Palm hiring Director of Sprint Retail Sales, 'product launch activities' in the mix 65
Thin though the evidence may be, we'd be remiss if we didn't take a quick note of a Palm job posting pointed out to us by @TheInvsbleMan: Director of Sprint Retail Sales in Sprint's hometown of Kansas City. It's nothing special, natch, until you start digging into the duties (emphasis ours):
Serves as a point-of-escalation for issues or problems that the customer encounters during product launch activities.
...In other words: Yes, Palm is still planning 'product launch activities' and Sprint is apparently on the shortlist for said activities. We know that Palm and Sprint have a long and somewhat beautiful relationship and that a large proportion of the webOS faithful are also on the #2 CDMA carrier. In other words, we suspect there will be many who are glad to see the relationship has a future.
We're just hoping that this time around it won't be an exclusive relationship. Feel free to play the field, HP and Palm, no point in settling down this early. (ps: feel free to make this 'product launch' a simple refresh to the Palm Pre Plus for Sprint users)
Source: Palm Job Board; Thanks @TheInvsbleMan!
65 Comments
awesome!
Fingers crossed that this means a new device. And if it is a new device I hope that it has at least a 1 gig processor and a between a 3.5 and 4.0 inch screen. PLEEEEESE!!!!!!
Wowwwwser!!
Spelling correction: @TheInvsbleMan Just sayin' ;)
Doh! Fixing now
02 in UK and Germany have pre plus now, upgraded from pre, introduced long after pre was introduced on sprint. Verizon pre plus already works on CDMA. This begs the question: Why is there no pre plus on Sprint. Technically very easy to do:
Various reasons could be:
1) Sprint told palm: They are not going to buy a lot of pre plus. Which is hard to imagine considering pre is the 2nd best selling handset on sprint.
2) Sprint irked Ruby: They wouldnt let Ruby release it on Verizon earlier or did not advertise enough.
3) They are waiting for new WebOS Device: But considering they could have sold pre plus from June to Oct or when ever the new device is released that could have meant a lot of sales or atleast upgrades. Even upgrades would have helped as people would have not gone into android and invested in another platform.
4) Sprint refuse to give palm deals for pre plus that others gave.
http://forums.precentral.net/cdma-north-america/257555-why-there-no-spri...
I think it may go back to moving the existing inventory. I don't know all the details (just assuming) that Sprint and Palm have a lot of the Original Pre's laying around and they want to move them. I wish they would had gave us the Pre Plus but it shouldn't be a big launch just a simple swap out. I know most people (myself included) won't sign a to year contract for the same phone with just a couple improvements. Because when they bring out something completely new I'll be stuck with just a Pre Plus (or be paying out the whazoo for it). Just my two cents.
HP and Palm need something fairly drastic at this point, if they launch something like the blackberry torch they're in for a bumpy ride.
I think if Palm re-released the Pre they'd still be ahead of the Torch! Well, maybe not from the hardware durability or keyboard standpoint, but in terms of software and processing power...
Launch Sprint or VZN, this phone HAS to be 3G/4G either WiMax or LTE.
I strongly dislike AT&T ever since they bought my beloved Cingular. I switched 4 months later service went to crap. I live in a small town and we have Sprint 3G and I get to laugh at my iPhone friends who don't get 3G yet haha!
hear ye hear ye....
soon... We will be rockin new webOS phones on sprint.
Deferred gratification
Deferred gratification or delayed gratification is the ability to wait in order to obtain something that one wants. This attribute is known by many names, including impulse control, will power, self control and, in economics, "low" time preference. In formal terms of accounting, an individual should calculate net present value of future rewards and defer near-term rewards of lesser value. Extensive research has shown that animals don't do this, but instead apply hyperbolic discounting, so this problem is fundamental to human nature.
Conventionally, good impulse control is considered a personality trait. Daniel Goleman has suggested it is an important component of emotional intelligence. People who lack this trait are said to need instant gratification and may suffer from poor impulse control. Psychological research (along the lines of Walter Mischel's famous Marshmallow Experiment) indicates that good impulse control may be important for academic achievement and life success.[1]
instant gratification.... Is for the weak minded ;-)
ohh.... When the day comes....
You sound like those devoutly religious families who refuse to allow medical treatment for their sick children because they believe their higher power will heal them.
its hilarious how shit goggles taint peoples takes.
lets see... lets just say I wait. the next webOS phone, tablet, and line of webOS printers are a pile of dog excrement.
what have i lost by waiting? nothing.
