Thanks Engadget

Dear Peter, Ryan and Joshua:

Thank you for the very thoughtful post about Palm. I really appreciate the fact that you guys and others care enough to take the time to write such a comprehensive list of actions. I forwarded it to our entire executive staff and many others at Palm have read it. Although I can’t say I agree with every point, many are right on. We are attacking almost every challenge you noted, so stay tuned. Let’s remember that it is very early in the evolution of the smartphone and there is enormous opportunity for us to innovate. We have only just begun to fight!

Thank you for taking the time to write. I really do take your comments to heart and I know the team at Palm is totally committed to delivering the best mobile computing solutions in the world.

-Ed Colligan

Comments

[Derik]

hey by the way I have designed a device that can compete with the iphone, it is still up for grabs.....................

Interested?

I would be willing to forward every detail, and even collaborate with your design teams, my design takes the multi-touch platform to a whole new level!!!!

[Corinna]

I have owned Palm devices going back to the Palm IIIe. I needed to upgrade my phone recently, and after testing a Treo 700p in the store I decided not to go with a Palm device. The device itself was clunky and I the web browser was terrible. I use my Tungsten E for college extensively, but Palm doesn't have anything for me to upgrade to! I really need a high resolution display and easy WiFi connectivity with built-in VPN support. Will I have to abandon Palm?

[Mario]

Palm guys, Please do keep in your "To Do" list the points made.
I am Your client and Fan but I'm have been thinking of going to "the dark side" but I'm holding hoping You guys do good once more.
Right now I use a clie TH55 with bluetooth (before the palmV, palm III) and a ordinary phone.
Please, Please, PLEASE make a good smartphone and make it work with google calendar or anything on the cloud appart from the palm desktop would be a HOMERUN.
Maybe the trick would be "OPEN" (so we can tweak it to perfection) or big time third developer support to let them do it with You.
Anyhow...
Please don't let me go to the darkside; I'll acdept touchscreen, I'll take design experiments, I'll take almost anything; but keep it simple to use and easy to develop for it.

Thank You

[haniff din]

Palm is dead already. I don't think about using a palm anymore. I've not done so for quite a while. There was a time when palm held as much excitement as the current iphone. As usual the business has lost it's way to idiots in management who don't know anything about the real changing world, or how to innovate. Palm is the strongest case I've ever seen, if the google 'always innovate' principle. If you are in technology, and you don't keep up the pace - YOU DIE.
Nice knowing you palm, but you are just a dead to me. The only company that truly had gadget fans behind it is apple, and all those companies in asia that cloned the iphone what seems like overnight. Goodbye palm, nice knowing you, but you are selling retro nostalgia, it's almost funny.

[Jude]

@Ed, Engadget is right on every point. That's the road to success. Don't waste time debating, spend it innovating. I'll hold on to my 650 as long as possible. The clock is ticking...

[vonskippy]

You guys are WAY too forgiving. The CEO responds with vaporish comments, says nothing, proves nothing, clearly states he doesn't understand the market (e.g. "Let’s remember that it is very early in the evolution of the smartphone" - what planet does this guy live on? Smart Phones have been around for years - Palm used to make good ones, remember the 600 when it first came out years and years ago?). Folks - lets wait and see what they produce, instead of fawning over a simple PR response. My money is on complete and utter failure for Palm - (because they dropped the ball and their response is going to be way way way too little and way to late).

[Mstein]

Lip Service

Being told it's 'very' early in the Smartphone evolution is ludicrous and a veiled excuse for lack of progress (presumably on the grounds that there hasn't been a lot of time or that there's plenty more time to innovate?). Early relative to what? Newspaper publishing?

Come on.

The platform hasn't changed significantly for 4 years. 4 years? In that time, in this world, a lot of things *could* have happened.

In all but the most mature markets in every single segment there's 'enormous opportunity to innovate' so this is a blindingly obvious statement to make and relates not one bit to palm or the critisims levelled against it. It's simply a statement that can in-fact illustrate the problems:

So, if there are enormous oppourtunities to innovate, in a relatively young segment (as you claim) where those 'early on' innovations tend to be simpler and less derivative why haven't you done so?

~ MStein

[Heyoka]

I've been a Palm customer since the III.

