Palm CEO on Apple iPhone Threat

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif

MercuryNews.com reports on comments by Palm's CEO Ed Colligan on the persistent rumors that Apple will be introducing a Apple phone in the near future.

Overall, Colligan was not concerned about Apple's possible entry into the smart-phone market.

"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,'' he said. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in.''

Colligan does theorize that Apple might offer their phone with Wifi technology and distribute the phone in Apple stores rather than through the traditional wireless carriers, such as Cingular or Verizon.

Apple has been rumored to have paired with Cingular for their 2007 launch of the iPhone. Recent announcements, however, have cast some doubt on this arrangement.

[Alex Urchin]

Wasn't it exactly the same story with the iPod?

[Chaszmyr]

Just because Palm thinks it's that hard to make a phone doesn't necessarily mean that Apple would have had the same difficulties.

[amols]

Yeah sure...I hope they do know who makes iPods

[kansast]

"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,'' he said. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in.''

I wonder if it will be interesting to revisit this quote in a year or two ?
One can hope.

[G5Unit]

Hasen't Apple been working on the iPhone for "a few years" at least?

[spicyapple]

Originally Posted by Alex Urchin

wasn't it exactly the same story with the ipod?

It would be fun to speculate what features Apple brings to the iPhone that could revolutionize the cell phone industry? My guess is 1) ease of use in updating contacts, calendar, emails 2) iPod music integration 3) high quality 640x480 mpeg4 videos and 4) leveraging in flash memory pricing

[baxterbrittle]

They do know whom they're talking about right? I mean they say PC manufacturers yet palm are producing windows mobile pieces of junk. Windows mobile is the biggest piece of shite operating system - it would not be hard to come up with something a lot better (for Apple at least). And the Palm OS is very dear to my heart, but not exactly cutting edge and palm don't even own that anymore.

Palm are washed out, end of story.

[Old Smuggler]

palms os is severely outdated
the only thing they have going for them is the abundance of software out
i own a palm and will ditch it when something pda, osx feel comes from apple

if apple makes their phone centered on a PDA and Confrencing rather than
"its an ipod and a phone"
i think they will gain some substantial ground

having the ability to use the pda phone as an ipod would not be out of the question but solely a ipod phone ? i think they would be cutting their profits to a certain age group of potential buyers

[Object-X]

The problem with Palm is they are on their way out. They got what? Treo? How long can that last? PDAs are over. So it's all about the phones now.

They have to be worried. Apple has the midas touch. Whatever Apple get's into they change. Apple has a way of innovation that changes all of the dynamics. They weren't the first with the iPod, but their entrance into digital music has changed the whole music industry, not just digital music players.

Apple could very well do the same thing with an Apple branded phone. Integrating it into the whole computer experiance in ways we can't even predict. To claim it takes years to make a phone "right" is just proof that Palm has very little to offer.

The future of phone technology is going to change rapidly and dramically over the next few years. Apple can make billions of dollars in this market. They are going to go for it, and they will leverage their existing products to make it happen and to offer something new. Everyone is fixated on the iPod, but it's the integration with OS X that has the most interesting potential.

Video iChat on your phone? Internet services? Email? Address? Calendar? Have you used a Palm or Blackberry? They are OK for what they do, but they could be so much better...a lot better. What they are missing is exactly what Apple has to offer -- and it isn't music.

[CHROMEDOME]

Originally Posted by spicyapple

It would be fun to speculate what features Apple brings to the iPhone that could revolutionize the cell phone industry? My guess is 1) ease of use in updating contacts, calendar, emails 2) iPod music integration 3) high quality 640x480 mpeg4 videos and 4) leveraging in flash memory pricing

Ok...and the MSRP for that phone would be 800 bucks with a 10 year contract with cingular.

People need to realize that apple products are somewhat overpriced so I can see a great apple phone with great features but with a contract the phone is going to be extremely expensive.

[Mechcozmo]

blah blah blah Our hardware is incredibly expensive for what you can do with it blah blah blah Our software is older than XP blah blah blah blah Our new software is more delayed than Vista blah blah blah Our products kicked the Newton's arse a decade ago blah blah blah Apple can't beat the clear market leader blah blah blah

I've been waiting for Palm OS 6 to come out for just about five years now. I'm not buying a new Palm... I'll just stick to my b0rked Tungsten|T. Programmed life expectancy, ha! But damn, that Soylent Green is tasty!

