Comments on: Palm losing out as iPhone gains corporate fans

Corporate IT spending is falling like the stock market, but Apple's share of the growing smartphone market is increasing among business customers, says ChangeWave.

[Mr. Dee]

Tom, it looks like the iPhone has reached Jamaica. Just saw an Apple iPhone ad on my local TV station (TVJ) and the CLARO logo at the end of the ad. I also saw the phone on Claro Jamaica's website.

[businesscontacts]

Claro and Telefonica have deals to distribute the iPhone in Latin America. Telefonica (Movistar) already started selling it in Panama also (www.movistar.com.pa)

[robmarreel]

Palm has an innovation problem. They are not moving ahead at the same pace is RIM and Apple. At this point they need a game changer.

Rob
http://www.exectones.com/
The Leader in Business Professional Ringtones for the iPhone, Blackberry, and Palm.

[Renegade Knight]

The Centreno was a good start. The Folio just a tad shy of the Netbook's that came along. They could dust it off, give it a tweak and get it out there. Like you point out they need Treo II's that kick butt. Or a new idea, or an improved OS. Better still all of the above.

[wiseleo]

Tom, so many different handset makers?

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

[David Dudley]

For all the people that Rubinstein pulled from Apple in dev land and it is still not assisting in the success of Palm. Enjoy your work at Palm, ex-Apple folks, right until the company folds.

[David Dudley]

Maybe Palm should consider buying Exectones.com with the reasoning that they are losing out in corporate marketshare to Apple is due to lack of truly professional ringtones. Sure, you could use the default ringtones that are perfectly acceptable, but are they the PERFECT ringtone that you CEO would appreciate? That would truly catapult Palm into Microsoft market cap territory.

[eyemahsource]

One of the major strengths of Apple is the single hardware configuration that the developers can count on when using the API. Competitors have a lot of work to do to match a mature software platform with predictable integrated hardware. Too much choice can fracture the platform. It's a balancing act.

[Renegade Knight]

Good point.

[SururD]

"...Microsoft has been losing share to the iPhone overall..."

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.

Q3 07 to Q3 08 Microsoft market share went from 12% to 13%.
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

[Renegade Knight]

@November 20

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.

[SururD]

English is a precise language. What exactly does "losing share" mean? Share of what? You cant just make it mean what you want it to mean.

[artistjoh]

2007 Q3 Microsoft share was 4 times greater than the iPhone. One year on WM sales are just two thirds that of the iPhone. How can some one possibly not consider that losing ground?

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.

[dagwud]

Most importantly, I think they need to give "loyal users" some idea of what we're waiting for rather than just telling us that it's coming sometime next year. Leak something, already!

[vincepsp]

Can anyone exemplify exactly where Palm jumped off the glory train? I dunno, but it seems that the company abandoned the entire PDA market sometime around 2003. They're not even a player anymore. Their last hope was a wireless keyboard. *** wanted to spend $300 on a wireles Palm keyboard.

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.

[c|net Reader]

I think Palm was stupid to set aside PDAs in favor of smartphones. They could have added smartphones to their portfolio and done much better. They abandoned the very user base that made them what they were, and many of us still don't want convergence. Add the many faltering moves to provide an improved OS and they just became a "me too" company. Their hardware has been nothing to brag about for almost a decade! Sony was the last really good player in the PDA market.

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.

[allex083]

Interesting topic indeed!
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