Ed Colligan Laughs At Apple Phone

[NextDream]

It's like Jobs said at the end of his presentation. Quoting Gretzky....We see where the puck is going, they see where it was.

 

[specimen38]

Mtreo,

I am with you. Competition drives this industry. The Palm Treo "OWNeD" the smartphone space with one serious competitor - BlackBerry. This is the kick in the pants that they needed.

Wh

Finally , someone to kick and seriously challenge Treo's and kick palm 's ...
This phone will sell like hot cakes.............
I am so pleased . No more half *** phones...

 

[Dunc]

he Palm Treo "OWNeD" the smartphone space with one serious competitor - BlackBerry. This is the kick in the pants that they needed.

No, question they owned the smart phone market w/ the 300. But their arrogance, lack of direction, insistence on changing their name - whatever you think - has made them lose sight of things. Personally, I don't think they stand a chance against this phone.

Dunc

 

[razorpit]

This comment may sound stupid as first but something I've been researching but have yet to find; can you add appointments, contacts, to do items, and memos from the phone or does it only sync items you entered on your Mac?

To me this is a big deal. So far all I've seen mentioned is it pulls data from you Mac. If I have to write information down on a piece of paper and wait until I get back to my computer to enter it then I don't think the iPhone is for me. And without being able to do stuff like that I'm not 100% sure it would be the Treo killer.

Like I said it sounds stupid that you wouldn't be able to add data "on the road" but I've yet to see this feature mentioned.

--Dave

 

[Pearl_Diva]

Two drawbacks. iPhone is too expensive with a contract. And on only one carrier. I hope they realize this may not be good. While the features are definitely a breath of fresh air, how many people will switch carriers and pay that much money to do so?

But I do wonder if Ed was laughing yesterday.

 

[mrjoec]

This comment may sound stupid as first but something I've been researching but have yet to find; can you add appointments, contacts, to do items, and memos from the phone or does it only sync items you entered on your Mac?

To me this is a big deal. So far all I've seen mentioned is it pulls data from you Mac. If I have to write information down on a piece of paper and wait until I get back to my computer to enter it then I don't think the iPhone is for me. And without being able to do stuff like that I'm not 100% sure it would be the Treo killer.

Like I said it sounds stupid that you wouldn't be able to add data "on the road" but I've yet to see this feature mentioned.

--Dave

Steve demonstrated adding/editing contacts and favorites. I assume the same is possible for the calendar app.

 

[mrjoec]

Two drawbacks. iPhone is too expensive with a contract. And on only one carrier. I hope they realize this may not be good. While the features are definitely a breath of fresh air, how many people will switch carriers and pay that much money to do so?

But I do wonder if Ed was laughing yesterday.

The single carrier thing is good and bad. Since the phone is GSM (necessary for the world market), the only other network it COULD have worked with in the US is TMobile, which has a far smaller customer base anyway. But still, there are customers who simply won't switch carriers, so there's a loss there.

However, granting Cingular exclusivity allows Steve to dictate hardware and software to Cingular on HIS terms. He gets to make the phone HE wants to make, as opposed to Palm, who constantly has to compromise to meet the carriers' demands.

In Europe and Asia, I imagine the phone will work everywhere and with everyone, since it's a far more open market.

 

[whmurray]

However, Ed has to know .................

Face it, Diva. Ed does not have to know anything. Clueless is his hallmark.

No CEO in history has ever had a better source of intelligence than Ed has in TC and used it less. Ed's assessment of the iPhone ranks up there with George Bush and WMDs (except nobody dies). (I woke with a migraine today.)

 

[whmurray]

The single carrier thing is good and bad. Since the phone is GSM (necessary for the world market), the only other network it COULD have worked with in the US is TMobile, which has a far smaller customer base anyway. But still, there are customers who simply won't switch carriers, so there's a loss there.

However, granting Cingular exclusivity allows Steve to dictate hardware and software to Cingular on HIS terms. He gets to make the phone HE wants to make, as opposed to Palm, who constantly has to compromise to meet the carriers' demands.

In Europe and Asia, I imagine the phone will work everywhere and with everyone, since it's a far more open market.

GSM users pay extra for the freedom to switch carriers. Many of us have shunned GSM Treos that were locked to a carrier.

Does Cingular's commitment to the iPhone explain why we have not seen a UMTS/POS Treo? Has Palm lost a carrier as well as share?

 

[whmurray]

The single carrier thing is good and bad. Since the phone is GSM (necessary for the world market), the only other network it COULD have worked with in the US is TMobile, which has a far smaller customer base anyway. But still, there are customers who simply won't switch carriers, so there's a loss there.

However, granting Cingular exclusivity allows Steve to dictate hardware and software to Cingular on HIS terms. He gets to make the phone HE wants to make, as opposed to Palm, who constantly has to compromise to meet the carriers' demands.

In Europe and Asia, I imagine the phone will work everywhere and with everyone, since it's a far more open market.

Well, one way to make the iPhone exclusive to Cingular is to ensure that it will only accept a SIM from Cingular. If it is successful, then in the world market, it will have to be unlocked. That is likely two years off in any case.

 

[Pearl_Diva]

However, granting Cingular exclusivity allows Steve to dictate hardware and software to Cingular on HIS terms. He gets to make the phone HE wants to make, as opposed to Palm, who constantly has to compromise to meet the carriers' demands.