I have a 755P now, am very happy with it. It's not perfect, but there's not a perfect PDA out there. For me, it's easily the best thing out there.

I hope you guys answer the bell, with yet another wizz bang phone. Count on me if you do.

My wishlist:
1) wifi
2) a better browser
3) more storage
4) a better music thingy. Copy what iPhone did.
5) better battery life
6) a bigger screen would be nice
7) multi-tasking

I love the keyboard, but if a touch screen really is faster, bring it on.

Finally, I think the idea that my phone will be storage, and the Foleo is the interface to what's on my phone, is a great idea. I'd much rather leave my laptop at home -- always.

Go get 'em!

[jon]

Palm... I started with a T600, and i'm now on a T650, which resets occasionally when only an sms comes in. It's sad how Palm has gone down in the recent years, especially after the excitement brought about by the handspring treo 600. I do wish Palm can get back up...

[Kirk Ogilvie]

I too love the Palm OS, I'm running a Clie and would like to have a Treo to take a single device (phone and pda) with me at all times. I'm concerned that the first Linux-based Treo will be too "1.0" and I'll have to wait another 6months before a decent 1.1 or 2.x version comes out.

Also, am I the only one who's concerned that the last update to Palm Desktop was in 2004? Sigh.

[Kirk Ogilvie]

I too love the Palm OS, I'm running a Clie and would like to have a Treo to take a single device (phone and pda) with me at all times. I'm concerned that the first Linux-based Treo will be too "1.0" and I'll have to wait another 6months before a decent 1.1 or 2.x version comes out.

Also, am I the only one who's concerned that the last update to Palm Desktop was in 2004? Sigh.

[reluctant but happy iphone user]

Don't let the cellular carriers *own* you and tell you what to do. They don't care if Palm lives or dies... they just care about being able to charge for data, ringtones, sms, etc.

Instead of trying to lower the cost of 3 or 4 year old technology to increase install base, stick to your roots and *INNOVATE*. Where are your developers? GET THEM BACK!

Palm *could* be the open Linux PDA/smartphone choice. Embrace best of breed opensource -- even if it means competing with some of our 3rd party software partners.

Give the world an open platform with a full API and development. That's what the iPhone is mising.
Oh... and please give previous users of your previous products a software upgrade path to Linux.

[mark]

Agree with Mstein that your comment that it's "early" reveals your lack of understanding. You've only just begun to fight? This was PALM's market; you should've been fighting all along; not resting on your laurels.

From 2004 to 2006, people kept saying it's early about the music player market. By the time Zune arrived, the market was already locked up by iPod. So don't ever believe that it's early or fool us into thinking that it's early.

[Great Lakes]

Wish List:
1) Improve Audio Quality (better audio chip).
2) Free Media Player (Audio/Video with equalizer).
3) Slide keyboard (slides from the side so the screen is in landscape mode).
4) WiFi
5) Bigger Memory
6) Support for SD HDC (so I can plug in a Toshiba 32Gb SD one day, when the price goes down).
7) Higher screen resolution.
8) Interface with Google (mail/calendar/contacts).
9) Sexy packaging.
10) Better UI (something similar to IPhone).

Get a bunch of your people work on this, and you'll have a winner.

[Great Lakes]

PS

The tons of comments flooding in should tell you something. Some of them are loyal Palm users (the ones you would like to keep) and some are ex-Palm users (those you would like to win back).

To see some passionate angry words from ex-Palm users tells me that they still care very much about palm, and they just need a little wooing (or great product) to win them back.

There's still hope Palm, just don't throw away the opportunity.

[Alex Dawson]

Guys, I'm glad you've responded with a "we've read this", but I'll be even more glad if you take their advice to heart. My priorities for considering to buy a new Palm: make it easy to sink with iCal/Mail/iSync. I don't want to install your software, and you can do pretty much everything without it (except conduits, but with better connectivity, they matter less). Make it not ugly, make it good quality (see rant below re screen whine)

I bought a Palm IIIx in 99, and loved it. I was even a registered developer.

Then I upgraded to a T|T, and the screen was ugly, so I upgraded again to a T|5. I had it replaced several times because of screen whine, now it's out of warranty and screen is whining again, so I've just stuck in in a box of junk and stopped using it.

In 2004, I went to a friend's birthday party, and we all pulled out our geek toys. 8 of us had palms then. It's now 2007, and none of us use them anymore.

