Palm Will Live On at HP

NEW VIDCAST: A Message to the Palm Developer Community from HP PC on Vimeo.

The interview of HP CTO Phil McKinney by two of Palm's developer relations team reassures Palm owners that HP will continue to invest in Palm devices and WebOS under the HP umbrella. Palm will continue to exist as a subsidiary of HP in their mobile products division and Jon Rubenstein will continue to run Palm with responsibility for WebOS. It is clear that HP has other ideas for WebOS beyond just smartphones into tablets, slates, and even printers.

HP is demonstrating their support of Palm in several ways. They have lowered barriers for developers to submit apps to the App Catalog by eliminating their $50 fee for App Catalog submission.  Now even casual developers like me may finish and submit and app.  McKinney offered to provide free Pres to the first 1,000 employees that develop WebOS apps. He said that the response was overwhelming.  They are investing in WebOS development to get it on par with Android. A new release will fully create a protected sandbox for PDK applications such as 3D gaming, and Flash is eminent.  Hopefully we will seen updated API for the phone, sound, and camera so we can have voice search, visual voicemail, Skype, and video chatting.  I would expect that GPU acceleration will be coming as well.  Ars Technia, Engadget, and other sites have rumored that HP will release a WebOS slate this fall with WebOS-enabled printers not far behind.  Let’s hope that HP leverages the Touchstone for the slate too.  HP’s CTO hinted at both items in his interview with Ben and Dion. 

One of Palm’s greatest weaknesses, due to lack of budget, has been in marketing.  After CTIA two years ago, Palm lost mind-share.  I’m sure that Palm blew a ton of money on the “spooky lady” ads, but they have not been successful in raising the visibility of the phones or WebOS.  Needless to say, Palm's marketing has been very anemic. The modest success they have enjoyed has been through mainly through the carriers that sell their phones. It is almost as if the people running the channel program were disjoint from the marketing people. Palm had the opportunity to retain mind-share before Android, and they failed to do so. Their limited number of devices and carriers at that time allowed Motorola, Google, and HTC to obtain greater visibility.  Palm has a very loyal following that they failed to capitalize except for the development community.  They failed to convert all of the Treo users to Pre and Pixi users as they left for Blackberries and iPhones.  Positioning of the Pixi was a bit off too.  Instead of pidgin-holing it as a “soccer mom” device (which it is), they needed to expand it as a starter smartphone for kids and baby-boomers that are just buying their first smart phone.  I still contend that Palm should have hired me for their marketing, but that’s another story. 

Palm restarted their marketing and awareness campaign about the time of the HP announcement.  Their $1 million Hot Apps contests are a great way to excite the development community, and their advertising is more Apple-like.  Even though the Treo market has evaporated, HP needs to win-over Blackberry users for corporate use.  HP has already started down this path by adding the Pre and Pixi to their SMB store and marketing it as a no-brains enterprise device.  The next step is to create public awareness for WebOS devices.  Think eco-system HP.  If I have a Pre then I would want the slate so my apps can run on it as well.  Now if I could take a picture on my Pre and print it directly on my WebOS printer wirelessly or make a movie on my slate and store it on my home server to watch later on the TV and simultaneously send it to YouTube, I would not even need to interact with my PC unless I wanted to edit the video.  These examples are the easy ones that can lock customers into HP products and develop that loyal following similar to Apple. 

As the largest computer manufacturer in the world, HP has the clout to be just as visible as Apple and Google. The first place to start is by winning over the geek community with demos of new WebOS features and devices.  Build that grassroots support through the geek community first then building to carrier excitement by demonstrating some of these applications through HP Labs.  Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint, is out touting his HTC EVO as the world’s first 4G phone.  Get Verizon to really push a LTE-capable Pre2 before they get locked in to Motorola, and do the same for a couple of international carriers.  Show the vision and sell what you have today, but keep the vision based on reality that the common consumer can relate.  Let's hope that HP starts putting some of that creativity to work to demonstrate the beauty of WebOS. Now the battle for mobile OS will be interesting to watch.

in reference to: HP CTO Phil McKinney sits down with Ben and Dion | PreCentral.net (view on Google Sidewiki)

Technorati Tags: Palm,WebOS,Rubenstein,Android,Apple,Hesse,Sprint,Verizon

Is Apple Going to Become a Wireless Carrier?

Rumors were abound all day about the possibility of Apple bidding on the 700 MHz C block spectrum that the FCC will auction off on January 16th of next year. Articles appeared in BusinessWeek, Wired, C|Net, and TelecomTV about a possible bid by Apple. Up to now, all of the rumors and discussion have been about Google bidding on this spectrum. Google's successful play to have some of the spectrum open to any device or application opens up the rumor mill beyond the usual suspects of carriers. With the launch of the iPhone and complaints about the AT&T network it was only time before Apple was identified as having ambitions in acquiring this chunk of coveted spectrum. Although the rumor is plausible, does it have any legs to it or is it just hopeful speculation?

Apple can certainly afford the minimum bid of $4.6 billion required to participate, but does it make business sense for them? The short answer is yes and no. The obvious application is to use this spectrum for access to the iTunes Store to sell music, TV programs, and movies without sharing revenue with wireless carriers. Also, Apple can retain control over the complete user experience which is why the iPod has been so successful. Breaking the connection to the PC will allow the Apple to create an iPod Touch and iPhone that can access content over-the-air without depending on cutting in another carrier to use their network. Even iTV could benefit from access at 700 MHz.

What does not make sense is for them to get into the business of operating a voice network. Creating a voice network is an expensive proposition beyond building a radio access network. Voice services are best left to the ones that already have a network.

Remember that the C block is a 22 MHz slice of spectrum that is to be open to devices and applications. This means that Apple could invite a selection of voice and application providers to resell their services over the network. Apple could partner with a carrier like T-Mobile or Sprint to provide voice service in this or another frequency block. Sprint is very comfortable selling capacity to MVNO, and they could certainly use a boost.

Another option would be for Apple to partner with Google to provide a collection of applications. Google could provide Internet and voice services to the iPhone while Apple retains control of the entertainment services. Apple could even create a version of iTunes to run on the Google phone. I am sure that Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs have had discussions on the topic since Schmidt sits on Apple's board.

The wildest option would be for Apple to work with eBay to provide Skype's voice service over this network. Skype has the user base and network to deliver a quality voice service.

The most likely scenario appears to be a consortium with Apple, Google, and eBay to bid on the spectrum block with an experienced network operator not already in the business; maybe DirectTV or Echo Star. The satellite provider will not only run the network but offer services to their customers over it. Skype/eBay can sell voice services to the other partners while Apple sells devices, music, and video and Google sells ads through all outlets. It is much easier to share the cost of this multibillion dollar network across four or more partners than go it alone.

I am sure that in the months to come that many more rumors will surface as the bidding gets closer. I like the idea of these companies getting together to create new and exciting mobility opportunities. Their success could open even more spectrum to innovators.

Note to Steve Jobs or Eric Schmidt: Feel free to call me if you need leadership with this venture.

Technorati tags: Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), eBay (EBAY), 700 MHz, wireless