McNamee interviewed on Bloomberg 13
Hot on the heels of the Pre's launch in the UK, our favorite Palm investor/board member sat down to talk turkey about Palm on Bloomberg Turns out that McNamee, our hero, can juggle better than most - he can open for Metallica, he can overstate things a bit (or more than a bit), he can mix it up with the folks at All Things D, and he can poke fun at himself. Most importantly, when it comes to talking about his money, he can button down and make the case that Palm is a good ten-year investment.
McNamee reiterated his view that RIM and Apple will continue to be very successful, but goes a step further here to mention why: both companies have tightly controlled and integrated hardware and software. He sees that integration as being one of the keys to Palms long term success in the smartphone market. He also notes just how small that smartphone market really is, with RIM commanding only 3% of total cellphone market share, and Apple with roughly 2%. There was, interestingly, no mention of Nokia or Android. The view here is certainly more optimistic than the results of a study we posted that put Palm's market share at a vanishingly small 1.4% by 2012.
When asked about the Pixi and concerns that the forthcoming handheld will cannibalize Pre sales, the response was that it was a non-issue because regardless of which webOS sporting handset is bought, the consumer is adopting webOS and that's a win for Palm.
When questioned about the near term financial out look of Palm, McNamee began skirting questions. If you recall, the Q2 financial forecast given in the company's guidance back in september is 240 Million, down from 360 million in Q1. The projected year end result is between 1.6 to 1.8 billion. He had nothing substantive to offer on how Palm plans to get from point A (revenues of 280 million) to point B (revenues of 1.6 billion) in only two quarters. Responses ranged from "rolling product out is a lumpy process" to "we're in this for the long term".
In it for the long term? It's clear that they are, as Elevation Partners and some of its owners loaded up on stock during the public offering back in September.
13 Comments
But Roger, when is my Pre going to be able to realize I'm not going to make it to the meeting and ask if I want it to email everybody to tell them I'm late?
or you could just call???
I'm just joking, I wouldn't want it to do that anyway. But Roger did say mention that back before the Pre was released as an example of the way the Pre would think ahead for you. I guess that was just a theory. :)
The Pre (well mine actually) does give you the option to email the other attendees for a meeting. I've had this since Day 1. When there is an event reminder, there are 2 buttons: to dismiss the reminder, and the contact the attendees.
Can someone else confirm this?
But does it use the meeting location and your current location via GPS to figure out there's no way you will make it to the meeting on time and prompt you automagically to send said emails?
McNamee reminds me of Benjamin Franklin...
They're both badasses as well.
I think in a highly competitive market, expecting to produce an immediate success was a foolish move by McNamee but he is correct, long term having control of the OS and the hardware bodes well. The OS is in revision 1.2.1, Apple is in 3.2 and still working out the kinks. If the WebOS can continue to rapidly evolve, it has a good chance to be in the top 3 mobile OS.
The Pre is by no means a failure, selling somewhere around 1 million units on Sprint is pretty darn good for a gen 1 product, if they can follow it up with more robust hardware (we knew sliders were flimsy so can't entirely blame palm for the Pre's looseness), and an ever improving WebOS, expect them to make headway. I'd like to see a few models, including, a higher end Treo Pro like device with a super good keyboard, a slider like the Pre, and then a Centro like the Pixi. I am sure people wouldn't mind a landscape slider as well. So 4 models at 4 different price points, with 4 different formats. That should cover the market pretty well.
Omg I'd love a Treo Pro-esque device running WebOS.
For some reason the Pre's occasional lags piss me off. I'd like a true powerhouse to really help me "power-use".
I would be a happy man to see the new gen "high end" webOS device to be running on a 1ghz Snapdragon, or possibly whatever comes after that.
Lower power use, high speeds. How can you go wrong?
How would a 1 GHz Snapdragon give lower power use than the current ARM processor?
On a side note, I find it amusing that people keep complaining about how Palm isn't fixing the "battery drain issue". The issue exists because an anemic battery is hooked up to a dynamic, powerful device. The only way to really fix the problem is to use a higher capacity battery.
Umm. No, first off I wasn't complaining about the battery. Software can be written more efficiently but only to a point.
The Snapdragon or the Hummingbird, I suppose either works. Fanboydom aside, they have the potentional to make the next Pre run flawlessly.
Was interesting to see who stocks went up from a year back to now, and how he knows now that his joint venture will take sometime, until the company shows profits and it will depend in how Palm expands the market with Pre ,Pixi and upcoming models running webos.
I really enjoyed all the launch parties videos and seeing all the promo videos as well , all around the world . It brings hope for a good brand as Palm. I saw that Canada and Europe have not forgotten Palm and are answering buying the new Palm smartphone.
It also means to me, that the international customers support has to come easy as I expect and recieved before with Palm OS device
Two things:
1. There is no confirmation that Palm has sold a million Pres. Palm has not stated the number of units sold, but we have reason to believe that it is less, and perhaps much less than a million.
2. Being new is no excuse for shortcomings. If it is, then the iPhone has only been out for two years and that was Apple's first experiment with a phone. Palm has been doing it for ages. Also, it is not productive to compete with 2007. It does not matter how the Pre compares with any other phone from two years ago. Palm has released a phone for today's market and must meet today's expectations.
Neither of these are knocks against the Pre, but are intended to cut through the spin.