This was the first chance since Steve Jobs returned to Apple that Microsoft had to slam-dunk Apple. The biggest thing at Macworld was Tony Bennett. Windows 7 was releasing in Beta and reports have been glowing, with a number of the folks I travel with actually living on the pre-beta code and raving about it so this should have been like shooting ducks in a barrel. Palm was bringing out a new phone and a lot of folks thought they were simply done and not worth seeing, good lesson in the dangers of preconceptions here.
Hmmm, where to start?
"an overpriced (in a market that is buying US$500 netbooks by the dozen) laptop"
The target market for $500 notebooks are NOT the people who by any stretch of the imagination who would be buying a 17" Pro laptop. It's like saying "Who's going to buy a steak when MacDonalds sells burgers for a buck?" Dumb and just plain stupid.
"The only thing I walked away with is that Steve Jobs is now only a figure head who remains in place because the board knows Apple Stock will drop like a rock if investors figure out that he left, but he is clearly not there at the moment."
Ya, like you can produce new and exciting products based on SOMEONE else's imposed deadline? Killing their appearance at Macworld gets rid of the silly thing where people are reluctant to purchase certain Apple products at Christmas as there will be a product bump in early Jan. Hey what a great time to launch a new product! Just when everyone has spent out on Christmas! I think Apple were fed up with this limitation.
Palm. What can I say? Firstly no price. I wonder why that is? Secondly no product. They said it would be available in 1H09 but they couldn't be pinned down to a launch ( I know the FCC is involved in the process and that can take time but hey ). Thirdly a smoke and mirrors demo that really seemed to be there just to get someone to buy the company. By smoke and mirrors it seems that this product was designed by listing all the complaints that people have against the iPhone and then ticking those boxes. So geek nirvana. The development environment is a joke - Apple had 9/10's of this in the original iPhone and people were up in arms. They are relying on a faster ARM chip to make it run faster.
Finally. drag some people who were at Apple and use Apple developed technology (WebOS is built on Webkit framework developed by Apple and then given back to the community) to produce a very small Mac running Dashboard - and call that an OS? Hmmmm. We shall see.
Also Palm have just executed the single most spectacular company suicide in corporate history since Osborne. Who is going to buy a Palm in the next 6 months with this thing coming out?
As I say, drink the Kool-Aid, but it looks like Palm are setting themselves up to be sold to the highest bidder. Geeks: a product is not made by ticking boxes be happy that someone is "listening" to you but YOU are wrong.
In a market buying Civics you don't bring out a Hummer. That was the point I was trying to make. $2,700 laptops aren't selling at the moment, $500 laptops are selling out.
I support their leaving MacWorld, really badly timed show and I'm pushing to have CES moved as well. January for something like this is just stupid, but the point was on Jobs not MacWorld.
Recall whan Apple launched the iPhone 2 years ago it was a brick, a lot of folks in Apple didn't think it could be made to work. I got to play with the Palm Pre, everything worked. They still have to get the App store up, find media content (need an iTunes), and Sprint wouldn't be my first choice for a carrier (but neither would AT&T). Price is typically not announced, and wasn't from Apple, until the thing is about to be sold.
Take a bunch of people, put a dashboard on BSD UNIX and call it an OS... Well that worked didn't it, why wouldn't this work.
Double Standards... Ya Think...
They just got $100M, I think that will last them until this phone ships. They pulled the plug on the Centro and still have a nice Microsoft Mobile product which should continue to sell.
When we learned of the iPhone did folks stop buying iPods and save their money? We knew the 2nd generation iPhone was coming far in advance, didn't seem to hurt 1st generation sales much.
They launched early much like Apple launched early so they could move the stock price. Now if you think Apple was stupid for doing the same things, you'd be wrong but at least you'd be consistent.
Basically Palm is just reading from the Apple play book, if it worked for Apple why can't it work for Palm?
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CES Wars: Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Palm and Other Battles
Posted by: Rob Enderle January 12, 2009 04:00 AMThis was the first chance since Steve Jobs returned to Apple that Microsoft had to slam-dunk Apple. The biggest thing at Macworld was Tony Bennett. Windows 7 was releasing in Beta and reports have been glowing, with a number of the folks I travel with actually living on the pre-beta code and raving about it so this should have been like shooting ducks in a barrel. Palm was bringing out a new phone and a lot of folks thought they were simply done and not worth seeing, good lesson in the dangers of preconceptions here.
"an overpriced (in a market that is buying US$500 netbooks by the dozen) laptop"
The target market for $500 notebooks are NOT the people who by any stretch of the imagination who would be buying a 17" Pro laptop. It's like saying "Who's going to buy a steak when MacDonalds sells burgers for a buck?" Dumb and just plain stupid.
"The only thing I walked away with is that Steve Jobs is now only a figure head who remains in place because the board knows Apple Stock will drop like a rock if investors figure out that he left, but he is clearly not there at the moment."
Ya, like you can produce new and exciting products based on SOMEONE else's imposed deadline? Killing their appearance at Macworld gets rid of the silly thing where people are reluctant to purchase certain Apple products at Christmas as there will be a product bump in early Jan. Hey what a great time to launch a new product! Just when everyone has spent out on Christmas! I think Apple were fed up with this limitation.
Palm. What can I say? Firstly no price. I wonder why that is? Secondly no product. They said it would be available in 1H09 but they couldn't be pinned down to a launch ( I know the FCC is involved in the process and that can take time but hey ). Thirdly a smoke and mirrors demo that really seemed to be there just to get someone to buy the company. By smoke and mirrors it seems that this product was designed by listing all the complaints that people have against the iPhone and then ticking those boxes. So geek nirvana. The development environment is a joke - Apple had 9/10's of this in the original iPhone and people were up in arms. They are relying on a faster ARM chip to make it run faster.
Finally. drag some people who were at Apple and use Apple developed technology (WebOS is built on Webkit framework developed by Apple and then given back to the community) to produce a very small Mac running Dashboard - and call that an OS? Hmmmm. We shall see.
Also Palm have just executed the single most spectacular company suicide in corporate history since Osborne. Who is going to buy a Palm in the next 6 months with this thing coming out?
As I say, drink the Kool-Aid, but it looks like Palm are setting themselves up to be sold to the highest bidder. Geeks: a product is not made by ticking boxes be happy that someone is "listening" to you but YOU are wrong.
I support their leaving MacWorld, really badly timed show and I'm pushing to have CES moved as well. January for something like this is just stupid, but the point was on Jobs not MacWorld.
Recall whan Apple launched the iPhone 2 years ago it was a brick, a lot of folks in Apple didn't think it could be made to work. I got to play with the Palm Pre, everything worked. They still have to get the App store up, find media content (need an iTunes), and Sprint wouldn't be my first choice for a carrier (but neither would AT&T). Price is typically not announced, and wasn't from Apple, until the thing is about to be sold.
Take a bunch of people, put a dashboard on BSD UNIX and call it an OS... Well that worked didn't it, why wouldn't this work.
Double Standards... Ya Think...
They just got $100M, I think that will last them until this phone ships. They pulled the plug on the Centro and still have a nice Microsoft Mobile product which should continue to sell.
When we learned of the iPhone did folks stop buying iPods and save their money? We knew the 2nd generation iPhone was coming far in advance, didn't seem to hurt 1st generation sales much.
They launched early much like Apple launched early so they could move the stock price. Now if you think Apple was stupid for doing the same things, you'd be wrong but at least you'd be consistent.
Basically Palm is just reading from the Apple play book, if it worked for Apple why can't it work for Palm?