MacDailyNews Take: Palm’s Pixi! Falls apart even faster than Pre!
Ricadela continues, “It has sold a fraction of the number of smartphones sold by rivals, according to analysts. ‘It’s going to be a very competitive holiday season’ in the smartphone market, says Palm Chief Executive Jon Rubinstein, sitting in front of a fireplace in a wood-paneled conference room in San Francisco’s financial district. ‘We want to goose sales because we want a larger installed base’ for the company’s WebOS software, he says.”
MacDailyNews Take: Lurch mini™ is aiming to hit the 60 apps milestone by Christmas.
Ricadela continues, “Palm’s decision to announce another product three months after the Pre went on sale is giving some analysts pause, however. ‘The thing you worry about most when you introduce a new product is cannibalization’ of the older one, says Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros… ‘Perhaps sales of the first product are not as strong as they thought.'”
MacDailyNews Take: How does a cannibal lose weight? Stick to Palm products. Seriously, how do you cannibalize a product that barely sells in the first place?
Ricadela continues, “Rubinstein says it will compete with Apple’s $99 iPhone 3G. Instead of a drop-down keyboard like the Pre’s, the slimmer Pixi is shaped in a ‘candy bar’ format with a keyboard that’s always exposed.”
MacDailyNews Take: Bzzzt! Wrong answer.
Ricadela continues, “By increasing the value of an instant rebate that consumers redeem when they buy the phone from Sprint. The announcement was preempted by a brief Sprint promotion on Sept. 8 that offered consumers switching from other carriers $100 off the Pre’s price. But Sprint began and then discontinued the offer on the same day. A Sprint spokeswoman couldn’t be reached for comment. ‘After all the dust settles … it’s going to be $149,’ Rubinstein says.”
MacDailyNews Take: Bush-leaguers.
Full article here.
The Associated Press reports, “Palm Inc.’s choice of Sprint Nextel Corp. as the exclusive carrier for its new Palm Pixi smart phone may hinder sales of the device, a Credit Suisse analyst said Wednesday.”
“Analyst Deepak Sitaraman lowered his rating on Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Palm to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Outperform.’ Shares fell 73 cents, or 4.9 percent, to $14.25 in premarket trading,” AP reports.
“Sitaraman cut his target price on the stock to $12 from $18,” AP reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Boy, Apple castoffs at beleaguered Palm sure picked a great day to announce yet another Pre price cut and a cheap candy bar phone. Smirk. They’ll get so much tech coverage today, it’ll be utterly invaluable un-valuable. Amateurs.
Can you imagine the outcry if MDN’s practice of amateurish name-calling of executives was picked up by an anti-Apple site? Just ponder the venom targeted at those who would poke fun at Steve’s weight, appearance, or personal faults. Oh no! Grow up, MDN
Interestingly, I just came across this little tidbit,
“Palm’s yanking of 100 bucks was Pre-mature”
-E. Jack ‘Kool-Aid’ Shauns
Not only are WebOS developers limited to only html/java/css based apps, now they have to deal with two different screen resolutions.
DJ,
MDN didn’t invent calling Steve Ballmer “Uncle Fester,” so your criticism falls flat – even if MDN did just inspiringly tag Rubinstein with “Mini Lurch” first.
Relax DJ. This ain’t the only sport with trash talking. And if you further explore the web…Microsoft fan sites are bashing Apple too! You know your life is shallow when the disappointments in your life revolve around MDNs comments.
@DJ
I can imagine that I would never visit an anti-Apple site.
“The Palm Pixi – Held Together By Dust (and Duct Tape)”
Wasn’t the official price of the Pre $299? I thought you only got the $199 if you bought at Best Buy or sent in your rebate. Did I miss some intervening price cuts?
If it was $299, this is a 50% cut since it looks like the $149 does not require rebate forms.
BTW, Rubinstein confirms that this year’s Pre is still having trouble competing with last year’s iPhone 3G. What a joke!
By the way, analyst Sitaraman is quite late with his cut in target price. Loser.
@Morticia, if I called you an idiot, would that be an insult? I didn’t invent the word, but it would still be an insult. And a dumb one.
@RegularReader, there’s a difference between trashing someone’s products and going after their CEO on personal grounds. There’s plenty to bash about Palm and the Pre: why does MDN feel the need to resort to childish personal insults?
