To end confusion over the Palm brand, PalmOne is spending $30 million to acquire the Palm name--a brand that the company says has tremendous equity around the world.
It will now center its marketing efforts on Palm, which has become a household name among mobile warriors since 1996. The company will also remain committed to its traditional PDA business despite a general industry move toward converged devices such as smart phones, says Paul Blinkhorn, Palm's Asia-Pacific vice president.
Blinkhorn spoke with ZDNet Asia during the company's developer conference in Singapore last week, and talked about the reasons for the recent name change, Palm's commitment to the PDA market and how it is overcoming its competitors in the smart-phone space.
Q: What is the rationale for the recent change of names from PalmOne to Palm? Blinkhorn: In October 2003, the then-Palm organization acquired handheld maker Handspring. At that time, the decision was to split (Palm) into two companies: PalmOne, which would be responsible for the development of the hardware platform, and PalmSource, which would be responsible for the operating system, development and its licensing.
We wanted to be sure that there was no ambiguity over who Palm is.
The two companies tried to be separate entities, with separate stock tickers. PalmOne then became convinced--from a branding perspective--that it would be a very good thing to have outright ownership of the Palm brand, which has tremendous brand equity around the world. The desire was to concentrate all marketing and promotional efforts around the Palm brand.
The negotiation that commenced between PalmOne and PalmSource resulted in PalmOne acquiring the Palm brand. Under this agreement, we became Palm, and PalmSource has a period of time to change their name to something other than Palm.
At the same time, we extended our software licensing agreement with PalmSource through 2009 to ensure we continue to develop products under this great (Palm) operating system.
So it's purely from a marketing standpoint, to leverage on the Palm brand? Blinkhorn: Absolutely. It's a very strong brand, and we wanted to be sure that there was no ambiguity over who Palm is.
And the $30 million spent on acquiring the Palm brand was well worth it? Blinkhorn: Absolutely. No question.
Palm seems to be focusing most of its resources on smart phones and allowing its PDA business to languish somewhat. Is this a fair assessment? Blinkhorn: I hold a very different point of view. Firstly, the PDA market is still a very important market for Palm. Yes, the market is flat and has declined, and the analysts are saying that it looks to be flat all the way to 2008. But in Europe, the PDA market is growing. The reason for that is because of GPS (Global Positioning System).
We are continuing to innovate in the PDA category because we think it's very important. We are not allowing the market to languish. We are continuing to spend research and development dollars on bringing new PDA products to market.
For example, there's a whole new subcategory of PDA users which we call the mobile manager. Our product in this category is called LifeDrive, which we introduced in May this year. This is the first PDA with a 4GB hard drive, which enables you to have all the functionalities of a PDA, plus the capabilities to store vast amounts of documents, music and photos. So we are not in any way abandoning the PDA market.
In Europe, the PDA market is growing. The reason for that is because of GPS.
On the smart-phone front, the reality of converged devices is exploding with fantastic growth, and we are investing in this area as well. Part of the rationale for the Handspring transaction in 2003 was the acquisition of the company's Treo technology, which catapulted the then-PalmOne into this important market.
So we recognize both markets and what we are doing is to provide mobile solutions to our customers, whether they are traditional PDA-style products or the converged device, smart-phone category.
The smart-phone market is close to doubling in size each year, and this has begun to affect PDA shipments negatively. Do you see that as an industry trend? Blinkhorn: There's no doubt there'll be a group of people who do not wish to carry two devices. And that's the whole reason why the converged device category is emerging.
Year on year, we saw the converged-device category in Asia grow by about 225 percent, so it's really taking off. Will that impact PDA sales? Yes, it will. Because without that phenomenon, you would see PDA sales continue to grow. As it is, it's looking like a flat market position for PDAs and an explosion in the converged-device category.
For us, does it matter? Probably not, because what we want to do is to provide mobile solutions regardless of what people want. Take the bottom end of our handheld range, the Zire. It's at a very different price point compared to the Treo 650. Not everybody wants
A name change (or logo change) is a sure sign that senior management has no idea what is going on with their product. "I know! Lets change our name! Our products will fly off the shelves then!"
Most marketing people only feel like they are doing something if they are spending money, designing new letterhead, ordering new business cards, etc.
What a total and complete waste of 30 million dollars.
As a long time Palm fan, I was expecting the worst in this interview. Marketing speak and all that. But some of it does make sense.
Are cell phones pushing out PDA demand? absofrigginlutely, but there is one huge opp for PDAs - as digital camera assistants.
If you have a digi-camera with an SD card, download all your photos to the LifeDrive, then keep shooting. A 320x480 screen and 4 GB is a lot of storage for most 5 MP .JPG shutterbugs.
I've always said (for 2 years!) and will say it again: an iPod-type Palm - with a 20GB hard drive - will sell like mad. An awesome OS, a hard drive for storage, and a big fat screen are all a match made in heaven. The LifeDrive is crazy-ass close to this summit...
You should have spent $30 mm fixing that piece of junk you call a Treo 650. That piece of junk and your waste of $30 mm is the beginning of the end. You are a great short! Oh, what arrogance.
This whole story has "Dilbert" written all over it. I wholeheartedly agree with the first posting here. Marketing can make or break a company image.
Digression: I can't tell you how many times I sat through a rediculous and/or utterly pointless TV commercial only to imagine that this was presented to a group of intelligent human beings (well, intelligent enough to navigate from their homes to the meeting room and arrive fully clothed)... and these people paid money for the result.
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A name change (or logo change) is a sure sign that senior management has no idea what is going on with their product. "I know! Lets change our name! Our products will fly off the shelves then!"
Most marketing people only feel like they are doing something if they are spending money, designing new letterhead, ordering new business cards, etc.
What a total and complete waste of 30 million dollars.
Are cell phones pushing out PDA demand? absofrigginlutely, but there is one huge opp for PDAs - as digital camera assistants.
If you have a digi-camera with an SD card, download all your photos to the LifeDrive, then keep shooting. A 320x480 screen and 4 GB is a lot of storage for most 5 MP .JPG shutterbugs.
I've always said (for 2 years!) and will say it again: an iPod-type Palm - with a 20GB hard drive - will sell like mad. An awesome OS, a hard drive for storage, and a big fat screen are all a match made in heaven. The LifeDrive is crazy-ass close to this summit...
Digression: I can't tell you how many times I sat through a rediculous and/or utterly pointless TV commercial only to imagine that this was presented to a group of intelligent human beings (well, intelligent enough to navigate from their homes to the meeting room and arrive fully clothed)... and these people paid money for the result.