Countdown to the Palm Pre

Countdown to the Palm Pre

In 6 days, Palm is going to unveil the brand new Palm Pre smart-phone.

The last few months, Palm has been busy building the suspense and remaining secretive on details of the upcoming phone.

Blogs, Social networks, News feeds, Reviews, Videos, Rumor mills, CNN fortune, twitter. Everything! Everyone is on the new phone.

Back in 2006, Palm was struggling to stay afloat. Ed Colligan (CEO) did an amazing job of convincing Elevation Partners to invest $425 million! Money was invested to create money.

The Pre is the next big thing after the Apple iPhone. The Web OS Operating System that powers the Pre is revolutionary. The world has not seen anything like it, yet.

To create an Operating System on a phone where applications are built using plain HTML and Javascript is new. This is a first.

There is no doubt. Demand is going to be huge. Palm is going to face a shortage. The company will recover the $425 million invested in no time.

It appears that the Web OS will power a range of smaller hardware devices. Phones, smaller form factor devices?

Microsoft has been using this strategy for a while. The main Operating System is broken down into multiple flavors. The licensing fee is unique to the flavor.

Palm is pulling the same stunt with Web OS.

It is fascinating to see how Palm jumped to $12 per share compared to the $1 per share back in December.

To bounce back from dust during a recession is something.

This is a company with mobility in its DNA.

Really exciting times for Palm and for all those involved with the company.

Atom - Intel's Money Machine

Amazing. Chipmaker Intel’s money machine is at work like there’s no tomorrow.

Although purchases of some computing products have slowed, Intel created a whole new chip – The Atom Processor– for the masses. The Atom fits in perfect for smaller netbooks like the ASUS EEE, MID devices and cellphones?

Quote – “Intel calls Atom a "perfect recession product"”.

The performance and battery life on the Atom is like no other.

Just a few years ago, AMD was moving towards the top of the game. They had great processors for desktops. However, AMD could never figure out a solution for the heat problems that affected the processors. The failure rate was just too high.

AMD’s next problem was the absence of a processor for laptops. Computing has been moving towards mobile. AMD had nothing to beat Intel’s Centrino technology.

Even today, laptops with the AMD processor are plagued with heat problems. Heat leads to fatigue and failure. High temperatures can kill electronics.

After Intel released the Core 2 Duo, AMD’s fate was sealed for failure.

Intel continues to focus on Mobile.

- Processors that run faster
- Processors that consume less power
- Processors that produce less heat
- Chipsets integrated and packed with everything - from graphics to WiFi to 3G
- Integration does away with external dongles
- USB 3.0

I am on an Intel Core 2 Duo laptop and this thing flies.

Looking forward to in the (near future?) where cellphones and car computing are all powered by Intel's latest, fastest and greatest chips!


INTEL's STOCK PERFORMANCE - LAST 5 YEARS



AMD's STOCK PERFORMANCE - LAST 5 YEARS



References:

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=INTC#chart3:symbol=intc;range=20030902,20080813;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=AMD#chart1:symbol=amd;range=5y;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

2008 Fortune 500

I used to think that software companies were in the Top 10 Fortune 500 list. That doesn't seem to be the case.

Source:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/

2008 Fortune 500

1. Wal-Mart Stores
2. Exxon Mobil
3. Chevron
4. General Motors
5. ConocoPhillips
6. General Electric
7. Ford Motor
8. Citigroup
9. Bank of America
10. AT&T
11. Berkshire Hathaway
12. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
13. AIG
14. Hewlett-Packard
15. IBM
16. Valero Energy
17. Verizon Communications
18. McKesson
19. Cardinal Health
20. Goldman Sachs

The Fall of Motorola (Handheld Division)

Not so long ago, Motorola had the most stylish clamshell cellphone in the market. They were the first to release a phone that was thin, a strong anodized aluminum shell with an electroluminescent chemically etched keypad.

This chart from Yahoo! Finance displays Motorola’s stock situation during the last six months.



Besides, the fall in stock, there has been a lot of talk about Motorola shutting down the handheld division.

Motorola went down hill after the success with the RAZR. Instead of focusing on a solid software platform for the RAZR, Motorola continued shipping the crippled RAZR 2 with a half baked version of Linux. There wasn’t an active developer base developing apps. The User Interface (UI) was slow and prone to crashes.

RAZR 2 ought to have had a version of Windows Mobile thrown in, increased onboard memory to 2Gigs and a camera that beats Nokia.

To make matters worse, RAZR 2 was expensive. Expectations from cellphones began running high between 2006 and 2007. The price point for RAZR 2 that did not do much for a phone released in 2006/07, added to the failure. Sony Ericsson and Nokia were pushing out faster and better phones three times faster than Motorola.

The next problem is that Motorola probably lost out on market research and the need for foresight. The least you could do is figure out why the RAZR was a success and build on that.

I think Motorola ought to have been aggressive on a quarterly basis. Release new updates at a high speed. Why wait to release an update two years later only to realize that this one is the same as the previous release. It is ridiculous to wait. You will have probably lost millions in revenue waiting or the competition will have eaten you. And then it is too late to rise again.

Sony Ericsson for sure figured they need to be heading in a different direction. The XPERIA X1 with Windows Mobile 6 under the hood proves this. Windows Mobile is a first for Sony, opens up a lot of doors for businesses, applications and developers.

There are ways to monetize through software on cellphones for business use. Applications, push email, secure communication protocols, custom applications, hardware accessories, custom developer toolkits, email, web proxy services.

The shift from Symbian to Windows Mobile is a surprise from Sony. I guess this is where the company changed gears, something that Motorola ought to have done two/three years ago!

References:

Yahoo! Finance Stocks
USA Today - Motorola mulls breakup, phone unit sale
Motorola Exploring Sale of Handset Business