Palm's make or break moment

20-05-2009

by Ralph Averbuch

The Pre has to be more than a good smartphone to save Palm's bacon.

With all the news of late about falling revenues at the mobile companies, there's a lot riding on the latest, much talked about, arrival of the Palm Pre. For the network operators there's going to be a race to secure local distribution rights for the device, in the hope that it will lock in and soak up enthusiastic early adopters, whilst preventing loss of existing customers keen to trade up. But, despite all the positive buzz that Palm appears to have enjoyed since announcing its make or break mobile, there's a nagging doubt about how the Pre will fare against the rising star that's Google's mobile Android OS and its growing horde of open source developers, or the now very well established iPhone. Apple is sure to respond to any hint of success in initial US sales of the Pre by launching price cuts to encourage late adopters to opt for its very able device. The same's likely from other smartphone makers like RIM with its Blackberry phones. So, however good the Pre turns out to be in practice, it has to recognise that it's a battle on may fronts. It needs to achieve effective global distribution, gain wide approval for the new OS and come in at a price-point that will encourage people, who haven't yet made the jump to a smartphone, to take the plunge. It's a big ask.

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