Palm’s new entry into the smartphone market is the Pixi, a successor to the infamous Pre. The recent offering is similar to the Pre with the exception of a permanently visible QWERTY keyboard along with no Wi-Fi connectivity. However, it does retain the gorgeous capcitiative screen from the Pre. A confirmed release date for the phone has been November 16 in the United States.
The diminutive Pixi is poised to take a specialized market segment at an attractive price of $100. Currently there are very few phones that are specializing in this market segment with such interesting looks. It seems like that the Palm Pixi may become the savior of the day considering that the phone has smart-phone like features at a fraction of the cost that are available to consumers. The lack of Wi-Fi connectivity is expected however, a touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard are certainly attractive enough to interest consumers. Sprint’s unlimited data plans will probably keep more than customers happy with unlimited Internet connectivity.
In addition to this, the webOS application store has a number of apps that would easily rival some of the apps on the iPhone and Android platform in terms of build quality. Resultantly, the potential exists for the Pixi to capture the bargain smartphone market, an area that traditionally mid-range Samsung and LG phones have traditionally dominated. Although Samsung and LG have also branched into the high-end smartphone market, the Pixi places an interesting spin by using Palm’s fairly well-known brand name and offers similar features to the iPhone and Android phones. It seems to be a win-win situation for consumers in retrospect, considering the price point is ideally suited for bargain hunters looking for a reliable phone.
The Pixi team should actively leverage the Palm brand in the phone and capture new users using this phone. The current recession has many individuals looking for bargains and considering the build quality and features of the Pixi; the device could be an additional revenue stream to the Pre and help boost the webOS platform amongst developers.
It seems like Palm has a hidden ace up their sleeve which could seriously put Palm on a new level in terms of popularity and app development. The potential of webOS has been undermined significantly with the sluggish sales of the Pre, however, if marketed correctly; the Pixi could save the day for Palm.
Has anyone signed up for a new Pixi? If given the choice, does Wi-Fi connectivity seem that important with an unlimited data plan? Do you thing Sprint’s 3G network can handle the demands of the Pre and Pixi? Leave your thoughts or comments below.
Palm’s Pre has been touted as one of a series of rival phones that has the potential to remove the iPhone from the top spot in smart phones. However, the Pre has had a painful birth into the smart phone era with lawsuits from Apple along with launch issues ranging from availability to pricing problems. Nonetheless, this has not stopped the Pre team from steaming ahead at full speed to help with the development of apps for its webOS.
Initially, Palm felt to ensure build quality of its apps, it would be handing over its SDK, Mojo, to a few select developers that Palm selected. A smart move considering that a majority of the quality developers are working for the iPhone platform or moving towards Google’s Android platform. By releasing to selected developers, Palm provides them with a strong first mover advantage which may help in retaining key long-term developers that would eventually help Palm establish a credible developer base.
Looking over at the website, http://www.palm.com/us/products/software/mobile-applications.html, the overall feel is similar to the Android Marketplace along with clear well-defined categories. Screenshots are available for each of the apps listed. Interestingly enough, most apps have been produced by strong content or service providers which are a good way of ensuring the build quality of the apps. An example being the Fandango app which mirrors the real life service for movie fanatics; such apps help build the base for other apps to be developed with equal quality since a high standard has been established.
The overall range of apps is impressive while the depth of apps is lacking when compared to the number of apps developed for the iPhone and Android-compatible phones. However, these initial offering shows how Palm plans on maintaining a strong quality focus on its apps and enticing customers with apps developed professionally. It also signals other professional developers of the importance that Palm is giving to its initial developers.
Palm is holding a conference in December 2009 to help boost the app development process and lure developers to its platform. Previously, Palm thought SDK release exclusivity to certain developers and the concept of being a serious competitor to the iPhone would be enough to generate a large developer base. Unfortunately, the impetus that Google’s Android platform has been garnering is now growing evermore popular and receiving significant financial and marketing support. Palm was left out in the dry in terms of the anticipated enthusiasm and consumer attention it needed.
