China Telecom launching Palm Pre, BlackBerry handsets this summer

We’ve been hearing that China Telecom would be grabbing hold of Palm and RIM’s respective stables of smartphones since early last year, but at long last we’ve some official quotes to prove those whispers correct. According to a new report over at the Wall Street Journal, Chairman and Chief Executive Wang Xiaochu has affirmed that it will offer an undisclosed amount of BlackBerry devices in China this May, while Palm’s Pre (no word on the Pixi) will hit this July. These deals could certainly bode well for the carrier; as it stands, it’s going up against China Mobile — which already sells BlackBerry handsets — and China Unicom, which is home to Apple’s iPhone. Unfortunately, pricing details weren’t available, but we’re guessing those will pop sooner rather than later.

China Telecom launching Palm Pre, BlackBerry handsets this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon vs. AT&T: Pre Plus edition

Sure, Verizon and AT&T shout at each other across our TV airwaves all the time, but how often do we get to see two exactly same phones running on both carriers? The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus have just such a distinction, and we stopped back by the Palm booth with our Verizon Pre Plus in hand just to prove to ourselves we weren’t dreaming. Naturally we couldn’t keep ourselves from a little browser battle (check out the video after the break, the winner may or may not surprise you!), and we even caught the two phones commiserating about that dismal plastic USB jack flap of infamy. Sure, we’re longing for a new webOS device, and have a hard time thinking AT&T will reverse Palm’s fortunes alone, but there’s something special about this new era we’re entering with the likes of Palm and Google where you can (almost) choose your device and then your carrier, not the other way around.

Continue reading Verizon vs. AT&T: Pre Plus edition

Verizon vs. AT&T: Pre Plus edition originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T’s Palm Pixi Plus and Pre Plus hands-on


We just spent a few fleeting moments with AT&T’s just-announced Pre Plus and Pixi Plus from Palm, and they’re pretty much exactly what you’d expect: GSM remixes of the models available on Verizon (we weren’t allowed to take a peek at the SIM slots, but rest assured, there’s an AT&T carrier logo up there at the top left). Both devices seemed relatively zippy — yes, even the Pixi — though that can naturally change pretty quickly once you’ve got a few cards chugging away. We were delighted to see that Palm loaded our very own Engadget app on their demo devices — a good way for booth stoppers-by to catch up on show news, eh? Check out the gallery below, and keep an eye out for more coverage throughout the day!

AT&T’s Palm Pixi Plus and Pre Plus hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor: Palm May Ditch WebOS for Android

UPDATE: A source within Palm (who is known to us but wants to remain off the record) has contacted us to say that “there is no memo and no plans to adopt Android. We are very happy with and committed to webOS.”

An anonymously sourced, unconfirmed memo partially quoted on Slashdot purports to show that Palm is ready to ditch the failing WebOS — which powers its Pre smartphone — and instead become yet another Android handset maker. The full memo was promised to be posted on Wikileaks at midnight ET last night. It is still not there. Here is the purported “quote” from Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein:

While Palm is incredibly proud of our engineers who spent timeless work and effort to bring us this advanced operating system, consumers simply have not caught on. To provide a better future for ourselves and our customers, the only logical choice is to transition our hardware and software to the Android platform.

Despite the rather suspicious origins of this information, it does seem like one of the only ways out for Palm, which really did bet the farm on the WebOS. Back at CES 2009, the Pre was the star of the show, with almost unanimous praise from the tech press. It multi-tasks, it has the UI polish you’d expect from a bunch of ex-Apple engineers and it has some genuinely clever features: the windows-as-card-stacks metaphor, and the notification bar, for example. Everybody thought the Pre would save Palm.

But it failed to sell, to the extent that Palm has actually ceased production temporarily and is trying to help telcos shift inventory.

Could a move to Android keep Palm from closing down? Android is hot right now, and while the Motorola Droid and the Google Nexus are no iPhones is terms of sales, they’re getting a lot of press. Just like the Pre did, in fact.

It’d be a risky move. In swapping to Android, Palm would be throwing out the one unique thing that it has to sell. The WebOS is way more important than the Pre (or its little sister, the Pixi): those are just boxes. And if the iPhone has taught us anything, it’s that the box doesn’t matter: It’s all in the OS. Palm’s failure wasn’t in making a bad OS. It was poor marketing. That weird, giant woman on the TV ads? Confusing, if not scary. The iPhone ads, on the other hand, tell us exactly what the phone does, and no more.

