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Tag: palm

  • iPhone 3GS Enters Smartphone Wars


    Apple launched has its new iPhone 3GS with demand expected to be strong for the handset in the US and seven other initial launch countries.

    However, with a smartphone market also offering new handsets from Palm, RIM and Nokia, to name but a few, the landscape has changed considerably since the original iPhone hit the market two years ago.

    For the third consecutive year, lines formed outside stores as people waited for the chance to buy the newest iPhone.

    Unveiled earlier this month at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the iPhone 3GS is described by Apple as "faster and more responsive" than the original iPhone, with more battery life and close to double the storage.

    If the length of the lines was less than previous iPhone launches then Apple’s decision to allow for advanced iPhone 3G S orders with home delivery could have played a part in that.

    So too could the current economic climate – or maybe it’s just that people are spoilt for choice when it comes to buying a new smartphone?

    Among the iPhone 3GS’ rivals are Palm’s Pre, RIM’s BlackBerry Storm, Nokia’s N97 and upcoming phones powered by Google’s Android or Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating systems.

    But with the US smartphone market growing 68 per cent last year – and growth of 20 per cent projected for 2009 – consumer appetite for these high-end devices is still strong.

    A key differentiator is likely to be apps – and Apple already leads the field in that respect by a considerable distance.

    RIM captured a 55 per cent slice of the US smartphone market in the first quarter of this year, while Apple had around 20 per cent.

    However, Apple’s App Store has 50,000 applications available – far ahead of what’s on offer at BlackBerry’s App World, Palm’s App Catalog, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Catalog and Google’s Android Market.

  • RIM Crossing Categories and Borders With Blackberry Tour


    RIM is boosting its Blackberry range with a new 3G dual-mode handset aimed at both its core executive users and the wider consumer market.

    Candy-bar shaped and with a full keyboard, the Blackberry Tour will launch with Verizon and Sprint in the US and Telus and BCE’s Bell unit in Canada.

    Ever-mindful of the fact the line between corporate and pleasure smartphone use is blurring, RIM has pitched the Tour between the consumer-oriented BlackBerry Curve and the corporate-focused BlackBerry Bold.

    The smartphone is intended as a "world phone" – providing voice and data services on networks outside a user’s home operator network – which has great appeal to business travellers.

    For this reason it supports 3G EV-DO Rev. A networks in North America, as well as 3G UMTS/HSPA (2100Mhz) and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks abroad.

    For the consumer market, the Tour has all the multimedia features of the Curve, including a 3.2 megapixel photo and video camera with flash and media player.

    The phone is also preloaded with DataViz Documents to Go, allowing users to edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset.

    RIM has been left in the shadows recently – as Palm and Apple grab the spotlight with the launch of the Pre and the iPhone 3Gs.

    It will be interesting to see how its latest Blackberry offering fares as its rivals continue to encroach on RIM’s traditional enterprise stronghold.

    The BlackBerry Tour is expected to be available this summer. Pricing still to be announced.

  • Palm Entrusts Pre Success to New CEO Rubinstein


    Palm has appointed Jon Rubinstein, the man credited with delivering Apple’s iPod and iMac. as its new CEO amd chairman.

    He replaces Ed Colligan, who is stepping down after sixteen years leading the company.

    The executive changes come just a few days after Palm launched its Pre smartphone.

    Rubinstein, who joined Palm as Executive Chairman in October 2007 to help bring innovation back to the company, assumes his role as CEO on June 12.

    In his time with Palm he has been instrumental in the development and launch of the Pre and webOS.

    Palm said Colligan plans to take some time off, then join Elevation Partners, a major financial backer of Palm.

    Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is claiming that Verizon will end Sprint’s exclusive deal with the Palm Pre in January 2010.

  • Smartphone Ownership Now "Mandatory", Not Techie Toy


    Not owning a smartphone today is the social equivalent to not having email a few years ago – at least in the US.

