Thursday, March 11, 2010:
It is no laughing matter flourishing in the brutally competitive smartphone market as Palm has found to its chagrin. Last year, Palm thought it had all the ingredients for success: A new CEO, Jon Rubinstein, who had popularised the iPod, a new smartphone called the Pre and latest operating software. Instead, it has faced sagging sales and may be seeing a repeat version of the 1990s Palm Pilot debacle.
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Industry analysts have predicted that Palm Inc may not remain an independent phone maker for more than a year or two, reports Yahoo! News. The smartphone industry is currently dominated by such heavyweights as Apple, maker of the iconic iPhone, and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerrys. New companies are cropping up whose phones are powered by Google's Android software.
People prefer smartphones for their multi-tasking features, such as Internet access and other downloadable apps. One out of six American adults possessed a smartphone in 2009, according to Forrester Research. But Palm, which pioneered the concept of handheld computing, was slow to adapt. But it hasn't given up. In January 2009 at the International Consumer Electronics Show, it came out with the chic touchscreen Pre and webOS, software that lets Palm phones to do something the iPhone can't — run multiple apps simultaneously.
Last June it released the Pre, to be used on Sprint Nextel's wireless network, and unveiled a cheaper model in November, the Pixi. America's biggest telecom network, Verizon Wireless, began to sell upgraded models of these phones in January, but they haven't really caught on with consumers.
Ashish Joshi, EFYTIMES News Network
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