicized in the media, but word-of mouth is powerful.”  But there is no question that the DROID has taken many possible sales away from the Palm units. With a much larger hi-res screen, many more apps available, solid construction and the free turn-by-turn navigation, the Android device has become Verizon’s flagship model. The carrier’s initial spots for the Pre focused on how the smartphone was perfect for “Mom” and the gender specific ads might also have been part of the problem. By the time Big Red changed the focus of the campaign, it was already too late. So now what ELSE can happen to Palm?
source: Examiner

We’re starting to get close to the one year anniversary release of Palm’s rebirth with webOS as things are beginning to take a twisted turn for the long time smartphone company. Palm’s App Catalog had some humble beginnings with the limited amount of apps made available for the platform at its release, but now the tally comes in at 1700 applications. Still not even close to the levels of its competitors, Palm has been steady in getting apps released as it totaled in at over 1500 just a month ago. Despite the decent amount applications, developers might have a difficult stance on continuing the fight for Palm as the company faces a long road ahead in getting themselves turned around. We’ve seen some nice looking games being developed for the platform, but it’s going to take a lot more in keeping them in contention – rumors about a potential new handset in the future may give them the push required to turn their fortunes around. Undoubtedly 1700 applications might be garnered as a small milestone, but it’s still unclear if the long time company might be still floating around as the next pinnacle is reached.
via mypre

While never actually confirmed by the carrier, AT&T was expected to offer its own version of the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi as soon as next month. However, Peter Misek, an analyst for Canadian brokerage firm Canaccord Adams, is saying that the webOS handsets will not be released by AT&T until June or July. To make matters worse for Palm, the delay appears due to a long shopping list of technical items that the carrier has with the Pre and Pixi. As a result of these problems, AT&T is said to have reduced its initial order for the devices while lowering the marketing budget for the phones. Things are not looking too good for Palm and with the DROID said to be selling like hotcakes, Verizon might not be seeing too many Pre Plus and Pixi Plus units walking out the door.

What seemed so promising for Palm a year ago, has disintegrated right in front of their eyes. Now, it seems that all of the hope that Palm had of seeing things pick up with the inclusion of the handsets in the line-up of the nation’s largest carrier has evaporated, and AT&T apparently will be no help either. Misek now expects Palm to have shipped 670,000 units in the February quarter, down from his previous estimate of 720,000. For 2011, the analyst has reduced his estimate of sales from 4 million to 3.58 million. While no one could have forecasted Androidmania or the return of Motorola as a relevant player in the industry, perhaps the biggest surprise is how quickly the excitement that originally surrounded the Pre when it was introduced, disappeared. Does Palm have enough time left on the clock for one last Hail Mary play?
source: AllThingsDigital via EngadgetMobile

Even though Palm may be tightening its belts soon in an attempt to keep costs down and hopefully produce a positive bottom line, we’ve seen our fair share of earth shattering drops on WebOS powered devices of late. Not only do Palm developers have a place in Palm’s heart, but they’re getting treated to a somewhat faithful gesture from the veteran smartphone maker – some may argue if Palm’s recent move to offer developers a 20 percent discount on its devices is considered a majestic gesture. Although the phones are contract-free and 2-day shipping is included, they’re obviously locked to either Verizon or Sprint. When looking at some of the extreme eye dropping prices we’ve seen of late on contract phones, the 20 percent discount applied to a $549.99 Palm Pre on Palm’s web site still requires a final payment of $439 – some would consider holding off from taking advantage of that discount. Despite this somewhat thankful announcement, we’d guess that Palm wouldn’t be too reluctant in raising that discount until things start to settle down over in Palm land.
source: Palm via ubergizmo

In a way, Walmart’s recent price chop to its Verizon Wireless Palm smartphones really highlights the battle handset manufacturers have to endure in order to stay afloat. Almost 9 months ago when Sprint launched the Palm Pre to an awaiting audience eager to test drive Palm’s WebOS platform, the long time smartphone maker has seen its highs and lows. Walmart is now giving away two of the latest Palm devices, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, at the ridiculously low prices of $29.99 and free respectively with your signature on a contract. Yeah, just about anyone can get their hands on a decent smartphone without having to fork over a penny, but Palm’s fate is hanging in the balance as it tries to turn things around. It wasn’t too long ago when a just released $99 smartphone was considered a bargain, which of course is where the Palm Centro placed itself, but now the notion of free smartphones feels like a surreal thing. Although the Palm Pre Plus will still require you to fork out some cash, it could very well meet the same fate bestowed upon the Pixi Plus in due time.
source: Walmart via Mobileburn

