Valleywag: Palm

Palm hires Sidekick, Helio smartphone designer

Owen Thomas — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 11:20:00 PDT

Has Palm run out of Apple engineers to poach? Or has Steve Jobs's intimidation campaign proven effective? Whatever the reason, Palm's latest hire seems smart: Matias Duarte, the designer of the user interface for the Sidekick and Helio's Ocean.

Monster, Palm and three other tech companies own $856 million in paper no one wants to buy

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:00:00 PDT

Instead of holding onto cash, tech firms such as Monster, Palm, Intuit, EarthLink and MetroPCS in recent years bought something called auction-rate securities. Basically — very basically — that means these companies loaned out around $856 million because banks told them they'd earn more than they would just holding on to the cash. Only thing is now, with the credit markets being what they are — crappy — no one else wants to buy the rights to collect on those loans. So all that cash is sewn up in paper. That could soon hurt because the companies are going to need that cash eventually, an exec at one Wall Street trading firm told the WSJ. And when they do, he said, they should expect "a steep loss."

Palm poaches another Apple executive

Owen Thomas — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:36:39 PDT

Jon Rubinstein, the chairman of Palm, is once again striking former boss Steve Jobs where it hurts — Apple's talent. The latest hire: Lynn Fox, the head of Mac PR, joined Palm earlier this month. For a PR person, she's made the move surprisingly quietly; her name has yet to appear on any press releases. As with Mike Bell, the Apple veteran who now heads Palm's product development, Rubinstein is likely trying to keep things quiet. Relations between Palm and Apple, whose iPhone is walloping Palm's Treo, are tense enough as it is.

Palm misses earnings, despite Centro sales

Owen Thomas — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:00:32 PDT

Did I just buy my last Palm smartphone? My aging Treo 600 — yes, I hear your snickers already — died at SXSW, and I picked up a cheap Centro to replace it at a Sprint store. (A tip: Skip the $50 rebate and pay $149 instead of $99; the monthly data plan will be less expensive.) Chairman Jon Rubinstein is revamping the company's hardware and software, but does he have enough time? Until the former Apple exec's inventions hit the market, the company has to make do on Centro sales, which swell its unit sales but hit its profit margins. Palm sold a record 833,000 phones in the most recent quarter, but its $312 million in sales came in below Wall Street's hopes. For what it's worth, I love the Centro; if it hadn't locked up at just the wrong moment, I would have beaten Mashable's Pete Cashmore with his iPhone in a text-messaging duel.

Palm is closing its 34 retail stores as the ...

Jordan Golson — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:46:28 PST

Palm is closing its 34 retail stores as the company "consolidates resources" to compete more effectively. Wait, Palm had retail stores? [News.com]

With latest hire, Palm's poaching at Apple comes to a boil

Owen Thomas — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:37:49 PST

Palm has hired Mike Bell, a 16-year Apple veteran, as its SVP of product development. But you'll never hear that from Palm. The hiring of an industry veteran for a top executive spot is something normally trumpeted as loudly as possible. But Palm is desperately trying to keep quiet the fact that it won over Bell shortly before Christmas. Why the silencing effort? Jon Rubinstein, Palm's chairman, was part of Steve Jobs's turnaround team before he left Apple in 2006. Since he joined Palm last year, the smartphone maker has been hiring a number of Apple engineers. There have been "screaming matches and threats of lawsuits," says a plugged-in source.

The loss of Bell was apparently so intolerable to Jobs that Palm hasn't dared announce his hire publicly, though he's listed on the company's management page, and SEC filings reveal he's received stock in the company. A Palm spokeswoman says the company hasn't announced any new hires recently. That strikes me as an unlikely reason: The company is desperately in need of some good news, and wooing a top executive from Palm's most lethal rival in the smartphone market would seem to qualify.

Did Palm's Jon Rubinstein know the MacBook Air was coming?

Owen Thomas — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:44:16 PST

"Does it remind you of the Foleo?" Palm's never-released "smartphone companion" laptop, killed on the eve of its introduction last September, does look a bit like Apple's new MacBook Air, though the latter is thinner yet and far more powerful. Under the casings, there's little comparison. Which raises a question: Did Jon Rubinstein, the former Apple executive who's now Palm's executive chairman, get some inkling that Apple would be coming out with the MacBook Air?

Rubinstein left Apple in the spring of 2006, before the Air began serious development. But he'd presumably have sufficient contacts within Apple to get such a warning. It would explain a long-standing mystery: Why Palm killed the Foleo later, rather than sooner. Better to take the financial hit in September — Palm wrote off $10 million in Foleo R&D — than to face the inevitable comparisons to a far superior machine in January.

Palm stock fell almost 7 percent today after ...

