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?
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johnsonx - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
I think the general view has been that Android 1.x wasn't bad, but that it took Android 2.x before you could really call it an iPhone competitor.deputc26 - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
Where's the Android handset reviews? unlaunched WM7S-covered iPhone-covered, WebOs-Covered..... Something is missing....mendeh - Monday, April 5, 2010 - link
I am not sure what happened behind the scenes but I think it is clear to me that Palm's troubles are directly attributable to launching after the Droid on Verizon.Essentially iPhone, WebOS and Android staked out their carriers early and Verizon was left with really only Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices. This left a lot of customers without a "modern" OS, and created a major opportunity for either Palm or Google. Whoever was going to launch on Verizon and tap into that huge customer base that really wanted an iPhone but would never switch to AT&T would blow up over night. I think that if Palm had launched the Pre on Verizon before the Droid things would be a lot different today. Back in the 1.5/1.6 days on T-Mobile, Android was in similar position as Palm. It had yet to reach a critical mass. As soon as the Droid launched on Verizon though we witnessed the rebirth of Android and what we now know as the 2 horse race between Google and Apple.
I really do think WebOS is dead and it is kind of a shame. I also think that some of this is Palm's fault because the Pixi is just a complete waste. They would have been much better served to create a 2nd device with a bigger screen and essentially the same form factor as the Droid. Trying to go low-end with the Pixi when the Pre is already selling for practically the same price was just not smart.
tedsc - Tuesday, April 27, 2010 - link
The Pre came out well after the iPhone and aspired to meet the hardware spec... I think webOS is very interesting but I cannot for the life of me figure out why Palm is putting such a great OS on such a mediocre hardware platform.I am currently in the market for an upgrade over my Tilt and while their are many interesting choices of OS and hardware, their are certain standards that seem to baseline the discussion:
1. >= 1ghz processor
2. >= 800x400 resolution
it is only a matter of time until a slider keyboard Android or Meego phone comes out on either a moorestown or snapdragon platform. So you have to ask yourself if the OS is compelling enough to endure hardware that is so passed it's prime?
I really hope Palm is picked up by a company like HTC or LG that is already pushing the hardware envelope and needs an elegant OS to really compete with Apple.
avionicspro - Friday, July 16, 2010 - link
I am a tech guy and regularly try and use new gadgets. That said, this phone is terrible ! It drops more calls than I can even begin to tell you about. I just received my warranty exchange because the original phone kept rebooting, locking up and the headset would squeal when plugged in.I'm looking forward to getting my contract renewed next month, putting this one back in the box and forgetting about it all together.