[caliguy]

Originally Posted by Old Smuggler

palms os is severely outdated
the only thing they have going for them is the abundance of software out
i own a palm and will ditch it when something pda, osx feel comes from apple

if apple makes their phone centered on a PDA and Confrencing rather than
"its an ipod and a phone"
i think they will gain some substantial ground

having the ability to use the pda phone as an ipod would not be out of the question but solely a ipod phone ? i think they would be cutting their profits to a certain age group of potential buyers

Yeah exactly, I totally agree. I've never been turned on by the iPhone/iPod 2-in-1 rumours. To me, iLife integration and conferencing is way more important. I actually prefer they keep the two (iPod+iPhone) separate. I don't want my music listening to be disturbed by calls.

[miketcool]

Did Apple say the same thing when someone challenged their Newton?

[yankeedoodle]

Originally Posted by Alex Urchin

Wasn't it exactly the same story with the iPod?

Yep. And Palm doen't even know how to make a PDA right... Sorry, just my 2 cents and as much as I hate Microsoft: If there is one single thing that Microsoft's dullness department has overlooked so far it's the Pocket PC... Have a look at them next time you are in a store, compare them; have a look at their multitasking features, watch online TV on them -- they are by far not perfect and tend to crash (that's the Microsoft part in it) -- but they are still worlds better than any Palm out there.

I wish Apple would not only enter the phone business but also come back into the PDA market and show the Microsoft folks how to do it the Apple way. The Newton was fantastic and much ahead of it's time. In 1993 people just didn't know how to handle a PDA and didn't know how to integrate it into their daily workflow. Today, we are used to carry our iPods around wherever we go -- so if Apple could manage to enter the phone and PDA business via the iPod as a well known, emotionally positive vector (people buy the iPod because they want to listen to music and find out that it can also do much more than just play back U2 tracks), they could have a tremendous success.

[rikers_mailbox]

Apple doesn't need to deliver a revolutionary phone-like device to grab marketshare. It's more about integrating a device within the system... and that is something Apple is good at.

Phones, new features, and additional functionality are a dime-a-dozen. New bells and whistles are added all the time, that's not what the market needs. Someone (hopefully Apple!) needs to take some of these advancements and deliver a products that integrates them in a logical and intuative way.

[PODshady]

I would buy a Palm Treo BUT their GUI needs a lot of work.... it is very ugly and this could be the reason that they have found it "difficult" to get people to like their smart-phones. If Apple comes out with an iPhone (and I hope they do) it would blow anything Palm can come up with out of the water. Apple is well known for well designed products and if the iPhone's GUI is even half has nice as the GUI in Mac OS X it will be way better than the Palm Treo and all those Windows Mobile devices.

[Belly-laughs]

"PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in.''

Not PC guys, but good industrial and interface designers will. Starting with a clean sheet with little or no knowledge on the subject is an advantage; you tend to have different perceptions on how things work/could work. This gives a far greater idea base with simpler implementations as a result.

Advantage Apple.

[LordJohnWhorfin]

oops

[glowingstar]

HEY! who's he calling a "PC guy"??!

[LordJohnWhorfin]

There's absolutely no reason for concern. It's not like Palm has any market share left to worry about.

[geese]

[quote=Macrumors;3080145"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,'' he said. "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in.'' .[/QUOTE]

I remember the head of Atari saying something similar about Sony's Playstation.

[FarmerBob]

Originally Posted by Chaszmyr

Just because Palm thinks it's that hard to make a phone doesn't necessarily mean that Apple would have had the same difficulties.

Apple can't make a proper OS much less a working phone. Get real. They have a ton of really good patents, as per all the latest leaks, but it will be a very long time before we see, if at all, them all together in the iPhone we would expect from Apple.

And Cingular is long out of the picture. They went elsewhere.

Also having been part of the cellular revolution, I know full well that the individual carriers will want the operations software of the "iPhone" contoured to their liking so much that it will defeat the purpose of the piece. Over the years many manufacturers have pulled phones from carriers because the level of bastardization of the phone software that the carrier required messed up the phone so much that the phone maker didn't want to be blamed for an inferior product. In the US there is no such thing as a truly accepted fully operational unlocked unit. Elsewhere in the world that is mostly how you buy a phone. Phone first, then a carrier. Not the other way around.

[dernhelm]

Originally Posted by G5Unit

Hasen't Apple been working on the iPhone for "a few years" at least?

No, the rumor mill has been grinding on the iPhone for several years. Apple hasn't necessarily been working on it for that long.

[rt_brained]

From The Desk Of Steve Jobs: