Forbes Column 2010: Palm’s Missed Opportunity
The company has done a poor job of differentiating its go-to-market strategy. Read more in this week’s Forbes column, Palm’s Missed Opportunity.
This segment is a part in the series : Forbes Column 2010
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Hey Sramana,
Agree with your thesis that Palm has not done a great job differentiating in their go-to-market. However, their problem- I believe- is deeper. As the mobile market has moved from its hardware based to software/service based- all the “big guys” are now in the game with much better distribution- Google with Android, MSFT (with a reworked and impressive Windows 7 mobile), and Apple (though beautiful hardware, its the software all seamlessly interoperating that makes this so special)- so where is the room or relevance for Palm on the consumer side. Each of these companies brings immense direct interaction with users or a wide carrier distribution base that is already in place.
Enterprise side, RIM and soon Win7 mobile will likely dominate as they have reached critical mass on the carrier distribution side (something Palm has failed at doing). The wide distribution is what ignites developer communities. In other words, why would a developer adopt a platform with such narrow distribution? Unfortunately, if Palm were sold to HP that problem does not go away.
As you mentioned, it’s the lack of distribution that will kill Palm. They made their decision to go consumer side and now they need to make the best of it. So the question is who brings the type of direct distribution that can compete with Goog/MSFT/Apple, a developer community, and a need for mobile where Palm can fit it? Here is my suggestion and it may seem silly (but is growing on me
.
Palm looks locally and sells itself to Facebook (which brings direct daily interaction to millions of users, a healthy developer community and whose future depends on wireless). Facebook reworks WebOS platform so they have a compelling blend of core FB apps in the mobile world that they don’t really have today (for example, WebOS calendaring and native GPS for LBS). FB could decide to release apps exclusively for their new proprietary phone with the type of interoperability that make iPhone so good (while still providing more-basic core service available for download on iPhone, BB, Win7). Finally, FB chooses its exclusive carrier partner from a position of strength (device+ProprietaryOS+Online/mobile App Platform ready+Network with Hundreds of millions in place). FB has the market reach to extend and charge for apps in a FB App Store, creating a new revenue stream for them.
I think it serves both companies very well (both SV based, Palm needs direct consumer/distribution- while FB needs kick-ass mobile talent, a proprietary OS to build from and the necessary relationships in the mobile industry requires).
From a cost perspective, the question becomes just how valuable do you think FBs pre-IPO shares are worth? Roger McNamee gave Mark Zuckerberg some good advice in 2007 to play long-ball, perhaps he still believes that FB is worth taking the bet on?
What do you think?
I kind of like the FB idea … hadn’t thought about it.