Our advice? Stick with WebOS and just fix your ad campaign, showing people that you can use the phone as a five-device MiFi-style hot-spot or that you can use it to tether your iPad. Show the phone in action and people will buy it.

Or license that OS and go up against Android itself. Handset makers will be getting the jitters right now after Apple’s lawsuit against HTC. Offer them something free of patent infringements, something that is here today (unlike Windows Phone 7), and you might just turn Palm into the Microsoft of the cellphone world.

Rumor: Palm ditching webOS for Android? [Slashdot]

See Also:

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com


Palm shares take 25 percent plunge after downer earnings announcement

Remember that wild January day a bit over a year ago, when Palm debuted webOS and shares went wild? Well, after months of setbacks in the sales arena, and a rough $22 million Q3 loss announced yesterday, Palm’s stocks took over a 25 percent dive today, dipping below $5 for the first time since the Pre was announced. At the time of this writing things seem to be leveling off a bit, but it’s the most damage the shares have seen since October of 2009. Morgan Joseph analyst Ilya Grozovsky has downgraded the stock to “sell” and set a target price at $0. Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek has set a similar target, saying that he sees a “complete lack of earnings visibility.” So, candlelit vigil time? Imminent buyout? Riots in the streets? Hardly. Palm’s own Jon Rubinstein said in the earnings announcement that the company is “looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners” which should (hopefully) brighten spirits a bit, and we haven’t heard a single credible buyout rumor, despite plenty of wild conjecture. There are also still a pair of analyst hold outs (just two, to be exact) that have buy ratings on the stock, reports Thomson Reuters. As for rioting? Well, that’s up to you. No matter what, Palm has some serious soul searching to do.

Palm shares take 25 percent plunge after downer earnings announcement originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm Posts Poor Sales, Future Uncertain Once Again

Palm_Pixi.jpg

This is getting depressing. As expected, Palm warned again that revenue for the current quarter will fall far below Wall Street’s expectations, Reuters reports.
The Palm Pre and Pixi aren’t selling as well as Palm had hoped, even after introducing (slightly) upgraded versions for Verizon Wireless, to sell alongside the original models on Sprint.
The main problem appears to be inventory: Palm shipped 960,000 smartphones last quarter, but only sold about 408,000 units instead of the 600,000+ many analysts expected. That leaves Palm with tons of aging inventory sitting in stores, which means greater discounts, more sales, and less profit just to move the remaining units.
This casts a pall over Palm’s future prospects once again, after the struggling company delighted tech enthusiasts by introducing the long-awaited, excellent webOS in January 2009.
Will Palm ever get it together? For more, read PCMag editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff’s latest column.

Palm posts $22m Q3 loss, says it liked its chances against Droid had Verizon launch been sooner

Palm gave us a heads-up back in late February that its upcoming earnings report wouldn’t exactly be cause for celebration, and today the news has become official: the outfit recorded a net loss of $22 million during its fiscal Q3, which still looks rosy compared to the $98 million loss it suffered this quarter a year ago. All told, the firm shipped 960,000 smartphones in the period, which represents a 23 percent uptick from Q2 2010 and a nearly 300 percent increase compared to this quarter in 2009. Unfortunately, sell-through wasn’t exactly stellar, with just 408,000 units changing hands — that’s a 29 percent decline from last quarter and a 15 percent drop year-over-year. We get the impression that it’s waiting for carriers to get down to replenishment levels, but it’s hard to say when that’ll happen. Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s chairman and CEO, was obviously not thrilled about the news, but he’s mirroring statements made to employees just over a fortnight ago with this quote:

“Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong. The work we’re doing to improve sales is having an impact, we’re making great progress on future products, and we’re looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners. Most importantly, we have built a unique and highly differentiated platform in webOS, which will provide us with a considerable – and growing – advantage as we move forward.”

We’re listening into the earnings call right now, and so far we’ve heard a few choice quotes. Jon mentioned that Palm has “aggressive roadmaps on the software front that we’re working on,” and that there were “no changes to our planned carrier launches.” We’ll let you know if he introduces the Pixi 2 or anything.

Update: The call’s over. PreCentral points out a choice quote from Rubinstein:

We had an arrangement with Sprint that when we launched with Sprint that they would invest in marketing and carry the product and for that they would get an exclusive for a period of time. That really determined when we could do our launch at Verizon. I agree with your premise that if we could have launched at Verizon earlier, prior to Droid, that we would have gotten the attention that the Droid got and since I believe that we have a better product, I think we would have even done better.

