It’s this part of the year yet again: a stupid, boring New Year’s eve party straight ahead, and loads and loads of thoughts rotting in the brain of yours truly. As usual, this is the time for our “New Year’s eve” post series – what has happened in the industry this year?
For the boys in Orange, 2009 wasn’t too bad a year. This was not so much due to their own effort, as rather due to a generally stagnant market. All other manufacturers largely stood still, allowing Palm to take the role of an “innovation leader”.
Even though the Pre and Pixi have sold very slow compared to other devices with similar hype, they nevertheless sell somewhat well – thereby improving Palm’s bottom line a bit.
For Palm, 2010 will be another decisive year. If the pace of the industry remains as stagnant as it was, they are likely to be able to improve their situation further.
If, however, larger entities (especially Microsoft) wake up, they will find themselves in deep trouble very quickly. One just has to look at the time it took them to get the app store up and running – horrible, horrible…
So: Palms situation is improving, but the eekers are not over yet. An interesting year lies in front of us…
P.S. If you are interested in other platforms, hit the links below – our sister sites contain similar editorials:
2009@TamsPPC – Microsoft, what were you doing?
2009@TamsS60 – will openness prevail?
2009@TamsIJungle – in an Apple’s peel
2009@TamsBlackBerry – on the RIM of destruction due to boredom?
Related posts:
Palm losing in both the PDA and phone markets?
It is sad to realize that the respect we may have for some companies is clearly not reciprocal, and that the confidence-inspiring logo that attracts us to them actually stands for little more than a logo. Over the holidays I had to install a new PC for my dad, now running Windows 7. HotSync doesn’t work and Palm has no updated driver (is recompiling so hard? Mind you Microsoft could also learn about upward compatibility). Is he supposed to ditch his perfectly working T2 and a get a Pre? That’ll sure make him very angry and he’d get anything BUT a Pre. Talk about PalmOS users moving to webOS…
Palm screwed by not providing support for their userbase…the most basic function of a corporation.
What foolish execs would start a new platform(webOS) and simultaneously drop the current platform(palmOS)…and thus ALL OF ITS CUSTOMERS!!
To make it even a most stupid approach, this thumb flicking “gesture” crap is a sorry fad that requires 4 thumb flicks to elicit a response and the user is unsure of the result, the new webos is supported by only 2 phones that are significantly slower than old palmos phones. the new webos is available at only 1 company, and the apps are orders of magnitude less than current palmOS.
its clear they are merely desperately trying to create an APPLE model, whereby they can suck the bejesus out of your pocket book for every move you make as a user. in contrast, the currently FREE and OPEN PalmOS apps are virtually unlimited.
Hi Folks,
.
not much more to add here
All the best
Tam Hanna