Stephanie Richardson: Place your bets

Me, You and Palm: Profiles of Palm People
	Role: Are we building what you want? Are you wanting what we're making? Product marketing is the art of placing bets on what you're going to love.   At Palm since: Just before we launched the Treo 700p. Seems like forever ago
I have always been a person who’s full of questions, ideas, and opinions. From choreographing group dances to “Billy Jean” as a kid (come on girls, we all did it) to planning road trips in college, I love getting people aligned and working together toward one goal…kinda like herding cats. (Remember that TV ad? Yeah, that’s me on the horse.)   You are not an easy audience to please. I’m always trying to figure out what you’re going to love about your phone, not what we love about it. Because sometimes those two things are different.   Palm is full of people who just want to do the right thing. Maybe that sounds obvious, but it’s not. Everyone here wants to deliver the right product, in the right way, to the right people.

  

Jan. 8, 2009 – the day we announced the Palm webOS platform and the Palm Pre phone at an invite-only event at CES in Las Vegas. And probably one of the best – and most nerve-racking – days in my career to date. The event went amazingly well, but for those of us who have been working on this product for what seems like forever, the jittery behind-the-scenes went very much like this:

Jan. 7: Rehearse the presentation and demo, worry about everything going as planned, rehearse some more, worry about what people will think, rehearse some more, worry about everything from someone stealing the demo devices to the power going out in Vegas. Followed by a completely sleepless night.

Jan. 8, before the morning press conference: Cross fingers and toes, realizing that there isn’t anything we can do at this point. It will be what it will be, and we hope it will be great.

Jan. 8, during the press conference: Jumping around in our seats at first, huge sigh of relief when Jon Rubinstein came on stage and it all started. More relief when Ed Colligan came on stage – so far so good. Extreme relief and now nervous excitement as Matias Duarte went through the demo and everyone ooohed and aaahed right where we’d hoped they would.

Jan. 9: 3,465 (or thereabouts) demos later, sore feet and throats from talking for hours on end – and enormous pride that everyone loved the product and everything went off without a hitch.

Talk about placing your bets. A really great day.

Join Stephanie on a Facebook discussion board all this week and find out if her betting skills were any help at the Blackjack table in Vegas.

Comments

[Chris Champion]

Stephanie,

I'm interested in hearing more from you soon. There are a lot of us expecting you to go head to head with Phil Schiller - if not at least in the advertising/marketing arena.

Chris
(car license plate: HOTSYNC)

[Mike Cane]

Congrats. It was a grand slam at CES!

[Cheryl]

I'm dying for a Palm Pre to be on AT&T ASAP! I can't even wait...I'm so tempted to get an Iphone, but I hate to leave Palm after being with them from the first Palm Pilot in '96. HURRY UP!

[acarback]

@Chris Hotsync is your license plate? You're awesome :-D

Stephanie, I'm long time Palm product fan. I can tell you exactly what I want. I want the Palm Pre. Gimme gimme gimme :-)

[Bill Cunningham]

I'm a longtime Palm product fan (all the way back to the IIIe) and have been waiting for a phone that would be like my T|X in form-factor and display that would run all of my apps. Looks like the Pre got 2 of the 3 right. Will my legacy apps run on the new OS? If I have to get rid of my apps anyway, it makes an IPhone (gasp!) or a Blackberry look better.

Another thing, you guys really need to be on Verizon. Limiting yourselves to Sprint will really hurt you in the short and long run. It's not worth it to me to switch from Verizon to get the Pre (although I really want one!)

[Christopher]

Greetings Stephanie... Long-time Palmer here as you have heard probably from 1000's of owners... I am looking forward to the Pre in AT&T as well, however with an exposed keyboard instead of one that flips out. I enjoy / prefer the traditional Treo/Centro form but would really appreciate the new OS. Thank you

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Bill -- yes, we announced an emulator yesterday as part of our Web 2.0 announcement.

http://blog.palm.com/palm/2009/04/the-webos-developer-community-leaps-ahead.html

[Ted Stanley]

I had to really dig around to find this forum to make a comment. Companies that listen to customers normally succeed, those who don't normally fail.

How about straight answers to obvious questions?

Can I Hotsync all my old Treo 700P data to the new Pre ?