Palm WebOS Development Conference in December 2009
Working overtime to push their smartphone OS into the open market, Palm has decided to organize a conference in December 2009 in an effort to lure developers to its platform and begin developing apps to market on their Open Catalog e-commerce program. A key development of this conference will ultimately be how Palm decides to charge developers and provide a business structure acceptable to all parties concerned. Palm has stated that,
“(It) will offer developers choices for getting their applications to market, as well as a transparency into the process that will help them promote and grow their businesses.” – eWeek
Previously the apps offered at the store were free, however, realizing that the iPhone OS along with Android and RIM’s BlackBerry OS were quickly gaining ground over webOS; Palm decided to increase its marketing and get support for webOS. Currently, Palm’s store had apps for free in their app store, which was a reason for some of the excellent home-brew apps that were available to customers. Secondly, Palm’s strategic decision seems to be changing; currently the webOS was only available on the Pre and the Pixi. Unfortunately the problem with luring developers now is that the profitability factor of the Pre is compromised.
Already Apple has created a competitive situation where it has successfully captured a number of developers. By allowing developers to keep 70% of the profit margin by taking a 30% royalty along with a $99 developer fee, Apple has created a very strong incentive for developers to move to their platform – (Source). Since the success of the app along with the overall marketing push of the app is from the developer side, most of the work is done by the developer and by letting developers retain profits; they market their app themselves. Currently, Nokia, RIM, Symbian, Qualcomm all charge heavily for developers to access their OSs’ and SDKs’; in comparison to the structure offered by Apple, they are rather draconian in nature.
Apple’s commitment to quality is reflected via the total control they exercise over the submission and review of apps. Not only do they maintain a standard for apps, but similar to any licensing authority, they have the ability to screen out potentially malicious developers who could exploit the iPhone SDK and OS. In retrospect, this is probably why there have been very few security breaches on the iPhone while other developers have used financial clout to screen developers. Although in the long run, it will become difficult to screen what could be potentially millions of apps, it will at least ensure that apps available for download are safe.
Coming back to Palm, they are in a key situation where they can clearly see how draconian approaches will result in poor support for webOS or could help lure developers away from a fairly crowded market into a lucrative business venture. This is dependent on two things:
1.Palm creating a development program that provides a similar incentive to Apple’s program while streamlining the overall development process,
2.Marketing the Pre more aggressively and ensuring that consumers start to realize the full potential of the phone.
Although the Pre is exclusive to Sprint’s network, recently Verizon and Google have teamed up to launch Android compatible phones on Verizon’s network. The Pre has some serious competition now in terms of AT&T’s and iPhone alliance along with the Google-Verizon collaboration. It seems like that the Palm team is at a crossroads, a careful long-term strategic decision here can definitely change the path of the Pre and Palm’s profitability or it could doom the Pre to the depths of obscurity.
What do you think? Will Palm emulate Apple’s current market structure or will it follow the routes of RIM, Symbian and Nokia? Leave your thoughts and comments below.
Hot on the heels of the new iPhone 3GS, Palm released the Pre, another intensely anticipated phone. Within hours of it being released, the usual community of developers had already flashed the firmware and created another homebrew application scene for the Pre. Eagerly anticipating the potential growth in the applications but more importantly media support with iTunes, the Pre managed to access iTunes in a manner that Apple calls illegal, developers call questionable and consumers call “unique”. Resultantly, a slew of corporate press releases and open threats ensued between Apple and Palm.
The core issue that Apple is contesting with Palm is that the Pre accesses iTunes by mimicking the software identity of a standard iPod. Apple has openly claimed that this means is illegal. Palm’s response is that Apple’s rather draconian actions will hurt consumers overall as they will be denied a “seamless synchronization experience”. After trading many barbs and considering that former Apple employee, Jon Rubinstein, is now currently the CEO of Palm; tensions are running high. Apple’s response has been to immediately block the Pre from syncing with iTunes, while the Pre development community has refused to update iTunes and resultantly began looking for hacks to bypass the new update. (continue reading…)
