Will Palm pull back from Dell?

[Jason Dunn]

In a discussion thread earlier this morning, <i>jmulder</i> asked a very good question - "Will Palm still allow Dell to sell their hardware if Dell is a Pocket PC OEM?". What do you think? Will Palm pull back from Dell like HP just did, or does Palm need the market that Dell offers so desperately that they'll suck it up and keep working with Dell? Or, and this is where I'm leaning, will Dell kick Palm to the curb and focus on selling their own Pocket PCs and nothing else? Vote in the poll and share your thoughts...

[Steven Cedrone]

Palm loves to shoot themselves in the foot. My vote is that they would pull back regardless of how much revenue they lost......

Steve

[danmanmayer]

Following the marketing attempts of palm. Dell is planning to offer a free palm 105 handhell with every Dell Pocket PC you order. When, Palm was contacted about the deal they said that "at least this way, we won't have to pay for storage of our old handhelds anymore, so it is kinda like making a profit." Dell claims the deal is to help their long time partner, that they didn't want to just leave out at sea. :P

[sesummers]

The order is for 1.3 million units. That's a pretty large number. They must be planning to really push the things, because they've got maybe 6-9 months from next November before a new hardware/software generation will make the current batch obsolete. So why would they want to carry a competing product to dilute the sales volume?

I also think that despite all the Steve-Geek ads on TV aimed at consumers, Dell is still pretty focused on business, and while Palms may be better organizers, Pocket PC's are clearly better pocket size computers, making them superior for corporate application deployment. It's evident that Dell agrees and thinks Pocket PCs are more appropriate for their market, because they could have just as easily released a Palm OS product. Given that, why would they keep Palms in their product line?

[Robotbeat]

I don't really like Dell, but that is actually mostly because of the retarded guy on the commercial... wait. Nevermind, sorry. I don't want to insult retarded people by associating them with the Dell guy.

[JMountford]

I have to say I do not know a lot about Palm and Dell's relationship or how many Palms Dell Sells. I do know that Dell is more of a corporate computer and therefore their sales campaings, (until recently) have been more geared to those markets.

I would not be suprised at all if Dell and Palm both keep their partnership at least for a while. Dell will push the PPC but will not want to alienate customers by not having a popular product. Palm will want to keep as many sales channels open as possible, and Palm does not balnche at direct competition from PPC sales, (Even though they should rethink that philosophy with the newly priced Machines.)

So honestly My true vote is they will both keep on for a while. If one does go it will be Dell's Decision.

[Foo Fighter]

I would imagine this spells the end of Palm handhelds from Dell. As a rule, Dell shuns products from competing vendors. Which is one reason why..to this day, they do NOT sell iPaqs.

One thing is for sure: This could be the turning point for Pocket PC.

[jmulder]

I guess I should put my 2 cents in as well...

I think Dell has the bigger negotiating chip here. Palm is in a situation now (though OS5 may change it) where they need to keep every channel open they can. Losing market share to PPC and Sony and Handspring, and then closing the door on any channel, whether or not it competes with your product, would be foolish. I don't know how deeply they discount to Dell, but I'm sure they're making some money at it.

Dell, on the other hand, shouldn't be too quick to dump Palm. Palm still holds a large market share and a lot of brand recognition. In fact, your average customer (not like us gadget freaks) may prefer a bundle with a Palm over one with a PPC. Why lose out on those sales?

I would imagine this spells the end of Palm handhelds from Dell. As a rule, Dell shuns products from competing vendors. Which is one reason why..to this day, they do NOT sell iPaqs.

I'm not sure if Dell really "shuns" products from competitors (didn't they sell the Jornada 54x series for a while) or if they just like to screw Compaq.

In closing, I'll ask another question about Dell branding:

In the past year we've seen Dell sell Dell-branded storage systems, networking equipment, printers, and now PPC's. While all of these products fall into areas traditionally thought of as 'computing', Dell also sells non-computing products like the Canon digital video cameras and some digital camera (can't remember the brand). Is Dell going to stop with 'computing' products or continue into consumer electronics as well?

-Jim

[Dell Dude]

Dudes (and dude-ettes), I'm so totally stoked about my new Dell Pocket PC, and so pumped to see you all talking about it! My fellow peeps, it will rock your world! Palm? I got two of those little dudes, and they don't do anything cool except HOLD my new Dell Pocket PC! Dude...glad to be here...

[Will T Smith]

&lt;PARODY>

Today Palm announced that they will pull their products from the Biggest electronic retailer. Reportedly the plans were precipitated by Best Buy's insistence at selling competing products.

A Palm spokesman commented "It's impermissable for retailers to represent Palm while their selling our competitors products. Best Buy isn't alone at this, our investigation has uncovered several vendors such as Circuit City, Fry's, Sears, Wal-Mart, and others who we may pull back from."

When asked whether such a move would undermine Palms marketplace position he commented "Palm is a BIG draw. After all people call them Palm Pilots, not Visors or PocketPCs. These stores are lucky to have Palm customers buy their Palm and then maybe a big screen TV. Palm is a draw."

&lt;/PARODY>

:twisted:

[igreen]

Dell sells Ipaqs...and HP.....and Casio...and Sony....and Palm....and on and on......

http://rcommerce.us.dell.com/rcomm/cat_dellwareresults.asp?itemclassid=202&searchtype=2

[igreen]

Go to Dell.com. Select state and local government. Pick Texas. Then select handhelds. Pick Pocket PCs.....Ipaqs out the wazoo.

[Dave Conger]

This will be big for the Pocket PC world and bad for Palm because Dell is just going to start throwing in a Pocket PC when you order a new computer. Of course they won't do this right off, but after Dell has various Pocket PC's, they will definatly do it to get rid of old stock. Even if the user has an "old and busted" Palm, the "new hotness" of a Pocket PC will probably convert them. Palm needs to get a move on with their new products and better have a flood of them.

[possmann]

I have to agree with these posts - and certainly the result of the poll to date - 30% for Palm pulling away and 54% for Dell giving them the boot.

Palm has stepped on an overturned rake so often that you'd think they would have learned by now. 8 plus years and no screen resolution change :? - as just one example... I would not be a bit surprised if they pulled out of the camp first.

More likely, however, Dell will give them the boot - clearing out their inventory and replacing it with cheaper 32MG PocketPC devices with either a SD or CF slot in the device - my bet is an SD slot (seeing they are talking with HTC). I'm not looking at this PPC as a big and powerful device - like a LOOX :wink: - but something in line with a base PocketPC running on an ARM chip.

The question to ask is: "Why would Dell want to keep Palm devices on inventory?"

[mookie123]

I wonder if PPC will actually reach the 50% market share by christmas, if so one has to agree that Microsoft's product strategy is one of a business marvel. (but than again, it's Palm we are talking about. a true block head company)