samkim
09/27/2005, 01:56 AM
1. In Monday's analyst day, someone asked about Palm's relationship with RIM and Blackberry. The Palm exec (I can't recall which one) said that he didn't want to comment about future partnerships, paused, then said it again.
2. And this from marketwatch:
In response to the hoopla, Research In Motion is gearing up for announcements of its own this week.
"We'll be making exciting partnership" announcements this week, along with an announcement of the most "substantive" architectural-design changes, Jim Balsillie, RIM co-CEO and chairman, said in an interview with me on how RIM plans to maintain leadership in the mobile e-mail market.
Additionally, RIM may have some announcement regarding Palm's Treo.
Balsillie said the launch of a Treo-Blackberry product is imminent. "We've been working in a Palm/Treo partnership for a while."
A Treo and a Blackberry combination sounds intriguing given that both are top brands for anyone that wants an e-mail mobile device.
3. In the Product Roadmap discussion, where they didn't really tell us what products were on the map, they talked about the various directions they could take - bringing out lower-end devices, among others. They also talked devices that push the high end and about more narrow use devices... Blackberry was given as a good example of a device that found its niche... an attractive niche.
4. And in a recent article in Business 2.0, the CEO of RIM talked about how they've always planned from the start to get into licensing their technology rather than going it alone...
Putting the pieces together...
The easy guess is that RIM will license Palm to run Blackberry software on some Treos.
Now which OS would this Treo use? The key reason for using Windows was to go after the Exchange users. There are millions of them, and most of them don't have mobile email yet. Palm talked a lot about this huge opportunity. But if the client corporation wants Blackberries, they have to use RIM's servers; so then there's no point in using Windows Mobile! RIM and Microsoft are direct competitors in this regard. So I would expect to see a PalmOS Treo running a Blackberry client. Hmm, what should we call it? I'm thinking Treo 700b or "Treo on Blackberry"! And a Treo on Blackberry would certainly push the high end of the price scale.
Based on the product roadmap talk, I'll go a step further and conjecture that we'll see a phone-less Palm/Blackberry email device announced as well. Palm said that they plan to stick to making platforms and not closed systems, so that means it'll be a PDA, and it'll run PalmOS for the same reasons. And I think that despite not having a phone, this email device would still carry the Treo brand because it would be targeted at the enterprise market.
Timing? Anytime between 9/27 and 12/31. Palm did say they would announce several more products before year-end. CTIA Wireless is a great venue to make those announcements.
This scenario is consistent with what we've seen so far. If I were Colligan and had two or more big partnerships to announce, I would separate them so that I could get each company to provide full support, even compete for prominence. This reminds me of when AOL announced a browser deal with Netscape, and the very next day announced a browser deal with Microsoft; and then later the same week announced a partnership with AT&T.
I think Palm is in a terrific position. The Analyst Day gave me a sense that they really understood what they were doing. The technology, the market trends, the success factors... They've got the vision thing. I gained confidence in the management team. And so I have great expectations...
2. And this from marketwatch:
In response to the hoopla, Research In Motion is gearing up for announcements of its own this week.
"We'll be making exciting partnership" announcements this week, along with an announcement of the most "substantive" architectural-design changes, Jim Balsillie, RIM co-CEO and chairman, said in an interview with me on how RIM plans to maintain leadership in the mobile e-mail market.
Additionally, RIM may have some announcement regarding Palm's Treo.
Balsillie said the launch of a Treo-Blackberry product is imminent. "We've been working in a Palm/Treo partnership for a while."
A Treo and a Blackberry combination sounds intriguing given that both are top brands for anyone that wants an e-mail mobile device.
3. In the Product Roadmap discussion, where they didn't really tell us what products were on the map, they talked about the various directions they could take - bringing out lower-end devices, among others. They also talked devices that push the high end and about more narrow use devices... Blackberry was given as a good example of a device that found its niche... an attractive niche.
4. And in a recent article in Business 2.0, the CEO of RIM talked about how they've always planned from the start to get into licensing their technology rather than going it alone...
Putting the pieces together...
The easy guess is that RIM will license Palm to run Blackberry software on some Treos.
Now which OS would this Treo use? The key reason for using Windows was to go after the Exchange users. There are millions of them, and most of them don't have mobile email yet. Palm talked a lot about this huge opportunity. But if the client corporation wants Blackberries, they have to use RIM's servers; so then there's no point in using Windows Mobile! RIM and Microsoft are direct competitors in this regard. So I would expect to see a PalmOS Treo running a Blackberry client. Hmm, what should we call it? I'm thinking Treo 700b or "Treo on Blackberry"! And a Treo on Blackberry would certainly push the high end of the price scale.
Based on the product roadmap talk, I'll go a step further and conjecture that we'll see a phone-less Palm/Blackberry email device announced as well. Palm said that they plan to stick to making platforms and not closed systems, so that means it'll be a PDA, and it'll run PalmOS for the same reasons. And I think that despite not having a phone, this email device would still carry the Treo brand because it would be targeted at the enterprise market.
Timing? Anytime between 9/27 and 12/31. Palm did say they would announce several more products before year-end. CTIA Wireless is a great venue to make those announcements.
This scenario is consistent with what we've seen so far. If I were Colligan and had two or more big partnerships to announce, I would separate them so that I could get each company to provide full support, even compete for prominence. This reminds me of when AOL announced a browser deal with Netscape, and the very next day announced a browser deal with Microsoft; and then later the same week announced a partnership with AT&T.
I think Palm is in a terrific position. The Analyst Day gave me a sense that they really understood what they were doing. The technology, the market trends, the success factors... They've got the vision thing. I gained confidence in the management team. And so I have great expectations...