Analyst: Nokia and Palm a match made in smartphone heaven 26
Fri, 04 Dec 2009 6:25 pm EST 
It’s been a little while since we’ve seen an analyst comment on the nonexistent acquision of Palm by Nokia, but Brian Blair of Wedge Partners has come to our rescue with a piece on why Nokia should buy Palm. His points mirror our own thoughts on the front of where it would make sense: Palm needs money, Nokia has money; Nokia needs a good OS, Palm has a good OS.
In an ideal world it could very well be a match made in heaven, but there are still some things to consider. Namely, those things are the hundreds of millions of dollars that Nokia has invested in Symbian S60 and Maemo. Clearly, Nokia has settled on Maemo as their operating system of choice for the future, even if it lacks some of the polish and functionality of webOS. It’s also worth noting that while Nokia may be a small player in the US smartphone market, they’re still the dominant force in the global smartphone market.
Nokia and Palm do need each other, but both companies are committed to doing things their way and alone at that. Thus far, every acquisition Nokia has made was not to either enhance their current strategy, or to expand into a new market. Purchasing Palm would do neither - it would replace or compete with their current strategy. Nokia has enough problems competing with their own products, that’s why they’re cutting their 2010 product line in half, adding Palm to the fold would only compound the inter-company competition. Let’s as General Motors how well that works, shall we?
For as much sense as a Nokia to buy Palm, there are just too many complications for it to actually happen.
26 Comments
Surely I'm not the only person who thinks Nokia phones are ugly? (Note that I'm not commenting on functionality, as I've never even touched a Nokia phone, so far as I'm aware.) I would hate for Palm's gorgeous designs to be lost in a Nokia acquisition.
Well, my previous phone was a Nokia E71 and I loved the form factor, the speed, and just about every feature of the phone. I switched for the touch screen and the multi-tasking. Nokia phones are rock solid, never crash or freeze, and have great battery life. Nokia has everything that Palm lacks and Palm has everything Nokia lacks. It's too bad we can't have everything...
personally i'm with Wilder. i think their phones are ugly and living in the States barely anyone has them.
but they are have resources and palm doesn't. One issue i've heard though is the reason they have almost no carriers in the U.S. is cause they suck to work with and want way to much control from the perspective of the carriers. They don't actually have many subsidized phones at all on u.s. networks. But they are bigger over seas.
I used the E71 and I still believe it is still one of the best phones out there. It's great looking and the build is solid. If not for the small, non-touch screen, I would still be using it.
"Clearly, Nokia has settled on Maemo as their operating system of choice for the future, even if it lacks some of the polish and functionality of webOS. "
Nice analysis Derek. It is abundantly clear that Nokia is going all-in with Maemo, especially so after Nokia's official statement made yesterday: "Let me be clear. Symbian is our platform of choice. Today, and in the future," added Kai Oistamo, the head of the Finnish company's handset unit.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nokia-promises-to-put-the-magic-back-in...
I was just about to comment the same thing. Maemo is most definitely NOT Nokia's platform of choice.
Nokia has repeatedly said that the N900 (Maemo 5) is just part 4 of a 5 port process to transition to a new platform. Maemo will be their new platform, just not yet. They know it's not ready. Their 1st generation Linux phone is geared towards hard core linux geeks. They know it's not polished enough for average consumers. In a year or two however...
LOL! But hey, he's a blogger not a analyst. :)
I disagree. For Nokia to shift to webOS would be a HUGE shift in philosophy, although no moreso than Palm ditching its signature PalmOS for webOS.
Still, I think a company like Dell makes more sense. It has the cash and is looking to get into the phone market. Plus I think Dell would like to apply the Apple model of being both the hardware and OS owner.
Oh lets keep renewing this to inflate Palm Stock. Sure the shareholders love it.
Palm learned their lesson with external OS licensing with PalmOS and doubt they'll repeat that mistake again.
Nokia buying palm will be for them to just shut them down.
If the phone pictured above exists, I would buy it in a heart beat.
IMO, Nokia doesn't know what they are doing. They can act on anything whatsoever. To be honest, it is a shame to to see a giant from a couple years ago to where they are today.
I hope they won't buy Palm. Otherwise, Palm will sure disappear from the face of the earth and we will not see another WebOS device.
/agree . I too believe that Nokia has no clue what their doing. They had a good plan like 7 years ago but it went all down hill FAST. My 6600 was a good s60 phone at the time but then I saw the Treo 650 :) In my mind, Nokia died when the Treo 650 came to be.
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I hope Palm just makes it without help from Nokia or anyonw else. The only suggestion that I might be ok with is HP. I have been with palm sine my first PDA a palm 3c I have never had as good of luck with their competetive products. The only other phone on the market right now that I feel competes with my Pre is the iPhone & the biggest problem I have with it is it is only on AT&T. The worst coverage network in my area. So Palm pull through! Pull out all the stops and make this work. Pkease.
I really hope Palm stays Palm too.
Palm hasn't been Palm for some time now.
let me start by saying, I personall think that palm should stay palm, BUT if palm were to sell it should be to Google. They have the money and support open source, if Google did then we can have Andriod on the Pr?/Pixi and also have Web OS on a several very nice phones. Google obviously supports Web OS as we can see with the integrated Google sync. It would also allow Google to get into the hardware market. It would also allow palm to expand its software base. IMO this would be a good move for both companies.
but that's just my 2
I think that Palm just needs to go with a large company that has money. I would prefer Dell.
HP would be perfect.
N97 + WebOS = win
i would personally love this joint venture. Nokia is no joke, nor is the potential of WebOS.
In short, yes this would absolutely be smartphone heaven
PALM will stay independent for at least another year... unless one of these guys offers something like 30 bucks a share. At that point, the pressure to sell out might be hard to resist.
Ya'll crazy, the best hope for Palm is to for them to remain independent. The only major problem with Palm right now is "time" itself. But, with that said, if a company is truly to buy Palm, the best fit is HTC. HTC is the only major phone company out there who understands and builds great phone designs and who does not yet have their own OS.
I just wish all this stupid chatter about Nokia buying Palm would just go away, seems too much analyst just enjoys playing devil's advocate and match maker just to manipulate Palm's stock to grease their dirty pockets.
I think Palm should license out WebOS to Nokia.
There is a whole article here on Precentral and comment log about this topic spawned by a twitter post I made "If Palm were for sale, what company would you want to buy them and why?"
http://www.precentral.net/round-table-palm-sale
I just got a Nokia ad on the right bar of this website. The timing, considering this post was just last Friday, smells bad.
Which came first, this article or Nokia's ad money?