categories
HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
palm
Trend Radar 2008: Device Usability
Legend has it that John Rubinstein, father of the iPod, left Apple last year because he and Steve Jobs could not agree on one fundamental usability element for the iPhone. Rubinstein wanted the iPhone to have a keyboard. Jobs didn’t. While the iPhone has broken many records in achieving better usability, the lack of a
Pioneering Video Conferencing: Polycom CEO Bob Hagerty (Part 9)
SM: Yes, i remember, even in the 2001 timeframe the Polycom equipment was not that great. The pictures were horrible often. BH: If you run it on IP, it runs pretty darn good. However, 90% of the installations were on ISDN at that time. The technology shift to IP changes it all. Plus, we have
Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 14)
SM: This has been a very interesting discussion. Anything else you would like to add before we conclude, especially about your personal situation at present? EB: On a personal level, things have worked out pretty well in the sense that I believe in ten year cycles – at least for me. I think, you can
Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 13)
SM: What is Elevation’s investment thesis regarding positioning? Is it still a prosumer play? EB: The Elevation thesis is pretty simple. It basically says that smartphone market is at its very infancy, and the arrival of the iPhone is expanding the opportunity, making it more real to more people. It is very clear that it
Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 12)
Palm’s Elevation Partners deal is a smart move to give the cmpany its best shot at a turnaround. Jonathan Rubinstein joins as Executive Chairman, as part of the deal, and the transition is due to happen soon. SM: What about the CEO though? EB: What was critical was to be able to add this talent
Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 11)
SM: So services as a key strategic initiative you think is still in beta! EB: Well, this was a core opportunity. In the Spring of 2005, at an annual strategy board meeting, it was decided that a key goal for the company would be in the subscription area. We had not been able to execute
Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 10)
SM: The big opportunity that I felt Palm missed out on was on the software side. There was a huge opportunity for enterprise integration. RIM was very good with the email, but that was it. They didn’t push it any further. Palm had good implementation of the Windows OS, and they could have gone in
Eric Benhamou: The Saga Of Palm (Part 9)
SM: You were losing market position at this point. Did you ever consider selling to Apple? EB: There might have been an opportunity to do that before the iTune/iPod product division was too far along, but I do not think this became a real opportunity in the timeframe that would have interested us. Had we
