Palm, Inc. released their fourth quarter report yesterday after market close, and their loss was even wider than estimates had anticipated, according to Bloomberg. Palm reported losses of 40 cents a share, for a total of $43.4 million. Some of that loss was due to stock-based compensation, but even taking that out of the equation, the loss would still be 22 cents a share. Estimates had Palm's losses at 18 cents a share, and Palm's reported sales also missed the projections, leading to a 3.4 percent drop in share price.
What happened? Palm has showed losses in four straight quarters now. Even with Blackberry repositioning to compete with the iPhone with the upcoming Bold, Palm is still trailing as the third-ranked smartphone manufacturer behind Research in Motion and Apple. During RIM's conference call this week, RIM co-CEO and Director James L. Balsille confimed that the Bold will be released this summer, contrary to rumors.
The once-desired Treo is showing sales lags at seven years old, and Palm's Centro has done well, but not well enough. Palm has cut staff and closed retail stores, and CEO Ed Colligan said that new Treo models will be introduced in coming months. Palm can only hope this will be enough to compete with the imminent release of the iPhone 3G as well as the Bold.
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Comments
I've owned a Palm Handspring (back in the day) and more recently a Palm T/X -- I'd always considered myself a big Palm supporter until I started to have problems with my two year old T/X this year. Palm's customer support was a nightmare to work through; their website had incorrect information, their customer service couldn't communicate with the repair center -- and now I'm having to get my *third* replacement unit repaired for hardware problems. It's sad to see a company that had such promise doing so poorly, but if others are finding the reliability and customer service problems I've had, I can't say I'm surprised.
Brian, I'm with you there. I have a Treo 600 I just never bothered with getting repaired for the umpteenth time. It's a paperweight testament to the last Palm product we bought.
This doesn't even mention the fact that Palm has no 64 bit drivers for Vista 64. There are many long time Palm supporters that are going to other platforms when there "New every Two" contracts are up. I myself will do that and I do not want to, but I have needs that Palm is not supporting :(
Sorry... I try to pretend that Vista doesn't exist. ;) I do think that is just one more example of their apparent business model of "status quo."
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