I can then buy the next best android device... or the boring.. washed out slab "evo".
You sound like a typical iphone user... hating on preecentral.
fess up... you own an iphone... dont cha ninja girl
i think people who poke fun of me all use iphones too. *high five*
wow... you're weird.
see.. he is actually an iphone user.
you thinking people that poke fun at you are all iphone users... thats weird;-)
You are not comprehending my post. Let's be clear: I was mocking you. (Maybe it's because I use an iPhone?)
What do you lose by waiting? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the point of consumer technology to use it and not to wait for it?
sure... unless it locks you into a 2 yr contract... DOH.
im out of contract.... as of june 2010
Which means that you're still paying the contract premium even though you aren't paying down the ETF of a new phone. How long are you going to let that go on? That's what got me to switch away from Palm in the first place - I realized that even though I was eligible for a new phone, there wasn't any new Palm worth upgrading to.
the contract premium? I have a sprint family share 1500 min plan. with my 27% corp discount... we pay around $110 for 2 pre's with everything data, gps, sprint TV, any mobile.
I am premier... so i get yearly upgrade eligibility.
out of all people on this site.. you think not paying down a phone etf is going to discourage me from waiting for a new webOS phone?
There is no way in hell i would buy an android phone before seeing the next webOS phone... period. I get face time with all the latest android phones ( user phones) weekly at work. the latest.. evo 2.2...
not an impressive phone imo. The Iphone ios 4.. with its issues.. is a beauty in comparison. the os is boring. but extremely polished.. and ui much nicer. the build of the phone... work of art.
the evo.... droid... not on the same level
not interested in android or apple... for several personal reasons
webOS .
Even a rat knows to exit a sinking ship.
ohh.... When the day comes...
I will be vindicated and praised by all for the fortitude I display.
I have a bunch of 8 track tapes and laser disks for you, just send me a PM.
ohh... your one of the dumb ass's that bought laser disc's
i bet you bought an evo too .. LOL!
I was one of the day 1 Pre owners. Perhaps you should gain a fuller understanding of punctuation and pluralization before calling me a dumb ass. Apostrophes are used for contractions and to denote possession.
Ex: Clutch1222's poorly constructed response shows a lack of comprehension.
Doesn't make it right.
Punctuation not withstanding, Laser Disk? $100-200 movies?
well... When you have no comeback...
punctuation, grammar, etc... Criticism does wonders for the wounded ego.
english is my second language. How many do you speak?
pluralization... Lol.
Quite a few of the posts on here remind me of those Japanese soldiers who guarded small islands in the pacific for years after WWII, never knowing the war had ended.
BTW that new HP Zeen will be running Android.
hooray for the growing up process. Granted, some people never get through the process, but I'm a lot less "instant-gratification-centric" then I used to be. So waiting I am, and I believe my Sprint upgrade is available tomorrow.
now if I'd just stop checking PreCentral every couple of hours, I'd probably be less anxious for next-gen WebOS details.
but mommmmmmmmmyyyy, i want it nowwwwwww.
I don't understand what the fuss is about. I thought it was already well known that Palm would be coming out with new hardware this year. Can someone fill me in?
Lots of Sprint faithful are afraid they'll be left out in the cold by the next launch.
Palm... please don't feel free to launch the almost year old Pre Plus. That would not be wise. It was never a new device, it was a revision to correct flaws, not add features.
"...almost year old Pre Plus...."
Uh, not according to the calendar, it's not.
Counting from its announcement, the Pre Plus is seven months old; just over half a year.
statistically that makes it a year old, haha. WE'RE ROUNDING UP HERE, PEOPLE!
The Double Post bug needs to be eliminated in webOS 2.0. VERRRY ANNOYING.
At this point I would be thrilled to simply get a Pre Plus on Sprint. The extra RAM and storage would alleviate, if not eliminate, all my current issues. A Pre Plus would be the Snickers bar to hold me over until CES 2011.
No way do I want to see a Pre+ launching on Sprint. Luring more people onto unreliable hardware, does not lead to the development of loyal customers. I want everyone to enjoy webOS but I won't recommend anyone buy a Pre or Pre+.
Exactly. I love my Pre, but it's only bearable because I have it overclocked and have a slew of patches thrown onto it. I don't necessarily tell people NOT to get one, but I definitely have to throw out a bundle of caveats when I do recommend it.
Give us some solid hardware at the very least, and then I won't be as reluctant to point people toward Palm devices because the software issues can always be upgraded with OS upgrades down the line.
