Introductions; Palm Splits and Gets Downgraded
First things first, I am a new contributor to this site. I have known Faisal for a very LONG time and we recently discussed the creation of this site with some other technologies that we hope to add very soon. Keep an eye out for new additions as we move forward.
Second, PALM split today 2:1. This brings the stock down to very nice buy point. I am strong proponent of the PALM product. My wife uses a Treo 650 and, until recently, so did I. I love the integration of a phone with the simplicity of the PALM operating system.
PALM also received a downgrade by JPMorgan today. This is the only analyst to give the stock a downgrade today. Of course, tomorrow, more analysts might downgrade the stock following JPMorgan’s lead but I hope not and here’s why. The Treo product line by PALM is an incredible product and it continues to distance itself from any other smartphone in the market. It is very reliable and PALM continues to address any user concerns by releasing firmware upgrades on a regular basis. The other product lines show sharp declines but as everyone has just discovered, and PALM has realized this a few years ago with the introduction of the first Treo, is that converged devices are going to be the norm and not the exception in an Enterprise environment. CEO’s and other business leaders don’t want to carry around a separate PDA and phone. They want one device to carry in their suit pockets. That’s why Blackberry has recently introduced the 8xxx product line. It shares a lot of aesthetics with the Treo line (note the slimmer design). It is also a converged product with phone and pda functions built together. This isn’t the first Blackberry product that is converged, just the one that shows Blackberries recognition of the Treo popularity.
Hope everyone enjoys the posting and hope to see some comments.
Murad Kheraj
What about the new Motorola Q, dubbed the RazrBerry. Uses MSFT software, weighs 40% less than a treo and is much slimmer than the treo or Blackberry. It’s been out in Korea for a few months and people love it?
Actually, when Murad posted his comments, I wanted to bring up this same point. I will let him respond to you, but wanted to add that I think both Motorola and Nokia have a strong product line of “Treo killers” due for release soon. My only convern is that they should have already released them and any added delays will cost them just like PS3’s delay is costing Sony. On the other hand, having owned the Treo 600 myself, I am disappointed with the 650 and the 700 due to the lack of innovation in these upgrades and will only upgrade to the Moto Q.
On a side note, the smartphone market has not taken off outside of the corporate world and I suspect there is plenty of room for multiple players.
First things first, I love that the site has finally gotten one anonymous comment. Thank you for your comment.
Second, although the Moto Q and the Nokia E61 are great looking products, it still remains to be seen whether they will be the great Treo killers that various industry analysts are expecting them to be. HP introduced a product called the Ipaq hw6515 (soon to be the hw6915) which they claimed would be a Treo killer yet very few folks are talking about this product and fewer still are buying it. The product was designed to be superior to the Treo (Windows Mobile, QWERTY keyboard, More Memory, SDIO and MiniSD) but marketing was terrible. HP relied on their channels to market the product instead of stepping up and marketing the product themselves. They might have learned from their mistake on the soon to be released hw6915 but we will have to see.
And that leads me to my main point. Marketing is what has made the Treo such a great product. Although it has taken 4 generations to get to where it is today, each step has been a step up without a loss of functionality from the previous generation. The first generation Treo’s included a QWERTY keyboard which was completely innovative at the time. The second generation included a color screen and backlit keyboard. The third generation included a camera, faster processor, and one handed operation. Finally, the most recent generation of Treo phone (650 and 700w) includes bluetooth. It has taken Palm/Handspring a long time to get to this point but they made sure that each step of the way, they did not compromise their most recent improvements. I am sure that we will continue to see more innovations by Palm on new Treo and you can even find some of these innovations on various other blogs which I am sure both of you follow since you know a lot about the competing products.
Let me just say one other thing. The Treo was supposed to be the big Blackberry killer and we can see even today that the Blackberry continues to have strong sales and there doesn’t seem to be any decline in their followers. What I mean to say is that each phone has their niche and will probably be around for a long time. You can’t just assume that a new competing product will kill of the previous product. The new product must have great innovation, great marketing, and great luck. For example, at one time, Netscape Navigator was considered the browser of choice. Suddenly, Microsoft stepped up and said they would create a better web experience. Their first iteration of Internet Explorer wasn’t great but at each step they got better and better where now they are considered the market leader in the browser war and Netscape is considered a niche player.