    That’s the conclusion of a report in the New York Times, which says that having an iPhone, Pre or BlackBerry is pretty much mandatory these days unless you want to ostracise yourself from "society".

    It says the devices are no longer a status symbol or techie toy but have become mandatory equipment for belonging to society.

    David E. Meyer, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, told the paper: "The social norm is that you should respond (to an email) within a couple of hours, if not immediately.

    "If you don’t, it is assumed you are out to lunch mentally, out of it socially, or don’t like the person who sent the e-mail."

    The report comes, conveniently, as research shows that 41 per cent of consumers will make a smartphones their next mobile device.

    As a result, smartphone volumes will grow to 38 per cent of all handsets by 2013, representing the largest growth opportunity within mobile devices.

    This makes the smartphone category the most important competitive battleground in wireless today, according to the Yankee Group study.

    It also shows that trends within the smartphone ecosystem are profoundly impacting the power dynamics between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and operators.

    Traditionally, operators have had the upper hand when working with device manufacturers to bring a new device to market, but the power dynamics are shifting.

    With more competitive entrants, tighter budgets and increased consumer expectations, OEMs and operators need to work together, on equal ground, to thrive.

    Chris Collins, Yankee Group senior analyst, said the release of the Palm Pre spotlights the changes in the OEM-operator dynamic.

    "Sprint and Palm are two companies desperate for a blockbuster hit," he said. "And as such, they are either the perfect – or worst possible – partners for one another.

    "The fate of both companies relies on the success of their alliance around the Pre."

  • Palm Pre App Count Builds – Now More Handsets?


    Palm must be hoping it can quickly build on estimated opening weekend sales of 60,000 Pre smartphones – not least because Apple has cranked up the pressure with the launch of a new iPhone.

    While Palm’s Saturday launch has largely been judged a success, it was hampered by supply constraints which saw most Sprint Nextel stores get less than 50 phones to sell.

    The limited supply of handsets meant that the Pre sold out in hours at most locations.

    Sprint’s flagship Manhattan store had 200 units at launch. Its store in Boston’s Back Bay area had only 55, while one in San Francisco’s Mission district had 60.

    Palm and Sprint strenuosly denied they were limiting supplies deliberately, instead the restrictions were put down to manufacturing constraints.

    As expected, between 80-90 per cent of the first buyers were already Sprint customers – while about 60 per cent were prior Palm owners.

    Meanwhile, while one of the major concerns for the Pre has been the lack of apps for the phone there has been a flow of new software being announced by developers since Saturday’s launch.

    Among them are the WHERE and Photobucket apps.

    WHERE is a location based application that allows users to find different content based on their geographic position.

    It also highlights local content including weather, news, movie times, restaurant recommendations. You can also perform selective searches through WHERE and find out things like where to find the cheapest gas. WHERE will also have the ability to integrate with the Pre contact and calendar data.

    Photobucket allows users to send and upload photos directly from the phone. You can send any photo taken on the phone to a Photobucket album and shared through the website. You can also open a new Photobucket account directly through your Pre.

    Other applications include Zumobi’s Today Show and Sporting News Baseball apps for on-the-go news and sports updates, and LikeMe, which offers personal recommendations for restaurants, attractions, etc, based on your location.

    Beeweeb and Agile Commerce have also announced their plans to offer services to help developers create apps for the Pre and Palm WebOS.

    These new apps join the dozen or so programs that were available in the Pre App Catalog at launch, including Pandora and Fandango.

    According to Palm, more than 150,000 apps were downloaded on the first day the smartphone was available.

    Currently, the Palm App Catalog is in beta and the Mojo SDK is only available to a limited number of developers.

  • Palm Pre Passes First Hurdle – "iPhone Competitor"


    Palm’s Pre smartphone has received a pre-launch boost with a succession of (mostly) favorable reviews.

    And, in what must be the ultimate accolade in the highly competitive smartphone market, the device has even been described as a tough competitor to Apple’s iPhone.