@Bob, good call. I have to imagine that one, too, but there’s a ton of good Jobs material to pull from. And it would be just as uncalled-for as what MDN keeps doing.
@Cubert
Held Together by Pixi Dust?
they say “competition is good”
I say “is the competition good?”
Business 101 folks, wanting to be in business is no more meaningful than wanting to be rich, unless you work at it in an intelligent manner. Opening a business makes no one ‘competition’ any more than going to your ‘9 to 5’ makes you rich. Those who are competition or rich, have worked very hard to get there, and it’s not achievable by the average person. I see tons of armchair analyst on MDN who are clueless when it comes to business sense. It’s really frightening because these are the people who invest in these half-ass CEOs, then wonder why the stock tumbled. Palm has a long history of missteps, it should have never gone this far, yet it continues with the Pixi. WTF? Soon, the CEOs will leave rich, the investors poor, and Palm will crawl into the future . . . like a slug.
How does a cannibal lose weight?
By only eating vegetarians.
Hey, did you hear the one about the cannibal that passed his brother through the forest?
“Hey”…the cannibal said….”What’s for supper…..mom?”
“Hey, did you hear the one about the cannibal that passed his brother through the forest?”
His mother told him to wipe that smile off his butt?
“Soon, the CEOs will leave rich, the investors poor, and Palm will crawl into the future . . . like a slug.”
And leaving millions of consumers, and ordinary Americans with obsolete, nearly useless, and nearly worthless handsets.
That is why knowledgeable observers on MDN and other sites should expose loser CEOs, business plans, risky companies, and weak products. Not just name-calling fun, but protecting everyone against bad tech experience and unwise purchases/investments.
Sorry, DJ, but you are overlooking the fact that Microsoft has actively insulted, derided and attempted to sabotage Apple since the 1980’s, not to mention outright lying. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Wasn’t it a few weeks ago when all the pro-Microsoft pundits were playing up Steve Jobs’ health? My, that’s a short memory you have.
I’d be concerned that a CEO used the word goose. Seriously?goose sales? Hmmm
@ HMCIV,
Yes. That was the joke. Weak, I know, but my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet.
Relax people. Trashtalk is part of MDN’s charm. It’s not pretending to be nuetral journalism like CNET or Biz Insider, or 90% of what get billed as news on the web or on cable today – all just personal editorial. In fact I was hooked on this site by a story about walmart and all the hilarious stereotypes the commenters made fun of – low humor to get you thru the day – with the same gusto my Walmart loving Midwest relatives are proud of reckneck jokes.
I say they should call the next version of the Pre(tender) the Pokey.
can you spell E X I T S T R A T E G Y ? I didn’t think so.
@Radius, you’re missing the point by just a bit. When Steve’s health (unfortunately) became news, did you read stories calling him names? If we had, we’d be (justifiably) livid. I really feel like an old fart here, but MDN should realize that it has enough of an audience to warrant thinking about how it represents itself (and Apple) to the non-fanboys who come to visit.
@MDN, be funny. Take your shots, but we all know you’re smart enough to do it without resorting to name-calling.
That’s (more than) enough. Now I’m going back to holding my breath until 1:00.
…does MDN feel the need to assume the Pixi has to be as cheaply put together as the Pre?
It’s amazing how fast Palm got ANYTHING out the door with the Pre. The Pre is an accomplishment despite all its problems. So why would we assume Palm is incapable of accomplishing a LITTLE bit more the second time, and making the Pixi more solid and durable?
Maybe the Pixi will be as bad as the Pre, but some improvement seems far more likely. How about we wait and see?
@DJ
Relax, take a breath, Unk Fester & the bunch will be fine…. we bash and personally insult these creeps cause they bash and personally insult the entire Mac using public with terms like Kool-Aid drinkers, and the like…. don’t know about you but I DO take it personally, and I shoot back.
Uh, Palm isn’t lowering the $300 price; Palm and Sprint just increased the $100 rebate to $150. The Pre still costs $300. Sure, and “instant rebate” sounds like Palm dropped the price, but if the rebate ends, a Pre will cost you $300.
An iPhone 3GS 16GB is $200. No stupid rebate hocus-pocus thingys required.
@why on earth
OK, go buy one, me i’ll wait for the new iPhone upgrade due out soon. If Pre was innovative it might have stood a chance, but it aint innovative! It’s just a new suit of clothes on what apple has already innovated. And as such…. it will fail.