Palm Developing New Linux Device, Marketing Abroad & to Women
Palm, Inc. held a live webcast from its Analyst and Investor Day today. The company explained its:
- vision and future direction
- brand management
- international growth
- research and development
- operational growth, and
- financial performance.
The presentation provided a detailed overview of the company and several new insights. Most notably Palm is developing new devices with Palm OS Garnet and Linux operating systems, and the company is increasingly focusing its marketing efforts overseas and to the female segment of the US market.
With respect to device platform roll out strategy, Palm said they are continuing to develop devices relying on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system. But the company views Microsoft as both a partner and a competitor because Windows Mobile has been licensed to a number of smartphone manufacturers.
Therefore, Palm is also bringing new devices to market with operating systems that it controls. They are innovating on top of the existing Palm OS Garnet operating system, which it has licensed perpetually from code owner, PalmSource ACCESS Co.. Palm is also rolling out a new device this year with a Linux operating system.
PalmSource ACCESS Co. has been developing a Linux operating system for the past several years that — like Garnet — may be implemented in Palm’s upcoming devices. However, Palm’s chief executive Ed Colligan said that Palm would exclusively control its new Linux system, and would not license it to other manufacturers. We wonder whether this means Palm is innovating on top of a PalmSource ACCESS Co. Linux core and considers the innovations proprietary, if Palm has licensed PalmSource ACCESS Co. software exclusively, or if the company has developed a Linux operating system entirely on its own.
We know from SEC filings from about a year ago that PalmSource did not meet a number of Palm’s critical design deadlines. However, PalmSource was acquired by ACCESS Co., a much larger company, and may now have the financial resources and design capabilities to develop software effectively. Palm has strong software design capabilities of its own, employing more software than hardware engineers.
Palm also talked in its presentation about its shifting marketing strategy. The company said that its current core customer base is comprised largely of men in the United States. Therefore new marketing initiatives are targeting people abroad and women in the United States. The slides below reflect the company’s current and desired customer bases:
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Listen to the complete company presentation.
Filed under: Treo and Palm news
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I want one!, although as Linux is by definition open source (has Ed Colligan read the GPL for the Linux kernel) I suspect the idea of keeping control of the OS is a bit of pipe dream, but bravo to palm for trying
Yeah, I don’t know -what- they’re talking about with keeping it proprietary.. They are free to develop their own code and keep -that- closed, but whatever they build from GPL’d code needs to have the source available to anyone who asks for it.
This being said.. I’m drooling already. My 700p is rebooting entirely too often and too randomly for my tastes.
Thats the best thing i think they could do… :) im all the way supporting a linux version of the palm treo.. knowing all or most program for the linux treo would be under the GPL would be awesome.. i myself would deffinaly look into programing programs for this phone.. this is so awesome i cant wait to get my hands on one.. i like my treo 650 but one thats got a linux platform would be amazing :) Linux all the way :)
OK, I dont get these graphs, I may be too stupid or they dont display corectly or the author was trying to be too cool - I just cant read them correctly
What - “female segment of the market” - is this a profiling incident I detect?
I’m female and I bought my Palm 700P over a year ago WITHOUT their “marketing efforts” being aimed at me like a bullet.
I resent being considered a “target”. I’m a “consumer”, and I am an INTELLIGENT consumer.
How about just focusing on how wonderful this device is, and stop gender-biasing the information.
Oh, and by the way … I DON’T want a “pink” Treo … give me black or silver. I don’t make my purchase decisions based on the COLOR of my cell phone, I base it on the features I want, the cost of the unit, the reliability, etc.
Hey, Palm - keep focusing on the IMPORTANT things … functionality, dependability, affordability, etc. … NOT the “wrapping paper”/foo-foo marketing ideas. KEEP IT REAL.
How well would a Linux OS work with Google apps? Would it be able to run Java apps in a native fashion? Does Palm vs. Linux matter in this regard?