When can I use the new Pre with Verizon ?

Without each of these two things I'll either retain my Treo, or switch to one of the fruits (Blackberry or Apple) ... and neither of those alternatives seems very attractive.

[Chingon]

@ Bill
Are you CRAZY??????
Sprint/Nextel has BETTER plans (and cheaper) than anyone else, and way better 3G coverage than AT&T or Verizon in all the States where I have family.
Verizon And AT&T SUCK...Believe it, I know.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Hey Ted -- you can always find us here at the blog, on Twitter (twitter.com/palm_inc) and on Facebook (facebook.com/palm). We try to be pretty reachable.

Regarding your specific questions, we'll announce more about hotsynching when we announce availability. We did announce this week that an emulation solution will be made available. More on that below. And we do work with Verizon Wireless on a regular basis, but haven't announced anything regarding Pre and VZW.

http://www.motionapps.com/classic/

[john]

will the Pre be able to edit MS word/excel documents

[Miles]

You guys did a great job at CES. It looked like a classy event and it was worth the wait.

[Millie]

I am so happy that the Pre is coming to the Sprint Network! I won't get the iphone because it is on the AT&T network and almost waited till my contract would be over before getting the Blackberry Storm from Verizon (end of this year). So, with much anticipation, I have been waiting anxiously for the Palm Pre! Yes, Sprint has been receiving awards for service and stability. AT&T service was unsatisfactory cause of frequent disconnected calls. I have been with Sprint for close to 4 years and have only been disconnected less than 5 times!
Thank you Palm and Sprint!!!

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

John -- with the ease of developing applications for webOS, it's certainly a possibility.

[Louise Dixon]

Please hurry and get the Pre out. I have used palm since the IIIe and now I have the Centro. I am a realtor and love the infared for using my lock box. I am hoping that the pre will continue with this application. PLEASE give us a date??? I am not so patiently waiting.
Louise

[Andre Corbeil]

A Canada question. Can Palm comment/confirm whether the Pre will be available in Canada and if so, approximately when?

Do we have to wait out a US sole-provider period before its even possible to release in Canada?

Thanks for this opportunity to ask questions direct to Palm.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Andre -- we can't confirm at this time.

[Ade Oduwa]

Please does anyone know when the release date is, if not at-least let me know what month its coming out?????

[Lorenzo]

Sprint told us today that the Pre will be available on April 17th. Is this a CS rep blowing smoke or is there some truth to this?

[Matthias]

We have tons of Palm addicted users here in Germany, all looking forward to have their own Pre in their hands. However, while you guys in the US can speculate about a release date, we can't even speculate about a carrier. Does anyone know what the Palm colleagues in Europe/Germany are planning? Regards, Matthias

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Lorenzo -- can't comment on rumors. Hop on over to one of our community sites and play Palm Pre Release Date Bingo for a chance to win a Pre.

http://www.everythingpre.com/articles/2009/4/10/palm-pre-release-date-bingo-2-lucky-winners-will-win-a-palm-pre/

[Scott]

I am a wireless phone salesman. We deal with the big three carriers (not Sprint). My daughter has an iphone so I am familiar with them. Near as I can tell, the palm pre is very close to being perfect. I will get it someday, when I can afford it and when it is on GSM. But it truly makes the iphone and the BB storm look old. Even TMobile's G-1 can't really compare. Good luck.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Scott -- thank you. Nice of you to say.

[Richard Jesch]

Ok, I admit it, I am head over heels for a Palm Pre. Now I am especially urgent to get one because yesterday I dropped my Zire 71 (for the umpteenth time in six years) only this time the display took a hit. There goes my only shred of reluctance. But I'm afraid this infatuation will end all too soon when I get a PRE and discover that no OS-5 Palm software is compatible. That could be overcome if most of the useful applications are now available on the PRE. Mostly I want Docs-to-Go and how can I survive now that I can't have 2SKY?

[LaShandra]

I'm wondering why the Pre doesn't have a camcorder included in it's setup? And will it have one? I love shoot quick videos of family and friends and with the new Pre I won't be able to do that? Why??? Anyway as a LONG TIME Palm supporter I can't wait for the release of the Pre. I'm excited just wish it had a camcorder. Please make that happen Palm. I know you can.