In the US, Sprint Palm Pre owners are getting the first taste of the latest version of the platform while the O2 and Movistar variants are also getting in on this treatment. The download itself is at a mere 39MB and will be all that stands in between your way from getting video recording, Flash, enhanced message notifications, and improved battery life that’s all found on webOS 1.4. Everyone else will have to eye these owners with envy as they will become the first to test out these new features. As they prepare to launch the update on other carriers and handsets, it’ll be a test to see how quickly Palm can expedite the roll out of their next installment of the platform as things have begun to look shaky for the company. They’ll need to really capture the attention of consumers if and when they release the next version in order to compete in this ever fierce market.
via Engadget

After Palm reported to Wall Street that sales performance of their new webOS-based smartphones was far below original expectations, CEO Jon Rubinstein sent an email to all Palm employees explaining in more detail the reasons for their disappointing financial results and the steps the company is taking to right the ship. Below is the text of the actual memo as posted by the Wall Street Journal:

Team,

This morning we announced preliminary results for our 2010 third quarter. Since the quarter has not yet closed, it is too soon to offer exact numbers, but we stated that we expect to report revenues for Q3 between $300 and $320 million. We also announced that we expect our revenue for this fiscal year to fall below the guidance we gave to Wall Street, which ranged from $1.6 to $1.8 billion. As we mentioned in our press release, our softer than expected performance is due to slower than expected customer adoption of our products, which in turn has prompted our U.S. carrier partners to put additional orders on hold for the time being. On a positive note, we expect to exit the quarter with over $500 million in cash on our balance sheet. We’re scheduled to announce our full financial results in March.

I realize this news is difficult to swallow. We made this announcement today to prevent a surprise for Wall Street when we announce quarterly earnings in March. In the meantime, the entire executive team has been working extremely hard to improve product performance, and have implemented a number of initiatives to increase awareness and drive sales.

Dave Whalen and I just returned from a very successful meeting with Verizon Wireless, where they acknowledged that their execution of our launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales. To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations—all getting the word out about Palm.

All of these efforts are examples of how we are working to accelerate adoption and grow distribution of webOS. In the next few weeks, your management will work with you to make sure your priorities are laser-focused, primarily on helping to increase sales, improve product quality and differentiate the Palm product experience.

Our goals are taking longer than expected to achieve, but I am still confident that our talented team has what it takes to get the job done.

We’ll schedule an all-hands meeting after our earnings announcement in March, and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Go team!!!

jon

Palm has bet it all on the success of webOS and their Palm Pre and Pixi, recently adding Verizon and, hopefully soon, AT&T. Sales on both Sprint and Verizon networks has been disappointing and they will be competing with the likes of the iPhone on AT&T’s network, so hopefully they can pull a rabbit out of their hat and once again become a major player in an already crowded field of smartphones. Do you think Rubinstein’s email inspires confidence?

source: WSJ

Things have definitely been rocky over at Palm where they witnessed some extreme lows to only experience the fruits of their success again and finally brought straight back to reality in the course of a year. With that said, Palm has gone ahead and updated its guidance for its fiscal year 2010 revenues that is expected to be “well below” the forecasted range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion. They now anticipate third quarter revenues to come in somewhere between $285 million and $310 million on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and between $300 million to $320 million on a non-GAAP basis. Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said, “Palm webOS is recognized as a groundbreaking platform that enables one of the best smartphone experiences available today, and our work to evolve the platform and bring industry-leading technology to market continues. However, driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated.” Palm expects to announce its official third quarter earning on March 18, 2010. Six months ago when the Palm Pre was still garnering a lot of attention, it was unfathomable to see Palm almost back to its original situation before the unveiling of webOS. They’ve managed to dodge a lot of stuff in the past, but fierce competition in the market may force them to look elsewhere to survive in this cut throat industry.
source: Business Wire via Mobileburn

WebOS owners will soon have yet another online music service app that’s heading their way – Grooveshark announced today the launch of a native app for webOS. For those not too familiar, Grooveshark is an online music service that allows users to access its vast on-demand song catalog; similar to other live streaming services out there. Not considered a small fish in the pond, Grooveshark host a numbers of tracks that runs well into the millions – at the same time, it offers a personal playlist and favorites for its base of users. It’ll be some time before the actual app is made available through the App Catalog, but Palm Pre and Pixi owners should expect to see it “very soon” according to the startup. Their latest offering for webOS owners supplements their existing support for apps catered for Android and BlackBerry smartphones. Although they’ve completed their work on an iPhone app since back in July 2009, its appearance on the App Store is still nowhere in sight – let’s hope that the same fate doesn’t play out with the webOS version.
via MobileCrunch