Jordan Golson — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:51:40 PST

Palm stock fell almost 7 percent today after the company reported that it lost $9.63 million in the latest quarter. Last year, in the same period, Palm earned $12.77 million. Too bad for Palm shareholders. Perhaps they can commiserate with the Palm employees that were laid off the week before Christmas. [AP]

Layoffs at Palm come in OS development

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:40:20 PST

A anonymous tipster tells us Palm will lay off 250 employees, confirming our previous report. "The biggest cuts are from OS development," our source says. "[SVP Mark] Bercow wants the OS sold by April or worst case scenario — abandoned." Which seems strange, considering Palm went through some gymnastics just to get is old operating system back from the Japanese company, Access, which had bought it. The rumor, however, jibes with the Wall Street Journal's report last week on former Apple exec and current Palm executive chairman Jon Rubinstein's plans for the company.

Sources told the Journal Rubinstein plans to develop a new Linux-based software platform to run apps on all of Palm's devices before the end of next year. And Rubinstein seems comfortable with addition by subtraction. The Journal says he "cleaned house" within a month of his arrival last summer. Still, the timing is tough for Palm engineers. "What a holiday gift," our source writes. "We're supposed to be told about severance tomorrow."

Ed Colligan says no holiday cheer for Palm employees

Mary Jane Irwin — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:40:35 PST

Nothing spreads holiday cheer like a rosy rash of firings as employees are starting to break out the eggnog. However they may try, there was no fooling CEO Ed Colligan into dispelling rumors he planned to heap coal — pink-slip shaped coal — into 100 stockings. The AP has confirmed that Palm has laid off 10 percent of its work force this week. These 115 souls were sacrificed to "focus and better align resources behind core initiatives" and "to ensure that our expenses are in line with projected revenues." Bah humbug to you, too, Ed. (Photo by lhoon)

Jon Rubinstein inherits a fistful of fun

Mary Jane Irwin — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:25:53 PST

Former Apple exec Jon Rubinstein, who ushered in the iMac and iBook, was recruited by Palm in mid-July to help pull the company out from under Apple's Birkenstocks and RIM's wingtips. The flailing smartphone maker certainly needs someone to inject something into its product lineup that is, as CEO Ed Colligan concedes, perceived as stale. (Treo, Treo, Treo!) Too bad it didn't happen sooner. Yesterday it was confirmed Palm will have a wave of layoffs, rumored to be in the hundreds, in the next few weeks. Why?

Because an unspecified product didn't meet with a carrier's approval. Palm blames the misstep for a $30 million hit to this quarter's projected revenues). Rubinstein's influence may take years to find its way into actual phones. No consolation for those without jobs in the short term.

Kindle maker Lab126 hides in Apple's backyard

Owen Thomas — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:37:26 PST

Jeff Bezos, sitting in an office in Seattle, is basking in the credit for Amazon.com's new Kindle e-reader. But who really deserves credit for it? Lab126, an Amazon subsidiary in the heart of Silicon Valley — Cupertino, Calif., Apple's hometown. With former Apple and Palm employees running the quasi-startup, some have speculated that Lab126 might be coming up with an MP3 player or handheld computer. Instead? The Kindle, which many have dinged for a design that hardly matches the iPod or Treo. ("The Pontiac Aztek of e-readers," says a friend of blogger Jason Kottke.) The good news: Lab126, which now openly takes credit for the Kindle, is hiring two more designers. If you want to do something about the Kindle's design, now's your chance.

How well did the iPhone really sell?

Tim Faulkner — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:12:46 PDT

Apple's third quarter was a blowout all around, but the real question is how the iPhone is faring. Now that we've got a quarter's worth of data, we can compare it to the competition, and gauge the effect of blogosphere scandals like the recent episode of iPhones "bricking" after a software update — sure, tech pundits got worked up, but did people stop buying iPhones? The bottom line: Steve Jobs & Co. entered a daunting market and performed quite well.

For comparison's sake, I measured the iPhone primarily against offerings from Palm, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion, and Nokia's full featured N-series mobile phones. With a single, high-priced design sold only for AT&T in the U.S., Apple has already surpassed Palm, which offers its Treo on all major U.S. networks. Sales reached one-third the level of industry stalwart Research In Motion after only four months. Apple has even achieved more than ten percent of the share Nokia enjoys across its entire N-series, the world leader in smartphones. And this simple comparison only looks at units sold. Even at the lowered $399 price, Apple's iPhone tests the upper limits of mobile pricing — and that's not counting the share of service fees Apple gets from AT&T.

Though it may be Mac-fanboy sacrilege to say so, the iPhone lacks some key features. Right now, Apple can brick an iPhone with a software update — but IT administrators can't, which makes them hesitant to buy them for corporations. The BlackBerry is entrenched in that market. And Nokia has unmatched global reach. Against those considerations, Apple has unquestionably performed well.

Data for third quarter:

Palm says their new smartphone OS won't be ...

Jordan Golson — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:10:40 PDT

Palm says their new smartphone OS won't be released until the end of 2008. The new system is progressing "as well as possibly could be expected," executives say. Sounds like that plan to split off Palm's software division isn't working out that well. Shareholders, we hope you aren't still holding your breath. [The Register]

"I'm going to use my $100 rebate I get from ...