As someone who has the Pre Plus on AT&T, the hardware IS solid, even if it is not cutting edge. Even the issue of the slower processor(by the standards of new devices) is fixed by going to a 1GHz kernel.
Seriously, if the Pre Plus had a 3.7-3.9 inch screen PLUS the slide-out keyboard, it would easily compete at the top end of the current market.
Finally something to be a little excited about. I just wish it was a hiring announcment and not just a job posting...
I hAte to see him leave, but it takes a team to design a phone ,not one person. It also takes a team to design a notification system ,not one person.....all those people leaving palm, can easily replaced by a team of great engineers.
80% of the reason the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi failed, was because they were launched exclusively on the Sprint network. Don't believe me then your an idiot.
Palm/HP does this again the brand is dead.
The EVO seems to be doing alright on Sprint.
For many users, screen size means EVERYTHING. Remember the people who bought the old projection televisions that were really blurry but were impressive because they were so big? A key reason why the Pre and Pre Plus does not sell as well as the iPhone, EVO, or other newer devices is that they don't look impressive when off and sitting in some display case with sales people who don't know what they are selling.
If you look at cars, many people ONLY look at things like horsepower, without paying attention to things like acceleration. You put a 180 horsepower engine in a SUV and it won't perform as well as if you put it in a nice light car. The stupid people of the world want to be impressed by just looking at something, and how well it performs while being used takes a back seat. They want others to be awed by seeing what they have.
So, just LOOKING at the Pre and Pre Plus without ease of use or anything else will leave people unimpressed.
The Centro was a success and it was first launched on Sprint and then made it across every carrier that mattered.
Sprint wasn't the problem. That it was exclusive for so long was part of the problem. That it took so long to come out after it was announced was another part. Then build quality, then marketing. If those four things were different Palm may stil be an independent company.
And the word of mouth got out that the Pre was junk and the fact that people didn't want to learn new tricks they prefer their buttons over the gestures.
I love the gesture area, and after playing with an iPhone for a few minutes, it cemented why I like the gesture area so much. It's smooth and natural, and doesn't really take any effort to learn.
I can't believe this is still being discussed. Sprint was Palm's only real option.
T-Mobile hadn't carried a Palm phone since the Treo 650. AT&T wasn't gonna hurt their precious iPhone sales and risk the wrath of Apple. Verizon probably would have taken it, but they would have bent webOS into something unrecognizable. Palm would have had zero ability to bargain.
Sprint, as others have said, were in a similar position as Palm. Palm and Sprint have a great history stretching all the way back to the Handspring Treo 300.
If there were no exclusivity contract, and all carriers were able to sell the Pre during 2009, things very well may have gone MUCH better for Palm. You have to remember that Sprint just doesn't have the national coverage that the leading carriers have, and THAT is why most people don't switch to Sprint.
NO. The only effective TV ads for launch came from Sprint. Palm's own ads were a disaster. When carriers all carry the same phone, they are reluctant to run TV ads, because a Verizon Ad could prompt a Sprint user to go to Sprint to get the same device.
This is the reason we got the "8 more gigs" ads from Verizon to differentiate it from the Pre. It told people that knew the Pre, that it might have 16gigs, but unfortunately, it told unfamiliar buyers the Pre+ only had 8.
Now if HP advertising can be effective and they dont mind shelling out a lot of money to raise mindshare, multi carriers can work sort of and at a cost. But, I'd expect that Palm buyers walking into ATT and VZ, will get whisked to the Iphone and droid-of-the-week displays by the sales people. Let Sprint be the sacred Palm garden. If Sprint puts much thought into it, a viable Palm phone will give them traction agains VZ/Droid, it will allow them to step out of the shadow and be unique.
First point is probably right. 2nd point isn't true. HP doesn't care about short term profits with Palm. HP wants WebOS for tablet,etc and the phone business is not critical. Palm had to execute perfectly as a solo company to have succeeded and it didn't. HP can afford to wait a couple of years for the phone business to take off and if it doesn't they can cut back on R&D and release a device which will be enough to keep in the market but nothing like a halo device. Meanwhile they'll keep on selling webOS tablets, printers, etc.
This job offering is absolutely no indication for a new exclusivity deal with sprint. It's just some sort of key account manager for a big business partner and therefore it would be this persons responsibility to manage such a deal. I'm sure there's a director of retail sales for every major carrier.
Palm made a big big mistake here in the UK by having o2uk as their only 'partner'. O2 are an iphone seller and anything else will not get the attention it deserves by those in the shops.