    The handset, which goes on sale in the US on Saturday, was praised for features such as its removable battery, physical keyboard and the Web OS software.

    One of the key features coming in for criticism was the Pre’s apparently poor battery life.

    Also mentioned is state of Palm’s app store, which doesn’t have much in the way of applications to offer yet.

    That comes as little surprise since the company has yet to make an SDK widely available.

    Among the reviewers were Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times.

    Sprint,the operator with exclusive US rights to the Pre, even came in for some praise for the speed of its network.

    Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint, has said it will take around three months for the carrier to know how well the Palm Pre is doing in the market.

    He predicted it would sell "like crazy" initially but the real test would come after the initial euphoria.

    Palm and Sprint are under intense pressure to succeed – and with Apple expected to announce a new version of the iPhone on Monday, that will be no easy thing.

  • iPhone Has "Changed Dynamic" of US Smartphone Market


    Worldwide smartphone shipments grew 5.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest quarterly market overview by Canalys.

    However, Pete Cunningham, senior analyst with Canalys, told smartphone.biz-news the North American consumer market saw shipments rise in Q1 2009 by 22.5 per cent year-on-year.

    He said North American market growth was being helped by the smartphone’s shift into the mainstream.

    RIM, which was instrumental in the development of the enterprise smartphone market, still dominates but the emphasis is changing.

    "The smartphone market in the US has grown up predominantly as a professional-focussed market," said Cunningham. "But since the iPhone launched, the dynamic has changed.

    "Now smartphones are pushing into the consumer space and that’s aiding the growth."

    The analyst said he was confident smartphone shipments would continue to grow in North America, although he predicted the rate would slow slightly.

    Pete Cunningham, senior analyst with Canalys

    He expected the Palm Pre, due to be launched on June 6th, to do well, as would the anticipated update to the iPhone.

    Cunningham said that in EMEA smartphone shipment growth was 3.4 per cent in Q1 2009.

    He said the bulk of growth was in Western Europe where operators were really pushing vendors to drive consumers towards smartphones.

    There was also growing reluctance from the majority of operators to subsidise high tier proprietary operating systems.

    "They are looking for vendors to support open platforms," he said. "There has certainly been momentum gathering in this since the beginning of the year which has caught some vendors out."

    Among them is Sony Ericsson, according to Cunningham, with the majority of the phone maker’s offerings having proprietary OS rather than open platforms.

    However, he said that moving forward he was confident the Western European market would continue to grow, especially with the prospect of a number of high profile launches imminent, including the Pre and upgraded iPhone.

    Another factor that has been evident in the smartphone market is the practice of carriers agreeing "super exclusive" partnership with high-profile handset makers.

    In the UK in 2008, this included Vodafone and the Blackberry Storm,T-Mobile and the Google G1, O2 and the iPhone.

    Cunningham said this was likely to continue with the Palm Pre expected in Europe shortly after its US launch.

    "The drive behind this is partly because operators are trying to focus on customer retention," he said. "And to do this they need high profile devices."

    Another key feature in the smartphone market has been the growth in sales of touchscreen devices, shipments of which nearly doubled in Q1 2009 compared with a year ago, according to Canalys.

    Cunningham said the success of the Nokia 5800, which had a "tremendous" first quarter, had really helped boost the technology.

    However, he expected to see a lot more QWERTY keyboards on upcoming models – and touchscreen/QWERTY offerings like the Nokia N97 and Palm Pre.

    "I would not be surprised if we saw more of this combination," he said.

    "A touchscreen is great for browsing but, especially with the growing demand for social networking, a keyboard is very good for text entry.

    "Software keyboards are sometimes not so great."

  • Pre Launch Kicks Off Smartphone Summer


    So the launch of the Palm Pre is June 6th – and the scene is all set for what is likely to be an exciting summer for the smartphone industry.

