I would just like to point out that the king of spinned press releases is noone else but Microsoft. Reading their Xbox press releases can make one's stomach turn inside out...
Well, rest assured, the battle between Palm and Microsoft goes well beyond marketing, and even beyond PDA enthusiast sites. Microsoft has a war chest ready to go. "And while Palm recently launched an upgrade of its OS with multimedia and enhanced security features, IDC analyst Weili Su noted that Microsoft has some US$30 billion at its disposal to push its Pocket PC and upcoming Smartphone 2002 software. Gartner vice president Ken Dulaney contended that Palm's new OS will offer an attractive alternative to Pocket PC on the enterprise side, but he said Palm faces short-term challenges in getting users to make the transition. "They are building a whole new platform," he told Wireless NewsFactor. "
Hey.. novel idea Ed :?:
More money for marketing = Better product... :?:
In other news Mace announced that the Pope has decided to release a Pope Palm. Each PDA will be doubly blessed with the Palm OS and the touch of the eminence. When asked to comment on the device Mr. Mace has this to say.
Quote:
"It’s the natural progression of the Palm. I mean Madonna release a Palm, Michael Jordan released on. Its time for his Holyness to get into the act. With this brave new device we believe we will increase market share 10 fold!"
When asked to comment the Vatican had this to say
Quote:
"While we are overall very enthusiastic about these turn of evens we are also somewhat disappointed. Expectations where high that that ability to play amazing grace every time an task was to take place, would be there. Unfortunately with Palm's hardware lacking we can only hope for divine intervention"
Speculation is rising though that the Pope is looking at the HP iPaq for its backlight display technology. It is believed with the backlight set to full in a dark room the user could appear to be lit by a heavenly light.
Ed, you said Microsoft has a war chest, ready to go.
First thought that popped into my head when I read this... the frequent comments by Jason and others about how really small and underfunded the PPC development team is... (usually said in response to people asking and demanding for specific features in the core OS and in included apps like pocket word, pocket exploder, file manager, etc etc).
Ed, you said Microsoft has a war chest, ready to go
It just depends on how much of that war chest MS is willing to spend in mobile devices. They also have X-Box, Windows .NET marketing, Office 11 marketing, etc. to fund.
As someone who's worked in the market research industry for 20 years it really p...s me off when somebody quotes rubbishy data like this. Obviously if you want to quote any kind of meaningful data you have to base it on what people own/use NOW. That means spending money on collecting REAL research data not re-spinning ever-sold data to make it say black is white. :x
ps It also means avoiding everybody who logs on to this site!!! I wonder how many old devices we have stuck in cupboards between us! Probably enough to make a serious blip in Mace's data :twisted:
I know it's not appropriate to do any Palm OS messaging on this board, but I hope you'll let me respond to the comments about me.
--I was talking about Palm OS share, not Palm hardware share.
--I was quoting NPD's US retail numbers. There was no counting of retired hardware or any other weirdness. NPD's measurement of Palm OS share is indeed up a bit since the beginning of the year, although for the record at this moment it's closer to 80% than 90% (it was higher last month). I don't remember all the details of this interview, but when I quote NPD I usually try to make it clear that I'm talking retail share. If I failed to do that in this case, I was wrong and I apologize.
--I work for PalmSource the OS company, not Palm the hardware company. Part of my job is to talk about the accomplishments of all the licensees. I'm not trying to take credit for any of their work, but I find it hard to talk about the OS without discussing the licensees.
--I know our licensees are not shipping any camera-enabled smartphones. I presume the reporter heard me say "camera-equipped models" and "smartphones" and strung the two together.
I know it's not appropriate to do any Palm OS messaging on this board, but I hope you'll let me respond to the comments about me.
I am the one that brought it up, so believe me, you are on topic and I appreciate the comments.
Quote:
--I was talking about Palm OS share, not Palm hardware share.
I understood that. But that 90% cannot be accurate for 2002 or even 2001. It sounds like you are talking cumulative numbers - so Palm has somehting like 20-25M devices out there with Palm OS on it (includes licensees) going back to the original Palm Pilot. Is that range fair? We know Pocket PCs are well above 2M - iPAQ alone hit that in 2001. So lets say it is only at 3M. That is roughly a 90%/10% split and that ignores the older Palm-sized PCs.
Quote:
--I was quoting NPD's US retail numbers. There was no counting of retired hardware or any other weirdness. NPD's measurement of Palm OS share is indeed up a bit since the beginning of the year, although for the record at this moment it's closer to 80% than 90% (it was higher last month). I don't remember all the details of this interview, but when I quote NPD I usually try to make it clear that I'm talking retail share. If I failed to do that in this case, I was wrong and I apologize.
Ahhh. Ok, that makes more sense. I agree - Palm is blowing Pocket PC out of the water in unit shipments for retail - with $100-$150 devices versus Pocket PCs that come in at $299 minimum on closeout sale (like the Maestro) and the norm in the $400-$550 range, it only makes sense. But when you include enterprise sales either direct from the OEM or wholesalers, the picture changes. Question: Does the NPD retail include internet sales like Amazon, Buy.com and MobilePlanet.com?
Quote:
--I work for PalmSource the OS company, not Palm the hardware company. Part of my job is to talk about the accomplishments of all the licensees. I'm not trying to take credit for any of their work, but I find it hard to talk about the OS without discussing the licensees.
Agreed. You no longer can really talk about Palm Inc like that. They are a customer just like Sony and Handspring. You treat them equally. Fair enough.
Quote:
--I know our licensees are not shipping any camera-enabled smartphones. I presume the reporter heard me say "camera-equipped models" and "smartphones" and strung the two together.
Thanks for listening.
Michael Mace
CCO, PalmSource Inc.
Thank you for participating! If you can shed some light on my follow up questions we'd all be appreciative of it.
Re: Does the spin never end?
Microsoft has a war chest ready to go. "And while Palm recently launched an upgrade of its OS with multimedia and enhanced security features, IDC analyst Weili Su noted that Microsoft has some US$30 billion at its disposal to push its Pocket PC and upcoming Smartphone 2002 software. Gartner vice president Ken Dulaney contended that Palm's new OS will offer an attractive alternative to Pocket PC on the enterprise side, but he said Palm faces short-term challenges in getting users to make the transition. "They are building a whole new platform," he told Wireless NewsFactor. "
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