To all those asking how Palm can release a Linux phone and keep the software proprietary: by keeping the source of the apps secret. Changes they make to the kernel have to be made available, since the kernel is under the GPL, but they can create entirely new proprietary apps to run on top of it, along with a new display system (instead of X), new widget set, etc.
It makes sense to go finally go with linux on these devices, as palmos certainly has its limitations, and its even further locked down when its shelled out to the phone companies and they modify the firmware to suit their needs.
But what they should be shooting for, is NOT the use of linux to save a few bucks on royalties or to write some apps of their own (they can do that now), but rather, they should GPL *ALL* of their proprietary efforts to the world, (and thus the phone companies) so that the natural development of a viable and sustainable operating system for their devices can be created. They would have far less overhead selling support contracts to individuals and phone companies for this kind of environment than they would if they tried to rebrand linux and any apps under their name. Having less overhead in this fashion means keeping your hands on the ball and keeping the income coming in, not to mention the rest of the world will actually follow you religiously, instead of doing it because they HAVE to.
Drop the fences and lose the Gates attitudes and your faithful dog will remain so.
@leckig
second graph trying to show Palm’s plans to go toward younger customers - male and female, with cheaper models, and to be internationaly positioned.
I wonder why they sell much better in the US compared to the rest of the world? Could it be because they barely even try?
The 680 costs twice as much outside the US as it does within it, and its also quite noticeable that all the rebate options only ever apply to US customers!
Furthermore, Treos are never advertised (in the UK at least), & sales assistants invariably have never heard of them!
@yoz
i see what you said, but that, to me, and likely to many Linux fans, seems pointless to the end of switching to Linux. if you’re going to keep things proprietary, why not just write a new version of Palm OS, and not try and pass it off as some thing like the free-range experience Linux has been for so long.
what form-factor would that linux-phone have? if it has the same stupid design as current treos there’s really no use. i hope the do something sensible like the htc tytn.
second: how does palms idea of “exclusive control” compare to access idea for alp? access says they will allow access to the underlying linux as well, thus neither forcing developers to build palmos-like apps nor to port all those apps already available for linux (mobile) to palmos-toolkit.
last: would these *** guys at palm finally provide an os-_independent_ eclipse-plugin to develop? the current palmos-ide ports everything from linux to windows and makes that stuff _only_ available on windows! how *** are they?
@noozeguy: why shouldn’t it? google uses linux, sun uses linux — and furthermore sun makes java open source …
LinuxOS instead of PalmOS only makes sense if they keep the OS open source and allow open source Linux Mobile apps to work. As for Palm’s proprietary apps, let them keep the apps they use as long as the let others’ Linux apps work.
Also, All advertisers look at their market and try to expand it. Right now according to the graph, males in the U.S. with $35K incomes buy most of the Treos. It makes sense to try to expand that to all peoples in all countries, at all eco’ levels. I do agree that the color is secondary. What we need is more case variety.
Also, why does Palm milk you for accessories? Make them affordable and we won’t have to buy third party stuff so much. I just got a Krusell Horizonics + SW case for mine and it was $30, but very worth it. Palm’s cases are 2x that and not worth it.
I agree with Winston - Palm (and many other companies) are missing out on growth opportunities by having blinkers blocking their view of anything beyond the US market.
My friends and colleagues are impressed when they see what I do with my 650 - but we haven’t seen a SINGLE model update here from Palm for 2 years!!
Time for my upgrade on my cellphone contract - and because of the lack of interest from Palm I’m seriously considering moving to htc to get a multitasking system as it will no doubt take another 2 years before we get a Linux-based Palm.
I agree with Winston - Palm (and many other companies) are missing out on growth opportunities by having blinkers blocking their view of anything beyond the US market.
My friends and colleagues are impressed when they see what I do with my 650 - but we haven’t seen a SINGLE model update here from Palm for 2 years!!
Time for my upgrade on my cellphone contract - and because of the lack of interest from Palm I’m seriously considering moving to htc to get a multitasking system as it will no doubt take another 2 years before we get a Linux-based Palm.