Owen Thomas — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:05:28 PDT

"I'm going to use my $100 rebate I get from the I-had-to-have-it-before-my-brother iPhone to get one! And I'll even have a dollar left over for a refreshing can of soda." — AllThingsD's Kara Swisher on the new, low-priced Palm Centro. Kara, you ignorant slut. Don't you know that you can only use your iPhone credit on Apple products? [AllThingsD]

Maybe we spoke too soon when we wrote that ...

Jordan Golson — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:08:29 PDT

Maybe we spoke too soon when we wrote that Palm shareholders were going to get slaughtered by the company's entrance into the cell-phone price wars with the bargain-priced $100 Centro smartphone. Palm shares were up 6 percent in trading Thursday. Don't hold your breath waiting for that trend to continue. Maybe they're just relieved Palm cancelled the Foleo. [AP]

How low can they go?

Owen Thomas — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:19:43 PDT

Palm is diving from the high-end smartphone market, where some devices sell for an iPhone-like $600, deep into the low end, with the $100 Centro. Kids, that's why they post warning signs around the pool. But we suspect shareholders are the ones who are going to end up with a pounding headache.

Remembering the Foleo

Owen Thomas — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:22:11 PDT

Were you actually looking forward to the release of the Foleo, Palm's underpowered Linux laptop meant to be a companion to its Treo smartphones? Crushed that it was cancelled? Relive the Foleo's brief glory days thanks to this clip of Jeff Hawkins demonstrating the device on AllThingsD.com.

The folly of Jeff Hawkins

Owen Thomas — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 08:56:25 PDT

For years now, Palm cofounder Jeff Hawkins has been promising his company will come up with "a new product category" — some leap of the imagination, akin to the original PalmPilot handheld organizer, that will define an entirely new submarket of gadgets. The Treo smartphone was, genuinely, such an advance. And the way Hawkins talked up the Foleo, the lightweight, underpowered Linux laptop he revealed at the D: All Things Digital conference earlier this year, you'd have thought it, too, was a real breakthrough. Hawkins may have fooled himself, but he fooled no one else, including, at long last, Palm's own management. Palm is taking a $10 million charge against earnings to cancel the development of Foleo — and this on the eve of its release.

Palm CEO Ed Colligan, a longtime associate of Hawkins, blogged the news yesterday, less than two weeks after Engadget editorial director Peter Rojas demanded the Foleo's cancellation — a screed for which Colligan, masochistically thanked Rojas. (I'm not sure whether that says more about Rojas's influence, or Palm's weakness.)

The company is now in a tight spot. The organizer market continues to dwindle perilously; the smartphone market has been roiled by the advent of Apple's iPhone; and the Foleo, Palm's supposed third product category, a shimmering mirage on which Wall Street types could pin their hopes for growth, has been revealed as an illusion.

Colligan, however, included a sop for Hawkins. And, perhaps, for the most optimistic of investors. He's promised to keep developing the Foleo, this time on a new software platform Palm has in the works for its smartphones. I can't see it happening, though. The Foleo was always a stopgap measure, a product for the here and now , meant to ease the pain of using a smartphone's tiny keyboard and screen until laptops get lighter or smartphones get more powerful. Apple fanatics will tell you that that day has arrived, in the form of the iPhone. I'm not convinced of that. But the future path of handheld, connected devices is clear — and no one, save perhaps Jeff Hawkins, sees a device like the Foleo as part of it.

Gadget expert Peter Rojas gives Palm, the ...

Owen Thomas — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:19:17 PDT

Gadget expert Peter Rojas gives Palm, the maker of Treo smartphones, some extremely tough love. Basically, he'd like the company to completely rethink its hardware designs, operating system, developer relations, and marketing in order to get back in his good graces. We think it would be cheaper for the company to just buy everyone ice cream. [Engadget]

Left hobbled with debt by Elevation's cash-out ...

wagger1 — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:47:32 PDT

Left hobbled with debt by Elevation's cash-out refinancing, the smartphone maker is laying off developers. PCWorld.com

Geeks rock out: Five Easy Pieces plays this Friday

Nick Douglas — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 16:17:54 PDT

It's only appropriate that an industry founded in carports should breed geeks with garage bands. Our first featured Valley band is Five Easy Pieces, a rock group started by the techie Allen Bush. By day, he's the director of marketing and business development for Internet startup Sharpcast. By night, he rocks out. Sez Allen:

I started a band a few months ago (I play guitar/sing/write the band's originals) with an interesting mix of SV types...the chief software architect for Palm on keyboards, BD and Marketing guys from Juniper and Vormetric on Guitar and Bass, and a mortgage banker for Alain Pinel's Los Gatos branch on the drums.

The band plays in Sunnyvale on Friday, at the Quarter Note.

Five Easy Pieces [Official site]