When Palm launched its flagship Pre smartphone last summer, some reviewers called it an iPhone killer — but now it's Palm that may be doomed. With Pre sales languishing, shares in Palm plummeted 19 percent at the end of last week to a 52-week low on the back of worse-than-predicted financial results. Some analysts say the company's stock is "essentially worthless." Is this the end of the line for Palm? (Watch a Fox Business report about the Palm's declining sales)
Sadly, it appears Palm is finished: The Palm Pre has great hardware and a "genuinely terrific" operating system, says Brian Barrett in Gizmodo, but Palm only offers a fraction of the apps available for its monster rivals, Apple's iPhone and Google's Android. With an inventory of a million phones "waiting not to get sold" and Wall Street digging Palm's grave, the end can't be far off for "the last great indie phone maker."
"You'd be crazy to buy a Palm now"
It's not over yet: There's "still time for Palm," says John C Abell in Wired. With everyone waiting to see what Apple's iPad can do, the smartphone industry is "in flux." If Palm markets its Pre sensibly, pressing its "GPS advantage" and positioning its smartphone as a companion to the iPad, it could still win.
"Palm can still win: here are five things they need to do"
Palm must create an "iPad killer": To turn itself around, Palm has to forget phones, says Tony Bradley in PC World, and "go back to the drawing board." Palm can survive by tapping into its "proud heritage" in the PDA market and developing a "tablet PC to compete with the iPad."
"'iPad killer' may be Palm's last hope"
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