In other words, Palm — regardless of Verizon’s positioning — feels like the Pre Plus could’ve been a legitimate contender as a halo phone for the carrier had it been able to launch sooner, though that opportunity has obviously long since passed. We’re not so sure we agree that the Droid and the Pre Plus play in quite the same space, but if nothing else, we like the chutzpah — now it’s time to deliver some new hardware.

Palm posts $22m Q3 loss, says it liked its chances against Droid had Verizon launch been sooner originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft takes a note from Palm in new Windows Phone 7 Series ad

We’ve held no punches in sharing our thoughts on Palm’s recent ad campaigns, but the one spot that was actually not heinous has seemingly served as the basis for one of Microsoft’s first-ever WP7S commercials. Debuting here at the tail-end of MIX, the ad spotlights Anna — a fictitious gal we’ve certainly heard of before — using her new smartphone to share photos with her dear lover Miles. It also features Luca, a kid with an undying love for playing Xbox LIVE titles, who seems to be caught somewhere in between the world of nature and nurture. At any rate, it’s worth your while to give the new Microsoft commercial and the Palm ad which it has oh-so-much in common with right after the break.

Oh, and Palm — we guess “Windows Phone 7 Series was your idea,” right?

Update: Yes, that definitely looks like an HTC HD2 at the 0:43 mark, but you can rest assured WP7S won’t ever come to that gem in native fashion.

[Thanks, Sean]

Continue reading Microsoft takes a note from Palm in new Windows Phone 7 Series ad

Microsoft takes a note from Palm in new Windows Phone 7 Series ad originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we’ve got video!

Palm just showed us the Unreal Engine 3 running on webOS, which apparently took a couple weeks to port over to the platform using that fancy new PDK. It runs at a pretty smooth clip, with just a tiny bit of artifacting in our enemy’s death animation. As an added bit of wow factor, Palm has it currently setup to demonstrate the game at 1 fps when in card view. Like most touchscreen shooters, this doesn’t really solve the problem of simulating dual analog sticks, but it’s still a fun and good looking engine for a mobile device. We’re still unaware of any games that have been built for the mobile engine, which has now been shown for iPhone, Tegra 2, and will be headed to the iPad as well, but we have to assume we’ll be seeing some before too long. Check out the webOS video after the break.

Continue reading Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we’ve got video!

Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we’ve got video! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm’s webOS PDK beta adds Pixi native development, PDK’d apps will hit the Catalog mid year

We just sat down with Palm here at GDC and fished out a few more details on the PDK beta front. Firstly, and most interestingly, Palm has confirmed that the PDK now works on all of its handsets (instead of just the Pre and Pre Plus), which means Pixi buyers can stop hating themselves pretty soon. Apparently the level of performance degradation should be comparable iPhone 3G vs. 3GS, which doesn’t sound too horrible. This is functionality that wasn’t available even to Palm’s early PDK partners like EA and Gameloft, so we should be seeing versions of existing games make the jump to the Pixi when the time for PDK beta-developed apps to hit the Palm App Catalog. When will that time come, you ask? The “middle of the year,” or “a few months,” whichever sounds more promising to you. Palm’s not saying whether this new era for the App Catalog (anyone being able to release PDK apps, and those apps working on the Pre and the Pixi) will accompany a full-on webOS update, but it seems logical to us.

On a more technical front, we’re told the PDK supports the Linux standard SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) to ease in porting and development (Unreal for Linux runs using SDL, for instance), and that developers could even build apps like an audio processor that rely on PDK components but don’t show up in the UI at all, or OpenGL-empowered things that aren’t necessarily games or in 3D. Also, existing developers have only been able to do “full screen” games that rely on PDK components alone, but the PDK beta lets you mix and match webOS UI with PDK elements. Currently there aren’t many PDK games that use the extra Palm hardware like the QWERTY keyboard and the gesture area, but we’re told that’s all exposed to the developer, along with any other element of webOS that Mojo SDK users have access to. One notable plugin hangup is the fact that Flash only works in the browser, and can’t be embedded into a regular webOS app, PDK or no — though we have to assume this is something that’s in the works.

Palm’s webOS PDK beta adds Pixi native development, PDK’d apps will hit the Catalog mid year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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