[Marco Albertini]

How are you Palm Team...

Well, most of Palm & Treo Fans will agree with me that money is not an issue if you can deliver us a magnificent Treo with most of other Treo competitors features like a decent 3.2 Megapixel Camera, WiFi, GPS and of course long time battery even if the price tag is $799 trust me Palm & Treo Fans wont let you down and to prove it to you check the eBay and ask yourself why those hungry customers trying to unlock the locked version of your Treo?

Not only here in the USA but also world wide... Everyone want this incredible gadget so please just listen to us "iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian and others" are just wanna-bes Treo so try harder and we wont let you down.

P.S. SDK is very important to get the most of this Treo fellow ;)
and please don't let this "Foleo" fool you! "Foleo" can wait :)

---Marco

[roman]

dear mr. ed c.

maybe the problem is that you think it's "very early" in the evolution of a smartphone.

that explains the lack of innovation. If windows released windows 95 four years in a row, they would be dead. but you did with Garnett.

also, think "use cases" not functionality.

A typical user wants the following:

1. use bluetooth headset with voice commands built in. hello? my 755p can't do that unless I pay extra for some 3rd party monthly service. no thank you. oh, and make the bluetooth work so that connection doesn't drop!

2. launch a browser, and then download something. while it's downloading, open up another app and keep working. be notified when download is done. it's called multitasking. it's been around a long long time.

3. download an attachment, most common types easily and just have it open. my 755p can't do that. only half the time it saves/opens correctly. a lot of times, I can't even download the file from gmail. I just see the file name with no hyperlink.

4. handle zip files. c'mon. many online palm softwares for sale are zipped. but I can't buy them via my treo. palm can't unzip it.

5. more storage? it's so obvious. 128 mb is a joke.

6. please admit that your OS is unstable and bring back the friggin' reset button. I have to take off the 3rd party case everytime on my treo to reset when it gets stuck. this happens about 3 times a week.

7 a real browser please? i don't want to wait 10-15 seconds to get on to the 'net.

8. buy out iambic and use agendus. or buy out datebook+. your built in calendar and to do didn't change much from palm III. wait, oh yeah, it's color now.

9. a better launcher that's tab based? look at zlauncher. buy them out.

10. watch videos and easily transfer media taken w/ treo back and forth from a mac or a pc. have you heard of youtube? It's the latest rage. accommodate it. even the government gets that one w/ the youtube debates.

[JohnCarter]

I was heartened to read the Open Letter to Palm blog-post whose good fortune it was to have been concisely written and published on the mighty EnGadget, thus forcing a response from Palm.

This is in stark contrast to the stock response of "none-at-all" to past presentations of essentially the same points in other more palm product-specific fora.

I am left wondering if fewer stockholders, boardmembers and stakeholders would feel blindsided when articles such as this appear were they to follow the dedicated Palm community blogs and boards listed on Palm's own blogsite [Note: these are purportedly read by Palm, and include EnGadget].

Perhaps they would feel the need to telephone Palm Corporate demanding a response earlier in the process...
Say, When the timing really is "very early in the evolution of the smartphone and there is enormous opportunity for us [Palm] to innovate."

Unfortunately, what we saw was just a lovely bunch of fragrant flowers falling from the virtual keyboard of Mr. Colligan's iPhone...

-JohnCarter

[ZackP]

Too little too late. Given the quality of the recent Palm Treos (680,700P,755P) and Palm's absolutely abysmal track record when it comes to supporting your customers I won't ever be buying another Palm product.

Every time I have purchased a Palm product I have been nothing but disappointed with how buggy they are.

Not to mention, here we are in 2007 and Palm still doesn't offer any decent software for syncing with the Mac OS. Don't even try to say the Palm Desktop for Mac works. It's worse than the Windows version and doesn't even support half of the Treo's features.

RIP Palm.

[Rob Rinaldi]

I'm very impressed that you had the balls to say this, and now you need to make sure it happens. Foleo, I think, could be a hit. When you first told the world about it, I thought, "Hey that would be great to replace my aging Apple laptop"

I began to read more into it, and while I'm still interest, I'm scared that it may be useless with out a smartphone. I have an iPhone, and BlackJack(I wanted a Treo, but AT&T wouldn't give it to me with out the data plan, which I wasn't going to use because of my iPhone.....sorry Apple has made a great phone) But assuming I can use the Foleo without a smartphone(or better yet with the iPhone!) I will be looking into picking one up. Make it a laptop replacement, and 500 will start looking a lot better.

