Palm losing out as iPhone gains corporate fans
The Palm Treo 750, Palm's flagship product the last time it was a major player in corporate smartphones almost two years ago.
(Credit: CNET)Perhaps no one has benefited as much from the downfall of the Treo than Apple.
On Thursday, ChangeWave released the results of an otherwise dismal survey predicting a tough time ahead for anyone who relies on corporate IT spending for their livelihood. But the news was good for those in the smartphone business not named Palm; smartphone shipments to U.S. corporations are expected to grow even as overall IT spending falls.
And Apple's iPhone is seeing the bulk of the growth, according to ChangeWave. Companies still love Research in Motion's BlackBerry, as we covered earlier this month, but the iPhone is picking up ground. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said they planned to buy BlackBerrys for their employees in the next quarter, compared with 22 percent who plan on buying iPhones and just 5 percent planning on buying a Palm product. That compares August results that had RIM at 79 percent, Apple at 17 percent, and Palm at 6 percent. The results indicate that some companies are buying smartphones from more than one vendor, as last week's report on the iPhone in business noted as a growing trend.
The survey fails to break out results by operating system, which shafts Windows Mobile to some degree. Microsoft has been losing share to the iPhone overall, but smartphones that use Windows Mobile are still the second-most widely used phones inside corporations, according to J.Gold Associates. However, since that operating system is spread across so many different handset makers, no one handset maker is outpacing the three mentioned in the survey.
Palm has been trying to make a comeback with products like the Centro and Treo Pro, but Centro is a consumer-oriented product and the Treo Pro doesn't seem to have set the world afire.
In February 2007, Palm was on the shopping lists of 22 percent of companies surveyed by ChangeWave. Times have changed.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
Rob
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Most smartphones, including even some of Palm's, are made by HTC. That is your silent winner of the smartphone handset race. For more details, consider http://www.xda-developers.com
I guess if you repeat a lie enough times people believe it is true, but that doesn't stop you from being a liar.
Windows Mobile gained market share, even in the face of the iPhone onslaught, and grew sales 42%, as you yourself posted.
"Despite the Apple juggernaut, Microsoft also posted solid gains during the quarter, increasing the number of Windows Mobile handsets shipped by 42 percent. "
WM grew market share 1.4% to 13.6%, and gained an extra 1.6 million sales.
Somehow i doubt you will correct your article.
Apple went from 3% to 17%
read his sentence again - he didn't say MSFT was losing market share - he said losing share to the iPhone overall - and that's what's happening my man. Microsoft's death is going to come quicker than we all think unless they radically change.
http://mobilephonedevelopment.com/archives/708
Losing share means just that losing share. That would mean that Apple going from 3 to 17% is coming from MS LOSING shares, not increasing them. Apples is stealing someone elses lunch.
The way things are going it is quickly turning into a battle between RIM and Apple and the other manufacturers are becoming mince meat in the process. Even Nokia with its huge lead is seeing its numbers sliding and it doesn't take a genius to extrapolate that trend line and work out how much time before they too become an also ran. At least for Nokia, Samsung etc all they need do is produce something that is at least comparable to the iPhone in order to survive. For Palm it is probably too late and they would need to bring out a device that is even more revolutionary than the iPhone if they are to regain sales. Their track record indicates that that is very unlikely to happen. WM too needs to pull something extraordinary out of the hat and I would be surprised if many people expect Microsoft to do that, especially with the distraction of the free Android stalking them now.
I gave up on Palm in 2003, and they've proven me right ever since. It's a bunch of bald old fatties trying to live off the past.
The iPhone is 500 times what the original Treo hoped to be. And Handspring were no innovators either.
Sorry Palm, but we begged a lot of you in 2001. You failed to deliver, so now you will eat Apples for dinner.
As you state, Palm has just tried to milk what they can get from their reputation and it has made them essentially irrelevant in both the PDA and smartphone markets.
- by allex083 December 2, 2008 1:23 AM PST
- Interesting topic indeed!
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