In a way, Walmart’s recent price chop to its Verizon Wireless Palm smartphones really highlights the battle handset manufacturers have to endure in order to stay afloat. Almost 9 months ago when Sprint launched the Palm Pre to an awaiting audience eager to test drive Palm’s WebOS platform, the long time smartphone maker has seen [...]
Everything Palm Pre, We Feed You!
Palm, QWERTY, Touch, Uncategorized, Verizon, business, pre, webOS
March 11th 2010 | Posted by WebOsArena
AT&T, Palm, Touch, Uncategorized, Unofficial, webOS
March 9th 2010 | Posted by WebOsArena
It is well known that AT&T is going to release two webOS powered models this year. PreCentral member TopTongueBarry claims to be an AT&T IT employee and says the carrier has just completed testing on the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus in front of a possible April 26th launch. He also says that [...]
C40, CTIA, Palm, Rumors, Sprint, WiMAX
March 5th 2010 | Posted by Derek Kessler
Analysts say all sorts of different things about Palm, and when we’re hearing something wild from just one of them we tend to discount it. But when multiple analysts and supposed insiders are chattering about something we have to sit up and take notice, even if we’re still not completely buying it. The latest Palm rumor falls into that camp: Palm is developing a WiMAX (4G) device for Sprint and could be unveiled as early as this month at CTIA.
We’re not entirely sure what to make of this. There is always the almost mythical Palm C40 floating around in Sprint’s inventory systems, but we haven’t heard anything other than rampant speculation about what Palm’s next products might be.
As for all the talk about how a WiMAX phone will save Palm… That, like the existence of the phone itself, might be wishful thinking. Like it or not, WiMAX still has a relatively small footprint and Sprint is still a network with half as many subscribers as competitors Verizon and AT&T. A WiMAX Palm phone would be undeniably awesome, but it would also mainly be compelling to a small subset of users on a small network.
Thanks to DeltaSPARTAN003, EtuTreo300, and spectre686, and, well, a lot of other folks for the tips!
Palm, QWERTY, Touch, Uncategorized, Unofficial, Verizon, business, webOS
March 5th 2010 | Posted by WebOsArena
With the fate on Palm still hanging in the balance in the near term, Verizon Wireless is looking to do something that’s considered as a bit unorthodox. One of BGR’s Verizon Wireless connects has informed them that Palm webOS devices on their lineup will not require a mail-in-rebate starting tomorrow. Instead, customers choosing to go [...]
Palm, QWERTY, Touch, Uncategorized, business, software, webOS
March 5th 2010 | Posted by WebOsArena
Some people detest it whenever a developer releases an app that really isn’t perceived to be one – actually, it’s basically the same thing when you visit a mobile version of a web site. Case in point Facebook’s app for webOS – it was basically the same exact thing whenever you visit the website on [...]
Palm, Pixi Plus, Pre Plus, Rumors, SFR, news, palm pixi plus, palm pre plus
March 4th 2010 | Posted by Derek Kessler
Our friends at Palmpre-France noticed a new survey on SFR’s websites that seems to have revealed possible pricing for the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus on the French network. While the survey starts out pretty mundane (how do you use your phone and the like), the deeper you get into it, the more it becomes about Palm’s soon-to-be-launched smartphones. But we already know an awful lot about phones to start, so what we really found interesting was how pricing was unveiled: the Pre Plus at €99.00 and the Pixi Plus at €49.00. And to that, we just have to say, “Cool.”
Ben Galbraith, Chuq Von Rospach, Dion Almaer, Palm, apps, facebook, news
March 4th 2010 | Posted by Derek Kessler
Yes, folks, it’s a Facebook kind of morning here at PreCentral. What can we say, we’re celebrating the new app in style.
Having recently taken charge of Palm’s Developer Relations team, web developers extraordinaire Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer decided it was time to try out their tools for themselves and use them to revamp the webOS Facebook app. The two came into the project with years of web programming experience but none with webOS. They used the experience as away to both become familiar with the tools they push, and to explore the SDK from a developer’s point of view.
Chuq Von Rospach posted about the experience on the Developer Center Blog, noting that, “Working on this application has given us a really detailed look at the current state of our tools and documents. Here in Developer Relations, we’ve been sitting down and evaluating the results and putting plans in place to remove as many of the speedbumps and potholes as we can, as quickly as we can.”
Almaer went more in-depth on his personal blog, diving into the process that went into the revamp. It’s no secret that the version 1.0 Facebook app was a disappointment to many, but the folks at Palm listened and prioritized the updates for this latest version (those being access to Facebook messages and profiles). They also worked to bridge the gap between webOS-style and Facebook-style, designing the app such that it works much like the website.
This is what Almaer and the team hope will be the first of “a regular cadence” of releases. Where they go from here is a question that they want your help answering. The options are many, including birthday integration into calendar or webOS notifications. Both the Palm Developer Center Blog post and Almaer’s own are interesting reads and give us more hope for the future of webOS apps.
Palm, Sprint, Uncategorized, Unofficial, webOS
March 4th 2010 | Posted by WebOsArena
As we’ve seen ushered by many analysts and people familiar with the industry, it seems like everyone is unanimous in seeing Palm release a new handset to combat their struggling woes. After their stock had been downgraded and expectations were not in line with their recent Verizon launch, it appears as though Palm might once [...]
Palm, S&P, Standard & Poor's, credit rating, news, stock
March 3rd 2010 | Posted by Derek Kessler
The bad news for Palm keeps piling up, especially if you’re concerned about the whole financials thing. As noted by the Wall Street Journal, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has reversed their outlook on Palm, flipping from cautiously optimistic to downright negative. S&P’s ratings are a judgment on a corporation’s credit potential, and the occasionally issue outlooks statements on how they think that company may fair in coming months and years.
S&P’s current judgment of Palm is a CCC+ rating, the top tier of the low highly speculative territory. It was back in October that S&P upgraded Palm to a CCC+ rating and issued their positive outlook. But given recent revelations about Palm’s lower than expected sales figures, S&P’s analysts saw fit to retract their positive outlook. The outlook reversal had little effect on Palm’s stock performance for the day – all the damage was dealt earlier in the week.
Thanks to amateurhack for the tip!
CNBC, Chinese New Year, Jim Goldman, Lynn Fox, Palm, news
March 3rd 2010 | Posted by Robert Werlinger
Rumors surfaced (and were later confirmed and subsequently put into perspective) last month that Palm had suspended its manufacturing activates in China. The reason for that pause in production, Palm said in an official statement, was due to the Chinese New Year. It’s not unusual, as it turns out, for manufacturing companies in China to shut down for up to a month during the annual holiday, though some are convinced that there was a little more going on here than a business-as-usual production pause.
Regardless, it now appears that Palm’s manufacturing activities are back on track. CNBC’s Jim Goldman reports that production activities are back to normal. Palm confirmed to PreCentral that "manufacturing ramped back up at the end of February," noting that they "ramped up manufacturing prior to February in anticipation of Chinese New Year, then suspended it until late last month." As John Paczkowski notes at All Things D, the ramp up purportedly happened on February 22nd, "ironically, [...] right before" Palm released their updated guidance about poor sales.
In any case, the company’s manufacturing phones again – huzzah!
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!