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visorcentral.com >> Stories >> Commentary
Palm, What Have You Done For Me Lately?


Thu Apr 12, 2001 - 7:20 PM EDT - By Alan Graham

XP vs. Palm

After a gruelling day spent defending my first attempt at this opt/ed piece I wondered why very few people actually got the point I was trying to make. Although I felt my introduction was possibly a little weak in retrospect, it seems that I had struck a nerve and yet the rest of the piece was lost in the barrage of emails, letter bombs, and postings. What I would like to do now is try and rectify everything with a Homer Simpson time-warp effect, where I can change the past and all will be good in the world. Sit tight...here we go!

New And Improved Intro

I have been thinking a lot lately about the release of the new Palm m500 series and I gotta tell you, it couldn't impress me less. This seems to be one more misstep in a long list by Palm. With all of the time spent developing new technology, I can't believe that Palm seems to actually have stepped backwards. I understand that the new series of Palm devices is a monumental leap for their hardware line, but it seems like more of a short hop in the industry to me. While Handspring and Sony seem poised to push the Palm platform forward, it appears like they are trying to pull a reluctant great dane on a leash. I am starting to wonder if Palm is actually starting to hold the industry back?

Let's take a look at a few major missteps from Palm in the past year. • First of all, Palm has been slow to update their OS and hardware. The m500 series of handhelds should have already been on the market for a year now. They have been consistently slow in releasing products and updates (I am not referring to the repackaging of old technology with new Vx/whatever names) . The fact that the iPaq has begun to capture some market share and that Handspring has taken more than 20% of their market share in the past year is a wake up call. Wake up!

• Palm made a major mistake in announcing the m500 series of Palm devices so far from their release date. They have doomed their inventory and their resellers into being stuck with an enormous investment in product that will never leave the shelves. Why purchase technology that will never go anywhere? Because of this, Palm will be looking at burning about half of their cash reserves this year, not to mention the Palm Vxwhatever fire sale.

Where are the modules - redux >>