Palm completely irrelevant in the mobile market

Colin Dunstan · 04-20-2005, 12:55 PM

Before you beat the living daylights out of me, please know that I didn't make this statement. The blame is all on Russ Beattie. In his latest blog entry What is PalmOne Celebrating Exactly?, he is questioning palmOne's self-proclaimed success with the Treo.

You see, the Treo 600 was launched in September 2003, so it's taken them roughly 20 months to sell a million units, which works out to about 50,000 Treos sold a month. That's pretty pathetic. Keep in mind there were roughly 675 million mobile phones sold last year worldwide, including 14.38 million Symbian phones (and 6.67m in 2003).

I think it is a bit unfair to compare the Treo to a whole industry segment (wouldn't it be better if he compared it to a specific competiting product?). Moreover, shouldn't we look at the Treo more as a PDA than as a mobile phone?

Pride Of Lions · 04-20-2005, 01:07 PM

I was at a $3.3Trillion company the other day, and I saw many people with Treo 600's and 650's. In fact, the presenter had to ask people to turn off their "Treo's" as their cell-phone-ness might cause interference with the wireless mic's. I agree that PalmOne/PalmSource have done some bone-headed things in the last 2-3 years, but I finally found a segment of the market that's happy with a P1/PS offering and not endlessly b****-ing about what P1/PS could do better and should do better.

(For the record, I'm a member of the P1/PS "endlessly b****-ing" society.)
POL9A

gadgetguru · 04-20-2005, 03:31 PM

I disagree. While Symbian may have sold 14m last year, most is of the Symbian 60 variety which most would not consider a smartphone. The UIQ and Symbian 90 portion is much smaller. And most Symbian OS phone owners doesn't buy it because its a smartphone nor utilizes it for its feature, most buy it just because its the latest trendy phone.

Treo owners and to a lesser number the Windows Mobile Smartphone/Phone Edition users are the power users and the power people. The one who utilizes some of the smartphone capability of the phone.

trekfan · 04-20-2005, 04:43 PM

I must say I agree with you guys. The treo may not have a huge market share but it's still a very good device and isn't doing too badly. As far as wanting to "beat the living daylights" out of someone goes, I think Mr. Beattie is in more danger than you Morpheus.

04-20-2005, 12:55 PM	#1
Colin Dunstan Is papyrophobic! Posts: 1,926 Karma: 1009999 Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: USA Device: Dell Axim	Palm completely irrelevant in the mobile market Before you beat the living daylights out of me, please know that I didn't make this statement. The blame is all on Russ Beattie. In his latest blog entry What is PalmOne Celebrating Exactly?, he is questioning palmOne's self-proclaimed success with the Treo. You see, the Treo 600 was launched in September 2003, so it's taken them roughly 20 months to sell a million units, which works out to about 50,000 Treos sold a month. That's pretty pathetic. Keep in mind there were roughly 675 million mobile phones sold last year worldwide, including 14.38 million Symbian phones (and 6.67m in 2003). I think it is a bit unfair to compare the Treo to a whole industry segment (wouldn't it be better if he compared it to a specific competiting product?). Moreover, shouldn't we look at the Treo more as a PDA than as a mobile phone?

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04-20-2005, 01:07 PM	#2
Pride Of Lions just kinda geeky Posts: 381 Karma: 30 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Oakland, California Device: iPhone	I was at a $3.3Trillion company the other day, and I saw many people with Treo 600's and 650's. In fact, the presenter had to ask people to turn off their "Treo's" as their cell-phone-ness might cause interference with the wireless mic's. I agree that PalmOne/PalmSource have done some bone-headed things in the last 2-3 years, but I finally found a segment of the market that's happy with a P1/PS offering and not endlessly b**-ing about what P1/PS could do better and should do better. (For the record, I'm a member of the P1/PS "endlessly b**-ing" society.) POL9A

04-20-2005, 03:31 PM	#3
gadgetguru Addict Posts: 214 Karma: 6370 Join Date: May 2003 Location: Asia Device: Tungsten T5	I disagree. While Symbian may have sold 14m last year, most is of the Symbian 60 variety which most would not consider a smartphone. The UIQ and Symbian 90 portion is much smaller. And most Symbian OS phone owners doesn't buy it because its a smartphone nor utilizes it for its feature, most buy it just because its the latest trendy phone. Treo owners and to a lesser number the Windows Mobile Smartphone/Phone Edition users are the power users and the power people. The one who utilizes some of the smartphone capability of the phone.

04-20-2005, 04:43 PM	#4
trekfan Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2004 Device: Sony Clie tj27	I must say I agree with you guys. The treo may not have a huge market share but it's still a very good device and isn't doing too badly. As far as wanting to "beat the living daylights" out of someone goes, I think Mr. Beattie is in more danger than you Morpheus.

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