In Europe and Asia, I imagine the phone will work everywhere and with everyone, since it's a far more open market.

I think some of that is Palm's refusal to innovate on hardware. There's really no excuse not to have a wifi WM phone. The price range of the 750 is a little more than the 8525, which has wifi. Not only that, but Palm could have asked MSFT to help them with a higher resolution screen. People are also mentioning BT problems.

Palm will be out of the running of phones with new technology quite soon at this rate. They are seriously headed that way already. A 3G radio in an otherwise older body is what the 750 really is. The multi-band 3G and keyboard are really what make the 750, but the 8525 has the same thing and more. If I weren't worried about the slider possibly wearing out, I'd have gotten the 8525 long ago.

 

[whmurray]

Two drawbacks. iPhone is too expensive with a contract. And on only one carrier. I hope they realize this may not be good. While the features are definitely a breath of fresh air, how many people will switch carriers and pay that much money to do so?

But I do wonder if Ed was laughing yesterday.

Well, to someone who paid $700- for a 600, $700- for a 650, and $400- for a 680 that he does not even use, the price is not too high. I look forward to the chance to pay it. I can pay it with the increase in value of my 100 shares of Apple stock in the one hour that it took Jobs to talk about it.

However, like the iPod and new Treos, this price is the early adopter price. Apple understands and uses pricing better than most. While the price of iPods has come down and the value has gone up, the street price of iPods (and Macs) is always very close to the MSRP.

Ed is probably still laughing but only because he doesn't get it. I am sympathetic; I did not get the iPod. I sold all but a 100 shares of my Apple stock.

 

[Pearl_Diva]

Does Cingular's commitment to the iPhone explain why we have not seen a UMTS/POS Treo? Has Palm lost a carrier as well as share?

I don't know about that. I think it's Palm OS's own limitations. If Palm had kept their own OS and developed it, things might have been very different! Cobalt running on UMTS possibly. So now it's going to be WM, Symbian and Mobile OS X fighting for top spot.

 

[Pearl_Diva]

Well, to someone who paid $700- for a 600, $700- for a 650, and $400- for a 680 that he does not even use, the price is not too high. I look forward to the chance to pay it.

However, like the iPod and new Treos, this price is the early adopter price. Apple understands and uses pricing better than most. While the price of iPods has come down and the value has gone up, the street price of iPods (and Macs) is always very close to the MSRP.

Ed is probably still laughing but only because he doesn't get it. I am sympathetic; I did not get the iPod. I sold all but a 100 shares of my Apple stock.

Why don't you use your 680? That was the best price ever for a Treo!

 

[whmurray]

I don't know about that. I think it's Palm OS's own limitations. If Palm had kept their own OS and developed it, things might have been very different! Cobalt running on UMTS possibly. So now it's going to be WM, Symbian and Mobile OS X fighting for top spot.

Symbian is a closed system and I will buy WM sometime after I vote for Hilary for president. However, that is not to say I will never do either. It is all about the alternative. Having OS X as an alternative is great.

I am not sure that Palm will be able to step up to this challenge. The stock market seems to believe that they cannot. If they can and do, we are really off to the races. In any case, Ed's dismissal of Apples ability to enter the market is not hopeful.

 

[Pearl_Diva]

What's so closed about Symbian? Just because Americans don't accept anything but what they know, have trouble with something they're not familiar with and end up giving up? Funny that much of the rest of the world seems to not have this problem with Symbian. Hmmm...

 

[whmurray]

Why don't you use your 680? That was the best price ever for a Treo!

I do not use it because it does not compete with my 650. I do not use it because I could not get it to work with any of my four BT headsets. I do not use it because I have learned to live with the memory on my 650. I do not use it because the battery life is too short. I do not use it because it will not sync to my 650 configuration or use my software and licenses.

Which makes my original point that price is not everything. So far the best offer that I have had for my 680 is $200- and he was trying to steal it.

 

[Pearl_Diva]

Yours is unlocked?

 

[skfny]

No one at Palm should be laughing at anyone. They should be spending all their resources to make sure the 680 and 750 delays never happen again.

Apparently Cingular didn't want the 750 bad enough to get it out before the holiday shopping season.

 

[Fender Doc]

The Good and Bad of the iPhone (in my opinion):

Bad:
- OSX – will not attract business users unless they can access corporate e-mail and MS Word, Excel, etc.
- Price
- No swappable battery
- No memory slot
- Small memory – considering that it is made to watch widescreen movies, PIM info, phone functions, music, etc.
- No UMTS/HSDPA – what were they thinking by leaving this out?

Good:
- the screen input is very cool (I still like the Treo QWERTY keyboard though)
- thin is in.
- BT 2.0
- Built in WiFi
- this should scare the pants off of Palm into developing future Treos with WiFi, more memory, thinner devices, battery life, bigger-better screens, Jog-Dial, etc.
- competition is good for the consumers

This may explain why Cingular dragged their feet on bring out the Treo 750?

I know some early adopters will buy the iPhone (I might as a replacement to my iPod nano), but whose is the big market that is going to pay for this phone? What am I missing? Aside for early adopters, I simply cannot see whose is going to pay $600 for this iPhone.