BlackBerry Cool

Palm is on crack to think the Treo 700w helped boost Treo sales. That thing is the biggest POS, and no I am not a Blackberry fan boy. I wouldn’t shed a tear if my company switched to Treos instead of Blackberrys.

Anyways, Palm’s strong sales number are due to RIM’s legal problems and the media overhyping a possible blackout.

Time to short Palm because they aren’t going to repeat their numbers next quarter.

I believe it was due to the marketing of the Treo 650 and Treo 700 devices. Cellular carriers debut these two devices as the end user solution for a smart phone. It would be interesting to compare the sales of these against the growth of Windows Mobile phones from other providers which may or may not have grown at the same rate. I believe that many non-enterprise business users bought Treo’s believing it was a great choice, and they were unaware of the total solution BES provides that is above and beyond the Treo capabilities.

I also think some enterprises may have chosen Treo’s and a third party solution like Pylon during the Blackberry legal issues, but I think these numbers may not be high enough to warrant the growth.

“A rising tide lifts all boats”

A lot of people are moving towards smartphones. TREO’s numbers are probably a reflection of that. It’s probable that a lot of people looked at the problems with BB and NTP and that caused them to go in Treo’s direction, however based on my experience that will probably be a decision they will regret. As well, now that the NTP issue has been dealt with TREO’s numbers won’t hold, because BB as a business solution just works better

I have owned 4 TREO’s over the last 3 – 4 years mostly because I am a mac guy and TREO was the only smartphone solution that allowed syncing with my contacts and calendars on a Mac due to the PALM platform. I was never completely happy with the Treo’s. They are buggy as hell. For months I couldnt cc an email to anyone because the software on the phone would crash everytime I tried. Eventually I had to find a third party solution. The phone was also constantly crashing for no reason. I was also never happy with the way the phone worked for email. The interface was clunky when it came to looking up email addresses and phone numbers. The long and the short of it was I paying top buck for a data plan with my carrier and quite frankly not using it because it was too much of a pain. Furthermore when I did use it I didn’t trust it.

I moved to the BB 8700 on February 22nd, 2006, which was right at the height of RIM vs NTP. I did so because I was assured that the Pocket Mac Blackberry actually worked. I wasn’t worried about the thing with NTP, I was pretty confident they would eventually work it out.

Anyway for the last month I finally have a solution (BB 8700) that really works for me. I send and receive email with ease, I am constantly available to my customers, I have all my contacts and all my appointments with me, the device hasn’t crashed once since I bought it and best of all I totally trust it as a solution to help me get business done.

No I can’t download video to my phone or take a picture or video but those are just doo-dads, they don’t help me service my customers.

“A rising tide lifts all boats”

A lot of people are moving towards smartphones. TREO’s numbers are probably a reflection of that. It’s probable that a lot of people looked at the problems with BB and NTP and that caused them to go in Treo’s direction, however based on my experience that will probably be a decision they will regret. As well, now that the NTP issue has been dealt with TREO’s numbers won’t hold, because BB as a business solution just works better

I have owned 4 TREO’s over the last 3 – 4 years mostly because I am a mac guy and TREO was the only smartphone solution that allowed syncing with my contacts and calendars on a Mac due to the PALM platform. I was never completely happy with the Treo’s. They are buggy as hell. For months I couldnt cc an email to anyone because the software on the phone would crash everytime I tried. Eventually I had to find a third party solution. The phone was also constantly crashing for no reason. I was also never happy with the way the phone worked for email. The interface was clunky when it came to looking up email addresses and phone numbers. The long and the short of it was I paying top buck for a data plan with my carrier and quite frankly not using it because it was too much of a pain. Furthermore when I did use it I didn’t trust it.

I moved to the BB 8700 on February 22nd, 2006, which was right at the height of RIM vs NTP. I did so because I was assured that the Pocket Mac Blackberry actually worked. I wasn’t worried about the thing with NTP, I was pretty confident they would eventually work it out.

Anyway for the last month I finally have a solution (BB 8700) that really works for me. I send and receive email with ease, I am constantly available to my customers, I have all my contacts and all my appointments with me, the device hasn’t crashed once since I bought it and best of all I totally trust it as a solution to help me get business done.

