Palm dumps Windows Mobile
PALM HAS SAID that it will be dropping the Windows Mobile operating system in favour of its own webOS platform.
Speaking at its quarterly earnings conference call Palm’s chief executive said that the company was going to focus exclusively on the webOS platform that is behind its Pre and Pixi handsets.
“We're launching more great Palm webOS products with more carriers, and turning our sights toward growth," said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer.
"We're making significant progress with Palm's transformation, and our culture of innovation is stronger than ever."
Rubinstein said that the company was seeing stronger than expected demand from the business community for its Pre device. The news will be a blow to Microsoft, which is losing support for its mobile platform, one of whose key selling points was its appeal to enterprise managers.
Palm’s quarterly results were however disappointing. The company posted its eighth successive quarterly loss, and this quarter it lost $164.5 million, compared to being $41.9 million in the red this time last year.
The company reported 823,000 sales of smartphones, up 134 per cent on the last quarter, largely because buyers held off from purchases while waiting for the Pre. However, year on year sales were down 30 per cent.
The next quarter is going to be crucial for Palm’s future. The fourth quarter of the year is the strongest time for handset sales but Palm is facing stiff competition from the iPhone, as well as from new Android handsets from Motorola and LG. µ
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HMMMMM.....
Does this mean that the phones will be sold for less?
Dumping Microsoft as the phone OS should mean that they won't have to pay any license fees.
I look forward to seeing a price reduction in these phones...... or perhaps not.
What phones? They are going to stop making their Windows Mobile phones and only make their new Pre and Pixi phones, which never had Windows Mobile on them in the first place.
A blow to microsoft indeed. The whole problem with phones from MS's perspective is that phones are too closed. They're not an open computing platform where you can move data and software around when you get additional or more phones. Whenever people buy a new phone, it's a whole new standalone device so having a new OS with the phone doesn't matter. MS can only succeed in the phone market by somehow tying people's data and programs to the OS rather than to the manufacturer's phone.
I'm no marketing genius, but maybe if Palm deemed to let us Yurpeens buy the things, their sales might be higher ?
Or are the Palm genii busy translating their weird adverts for maximental vertical integration demographic cross-border impact ?
Their Ex-CEO promised them to us at the same time as the Yanks, so an apology would be nice, too.