If Palm stick with just a few networks then they are dead and WebOS is no more, on phones at least. They can't afford to be picky with those they sell through.
Palm also need a damn good phone to house WebOS. Anything less than the HTC Desire for example forget it, it won't sell. I also get the feeling that they are looking more at the US market to sell through to start with. They may fall at that hurdle as WebOS needs good exposure and at the same time. They need to release it as Apple do with the iPhone, on the sameday in the big markets and that would be the UK,US and Europe. That may though serve a problem as webOS failed big time outside of the US.
Not to rain on everyone's proverbial parade but my gut reaction is that Sprint users are going to get the Pre+. Yes, I am a Sprint user and YES I would be lined up day one to get one.
I think we'll see an updated Pre Plus, Pixi Plus and a newer higher end device on Sprint, so yes, I agree with your statement to an extent.
Sprint will never see the Pluses. If ATT and VZ cant sell them, Sprint wont even try. Something new is coming. We'll know more in a little under four weeks.
(ps: feel free to make this 'product launch' a simple refresh to the Palm Pre Plus for Sprint users)
you shut up, dieter!
I don't think you will have to line up.
i'm not gonna use my upgrade on a stinkin pre plus.
+1
I don't think its going matter what palm/hp do here in the UK. No one I know has even heard of the palm pre. I've seen less than a handful of adverts and O2 are the worst carrier here. The app catalog should be everyones biggest concern not hardware. Where is the amazon app? Or ebay? or google earth? or a decent google maps? Or Sky TV? Skype? Satnav? the list is almost literally endless. Whats the point of wanting new hardware when we'll be stuck with the same dross on it? Honestly I'm not an iphone fan boy, but its just got stuff on it people want to use. I cant see palm/hp embracing none-US countries like apple/blackberry/android have. Hope i'm wrong because I love my pre and the fact its not a generic smartphone, but without apps its just a phone.
Palm Pre Plus, Are you kidding? That would receive a gigantic Sigh from the marketplace. Hell they can't even give them away on the other networks. It would only look like they were trying to dump their overstocked stale inventory on what's left of their loyal customers. I've been the biggest Palm fanboy, but with the continued departure of the original Palm team, the silence from HP, and sky rocketing growth of the droid world; this may be a sinking ship. For all the extreme loyalist, there were people on the Titantic that refused to believe the ship would sink, even as they were launching the life rafts.
And the band played on.
The Palm Just have to sell GSM/WCDMA to other countries... just this!
CDMA is only to US... the rest of the world uses GSM!
The IPhone 4; for example, is selling MANY devices in France, because the customers buy unlocked, and sell do other countries. Locked, is selling less...
A big part of IPhone sucess was sell to all world. Close to Sprint; sorry people, it's losing time...
Best Regards...
I love how everyone wants to blame the failure of the Pre on Sprint exclusivity.
Then why didnt the EVO fail, as its still out of stock to this day, and HTC even admitted their churning them out as fast a possible.
Why is it Sprint is the only carrier that can seem to sell the ORIGINAL PRE with out GIVING IT AWAY! While VERIZON and ATT have to GIVE AWAY the PLUS and Verizon has to throw in Mobile Hotspot...I mean if anything Sprint should been forced long ago to offer the Pre for 0, but its 149$, they must not be having hard time moving stock at that price...out in the wild all i ever see are Sprint Pre's, I have seen maybe 3 pre pluses and all of those are Verizon, have yet to see an ATT.
Why was Sprint able to move a SH*T load of Centros
Sprint is not palms problem, and Sprint will be the exclusive again for the 4G WebOs Device, you know it I know it Palm and Sprint knows it.
The Pre's problem was its HORRIBLE Marketing by Palm..They appealed to NO ONE, that was a catastrophic mistake...also the PRE was victim to the economy crash and Iphone release....hopefully palm has learned not to announce in the winter and release in the summer if it wan't to keep hype.
None of these problem are Sprint related. backoff the Sprint bashing.
The only way I would accept a Pre Plus launch on Sprint is if I got a free upgrade that didn't use my 1 upgrade a year deal.
HP and Palm simply needs a new phone out there, and the Pre Plus isn't new and can't compete with all the new Android phones and the iPhone 4 in terms of power.
If we do see a Pre Plus on Sprint, I'd take that as a big sign that a new WebOS phone isn't hitting this year, and probably not any time soon. That probably be the thing that pushes me over to Android.