    Those joining Palm in announcing new – or updated handsets – over the next few months are Apple with an upgraded iPhone and new phones using the Android operating system from Google.

    The launch season has already begun in the US, with T-Mobile announcing the introduction of the Sidekick LX, while AT& T unveiled the Samsung Jack.

    But the peak time is the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day – a spell that will be a crucial one for the industry in the US, according to the New York Times.

    How the Pre fares is certain to determine the future of loss-making Palm.

    It is a little surprising, then, to hear that Dan Hesse, Palm’s CEO says he expects a shortage of Pre handsets at launch.

    If true, it will certainly lead to headline-making lines forming outside of stores on June 6th.

    But even if it is a sales tactic, it’s a risky one for a company in Palm’s financial situation.

    The stakes are also high for Sprint Nextel, which has exclusive rights to the Pre in the United States.

    Striking a positive note, the NYT comments that with only 100 million smartphones out of the four billion mobile devices in the world, the market is capable of sustaining more than one succesful handset.

    The summer launches will add spice to the general mood of optimism within the smartphone industry.

    Lee Williams, chief of the Symbian Foundation, has predicted smartphone sales will grow 12-15 per cent in 2009, while Marvell Technology Group’s chief executive Sehat Sutardja reckons smartphones will soon make up 50 per cent of the mobile market.

    And the latest figures for smartphone sales suggest demand in unflagging.

  • Palm Preparing Second Pre-like Smartphone For 2009


    With a launch date for Palm’s much anticipated Pre still to be announced along comes news that Palm is preparing a second Pre-like handset for release this year.

    The smaller and slimmer device will be pitched at a different part of the smartphone market, according to Techcrunch.

    Palm is said to be "very far along" on its second Pre-like handset, which will run the new WebOS operating system.

    Spec details – such as whether it will have a touchscreen keyboard – are unknown.

    Equally unclear is what effect a second device, launched so soon after the Pre, will have on the flagship smartphone’s sales.

    Elsewhere, more information has been emerging on the Pre this week, with iSuppli estimating that the Palm smartphone costs around USD $170 to make.

    The calculation is based on the device’s hardware and manufacturing costs using second-quarter component and assembly pricing.

    The breakdown of the USD $170.02 consists of a hardware cost of USD $137.83, manufacturing and basic test costs of USD $9.58, and software and licensing costs of USD $22.61.

    The analysis does not include shipping, logistics, marketing and other channel costs.

    iSuppli expects Palm will try to sell the Pre to wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp for about USD $300.

    But the analysts said the actual cost to consumers will be around USD $200 due to an expected carrier subsidy.

    Just when the Pre will be released is still largely a mystery, although the latest projection is 7th June.

    An interesting choice, if correct, as this is the day before Apple holds its World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC).

    And that is where the next generation iPhone is widely believed to be set for release.

  • Paid Apps Imminent For Android Market


    Google’s Android Market is expected to begin accepting paid applications this week for the first time.

    The move could provide a much-needed boost to the platform, which currently has around 800 applications.

    This is far below what Apple’s App Store had achieved in its early months. Incidentally, the App Store has just passed the 20,000 mark for apps, with over 500 million downloads.

    While Android Market’s position can partly be attributed to the G1 not being as popular as the iPhone, that’s not the whole story.

    Another key element could be the fact developers haven’t been getting paid to come up with shiny new apps for Android.

    With the incentive of remuneration thrown in, the desite to create software for the G1 and soon-to-be launched handset additions to the Android platform is likely to be much stronger.

    Interestingly, Google is deviating from Apple’s revenue model in that it receives nothing from the downloading of paid apps.

    Both app stores will give developers 70 per cent of the revenue, but whereas Apple pockets the other 30 per cent Google is passing it on to the carriers and to pay settlement fees.

    Anything that gets the Andoid Market rolling has to be welcome, expecially as others – including RIM, Microsoft and Palm – are expected to launch their own app stores very soon.