Monthly Archives: April 2009

engadget has just revealed the Palm Eos which may or may not be real (see today’s earlier article). Looking at past rumours this one feels more real than the others and the specifications match up, but it’s the looks that caught my eye. It makes the Pre look rather dull…

“Liked that blurry photo of a new Palm webOS phone we saw earlier? Well how about some specs, a name, and a better look at this thing? Enter the device above, apparently dubbed the Palm Eos (codenamed Castle… where have we seen that before?), which it seems will be the company’s proper follow-up to the Centro — a quadband GSM / HSDPA phone notably rocking the 850 / 1900 AT&T and Rogers-friendly frequencies. The phone will supposedly be an astounding 10.6mm thin, will measure just 55mm x 111mm (about 2.1 by 4.3-inches), weigh 100 grams, and will tout a 2.63-inch, 320 x 400 capacitive display. Of course, the info we’ve got right now can’t be verified, and since there are a couple of minor question marks here (like barely rounded corners in the OS), you should take it all with a grain of salt… as usual. Needless to say, we’re working on getting more details (and some confirmation), so stay tuned!”

TechCrunch is claiming that a second webOS device may be coming from Palm this year. Details are of course very sketchy, but the source is claimed as being a good one. “And then, wham! A whole new rabbit hole to jump down. One of our better sources indicated to us that Palm is “very far along” on a second Pre-like device and currently has plans to put it on the market in the late part of 2009, possibly as early as the Fall.

This is too soon for a second generation device (Apple releases new generation iPhones yearly). and Palm won’t be expecting people to upgrade their Palm Pre to this new device just a few months after buying a Pre. It’s addressing a different part of the market.”

The Pre release date seems to be slipping back all of the time. Well, you may think that if you read all of the unfounded release date forecasts every week. The latest date to be quoted, courtesy of Pre Central, is June 7th. That just happens to be my birthday, so if Palm could have one on my doorstep at 9:30am that morning as a birthday present that would be nice…:)

“This lines up quite well with the timeline we’re building in our head after today’s UPS Shipping rumor.  It also, as PreCentral.net forum member LurkMoar notes, matches up with the other rumor today about when the Palm Pre Protest Guy campaign is slated to finish.  In other words, we’re officially calling the May 17th rumor dead in the water and pinning our hopes and dreams on June 7th.

The idea of there being two release windows also rings true — there seems to be a pattern of Palm internally setting preliminary release dates and then hedging them just in case something happens to push it back.  The last thing Palm wants to do is let a release date slip and then get accused of having delays.  So, as tough as it is, we’re happy that Palm is keeping to the official line of “First Half of 2009,” we just hope that soon they’ll be confident enough to get a little more specific…”

iSuppli has come up with a build price for the Palm Pre of $138 which seems about right and does offer scope for decent profit margins for Palm. The theory is that Sprint will sell the unit for $200 after subsidy and this competes quite well with the competition. More at BusinessWeek.

“To say Palm has a lot riding on the Pre smartphone is an understatement. Amid stiff competition from Apple (AAPL) and Research In Motion (RIMM), Palm’s very survival may hinge on the success of the device, expected to reach Sprint Nextel (S) store shelves no later than June 30.

And while it’s hard to predict demand for the Pre, preliminary analysis suggests Palm (PALM) will make a healthy profit from the units it does sell. Judging from a preliminary estimate by market researcher iSuppli, the Pre will cost about $138 to build. That would amount to 46% of the $300 iSuppli expects Palm to charge Sprint for the device; Sprint is likely to sell the handset for $200, after a $100 subsidy, iSuppli speculates. Palm declined to comment on iSuppli’s analysis…”