Now for the Treo, its old. The 680 has a terrible camera, I mean horrible when you look at other smartphones, or even normal phones. And its the most recent phone on AT&T to run Palm OS. Please updated the Treo, add Wi-Fi! Give it a good camera, redo the design. The Treo to me is still on of the top smartphones on the market, but its missing some key things.

Ive always liked Palm, I don't want to see you guys go anywhere, please I want to see a new Palm OS, a new Treo, the Foleo and new Palm smartphone(non treo ones) along with other new Palm things.

Please Palm, my respect for you have increased massivly after replying to Engadget.

[Scott G]

I am sitting here with my Palm 755p. You have 1-2 years to create a steady set of improvements and give me your latest rendition of your OS.

If not, I'll buy an iPhone at that time. Because no one else can seem to come up with a decent interface (design-wise) than Palm or Apple.

Oh, and the Foleo is a horrible idea. Sorry, it's been driven into the ground. Don't produce too many. I'd rather not see "Foleo Sale!" on Palm's webpage for the next year. Get back to smartphones and do something amazing.

Or just install a damn version of Symbian OS, sell the phone on CDMA networks, and give me that much.

[asdfghjkl]

Taking a page from Palm's play book, I'll just rehash what I've posted elsewhere...

Well, I was wrong about Palm responding but, reading the response, I feel patronized; like Ed's smiling and nodding his head up and down but that's about it.

FWIW, here's how I read it:

"Thank you for the very thoughtful post about Palm. I really appreciate the fact that you guys and others care enough to take the time to write such a comprehensive list of actions."

A recent change of heart or could it be that Endgadget has so much exposure, amongst Palm users, you realized you had to make some sort of acknowledgement even if it didn't involve, actually, doing anything about the problems?

"I forwarded it to our entire executive staff and many others at Palm have read it. Although I can't say I agree with every point, many are right on."

Which and why? Endgadget's letter is quite detailed; Palm's response isn't.

"We are attacking almost every challenge you noted, so stay tuned."

For what and for how long? If you're going to have something decent, within the next few months, I'll wait. If not, that HP's lookin' better and better and "stay tuned" just doesn't do it, for me.

"Let's remember that it is very early in the evolution of the smartphone and there is enormous opportunity for us to innovate."

Where have you been for the past several years? There may be enormous opportunity for you to innovate but I think you'd better concentrate on catching up, with the competition, so you're still around to innovate.

"We have only just begun to fight!"

See above and give your head a shake. The fight's almost over and, at this point, you've lost.

"I really do take your comments to heart and I know the team at Palm is totally committed to delivering the best mobile computing solutions in the world."

I'd have to take your word, for that, 'cause, judging by what I've seen so far, you're either full of [excrement] (<=== me beating the bad words filter to the punch) or your meds are a whole lot better than mine.

Obviously, some think Palm's response is significant but, IMNSHO, Ed's just flapping his gums.

[Bill B]

Greetings, I've been waiting for Palm to roll out a Sub $100, bluetooth, wifi Organizer.......maybe someday?

[Paddy Tan]

I used to work with Palm Inc years back at 2000 and for several years.

It is a great pity that they allowed themselves to spiral down the rabbit hole like that. After Handspring's Treo nothing follows up. That's it.

When we were developing anti-theft softwares, we spread out the no. of devices available in the market and sadly while I would love to develop one for Palm devices since I was such a big fan and learnt so much from the guys with the previous management.

I know that it is too much a big risk for a small startup company like ours to go with someone that do not set clear directions and giving lotsa mixed signals with the head not talking clearly to the rest of the branches. Everyone is just so dead like working on a job for the sake of the salaries only. The fire went off, the folks in Singapore team dont reply, dont follow up.. basically just leave it as it is.

Till date, nothing from the guys even when they went Treo with Windows. Sigh.

I really hope that Palm can finally wake up from this engadget article and really come back strong.

'The slower one reacts the further they be thrown back.'

Paddy Tan
CEO
BAK2u