Palm is planning a massive product launch for the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month. It could be the company's last, best shot at survival.
"It's quite likely, actually close to a certainty, that they will show a new OS, new user interface and probably new hardware," says Lawrence Harris, an analyst for Wall Street brokerage firm CL King & Associates. "This is Palm's last shot to prove it has what it takes to survive in a very competitive market."
Palm ushered in the handheld computing revolution more than a decade ago with the Palm Pilot, and further advanced the market with its early Treo smartphones. But in the last few years the company has been struggling for survival while its devices get eclipsed by smartphones from Research in Motion, Nokia and Apple.
Now Palm has industry watchers buzzing about its plans for a CES press conference. According to analysts contacted by Wired.com, the company is likely to debut its new, Linux-based operating system, dubbed Nova, and show the first of a new family of smartphones that would use the OS. Nova is scheduled for release in the first half of 2009, the company has previously said.
CES, the largest consumer electronics products fair in the U.S., will clearly be a make-or-break event for Palm. The company recently posted second-quarter financial results nearly 40 percent below what some Wall Street analysts had projected. Sales of the Centro smartphone, the company's biggest seller, have been fading. Palm also faces strong headwinds from a weakening economy.
Meanwhile, competition in the market has gotten more intense with the launch of the Apple 3G iPhone, Research In Motion's latest BlackBerry devices and T-Mobile's G1, the first phone based on the Google-backed Android operating system.
Palm currently uses its Palm OS, aka Garnet, and Windows Mobile for its handsets. However, Palm OS is restricted in its use. It lacks support for high-speed HSDPA networks, also known as 3G mobile technology.
Nova could fix that and offer Palm an opportunity to create a new family of products that would go beyond the Centro and its Treo line.
"The good news for Palm is that folks are still talking about them and those making the trek to CES will likely pay attention to what they're saying," Michael Gartenberg, vice president at research firm Jupitermedia, wrote on his blog. "If this event disappoints it's going to be hard for them to muster attention in the future."
Palm may have gotten industry watchers buzzing but, so far, it has held its cards close to its chest. There have been almost no leaks about new hardware or features of the upcoming OS.
It could be a result of the culture that the company's many recent hires from Apple may have brought with them.
Over the last 18 months, Palm has hired a number for former Apple executives including Jon Rubenstein who was instrumental in the creation of the iPod, Lynn Fox, former head of Mac PR and Paul Mercer, a former Apple engineer.
"It is part of the Apple culture to keep things under wraps," says Harris. "And now we are seeing greater secrecy than ever from Palm."
Photo: (mhaithaca/Flickr)