No I can’t download video to my phone or take a picture or video but those are just doo-dads, they don’t help me service my customers.

I think RIM gave Palm an opportunity to take some business, short term. For Palm to do well long-term, they need a new version of their OS that is rock solid and has more BB-like features, as well as new devices. If the new PalmOS isn’t rock-solid, appropriately featured, totally backward compatible, and running on a great device, I don’t see Palm’s growth continuing. Windows Mobile will eat their lunch on the consumer end, and BB will eat it on the enterprise end.

For BB to be competitive against Palm or WM among consumers and small businesses, they need a solution that brings the capabilities of BES is BIS. I just bought a 7130e from VZW and I’m paying 120/mo for unlimited Internet plus tethering plus a call plan. As a small business owner, I can’t justify another 20/month for hosted BES. I’ll make do with BIS and the poor synchronization, but I can’t see where I’d be much worse off with a Palm or Windows Mobile device. Everyone talks about cameras, mp3s, whatever, but for the little guy who isn’t running Exchange or Notes and wants to use the BB for business, BIS is a bigger deal.

I think RIM gave Palm an opportunity to take some business, short-term. For Palm to do well long-term, they need a new version of their OS that is rock solid and has more BB-like features, as well as new devices. If the new PalmOS isn’t rock-solid, appropriately featured, totally backward compatible, and running on a great device, I don’t see Palm’s growth continuing. Windows Mobile will eat their lunch on the consumer end, and BB will eat it on the enterprise end.

For BB to be competitive against Palm or WM among consumers and small businesses, they need a solution that brings the capabilities of BES to BIS. I just bought a 7130e from VZW and I’m paying 120/mo for unlimited Internet plus tethering plus a call plan. As a small business owner, I can’t justify another 20/month for hosted BES. I’ll make do with BIS and the poor synchronization, but I can’t see where I’d be much worse off with a Palm or Windows Mobile device. Everyone talks about cameras, mp3s, whatever, but for the little guy who isn’t running Exchange or Notes and wants to use the BB for business, BIS is a bigger deal.

I think RIM gave Palm an opportunity to take some business, short term. For Palm to do well long-term, they need a new version of their OS that is rock solid and has more BB-like features, as well as new devices. If the new PalmOS isn’t rock-solid, appropriately featured, totally backward compatible, and running on a great device, I don’t see Palm’s growth continuing. Asian Windows Mobile devices will eat their lunch on the consumer end, and BB will eat it on the enterprise end.

For BB to be competitive against Palm or WM among consumers and small businesses, they need a solution that brings the capabilities of BES is BIS. I just bought a 7130e from VZW and I’m paying 120/mo for unlimited Internet plus tethering plus a call plan. As a small
business owner, I can’t justify another 10-20/month for hosted BES. I’ll make do with BIS and the poor synchronization, but I can’t see where I’d be much worse off with a Palm or Windows Mobile device. Everyone talks about cameras, mp3s, whatever, but for the little guy who isn’t running Exchange or Notes and wants to use the BB for business, BIS is a bigger deal.

Sorry, when I submit in Firefox, the message about awaiting moderation does not appear. I switched to IE and see it now….

I think the increase with Palm will be a fluke due to RIM problems, now over. I have yet to meet someone with (or who used to have) a Treo that isn’t complaining about something, loudly. BB owners might complain, but it is a different type of problem. Who has heard of a Treo Addict….and a Cracko just doesn’t sound right.

Bill Gates would be the first to tell you that Palm’s sales are up because the Treo is using Windows Mobile instead of Palm OS.

Palm says that their spike in revenue is “a result of solid execution against company objectives”

Obviously, they received a temporary boost because the whole Blackberry existence was threatened by the courts system and a money-hungry patent troll.

It’s just that simple.

Palm’s strong showing may be as a result of clever marketing. TV ads, for example, made a good pitch for the 700w’s capabilities for making the office mobile. Picture Asian manager showing a new female African American office worker the office + the new 700w. Few other tech companies have been as saavy as to portray these devices beyond the usual white-man-in-a-suit user!

So in that respect, I think they have made inroads to expanding the pie, rather than cannibalizing from others.