Palm Inc has received a lot of flak lately from the press and the blogosphere (including from me). A lot of it has centered around the fact that Palm is perceived to be slow and unresponsive to the marketplace, and that Palm does not have a good understanding of its competitors. There have been several mis-steps lately, especially with the delay of the Palm Treo 750v in the US. Palm Inc has missed the timeframe when most companies plan their budget for the next calendar year, and some companies may pass on the Treo 750v as a major purchase. Well things are not as bad as they seem, and some issues just have been blown out of proportion.

One of the recent highlights is when Palm CEO Ed Colligan was quoted as dismissing the rumoured Apple iPhone. Michael Mace, former Chief Competitive Officer at Palm, comes to his defence and dissects what Colligan really said at the Churchill Club. Taken in context, I believe Colligan has the right mindset and is putting Palm on the right track.

Another positive aspect coming from Palm just this week is how they handled customer complaints about the Treo 700p. There have been many complaints about Treo 700p bugs and faults discussed in the Treocentral forums, which resulted in them publishing an open letter to Palm from one of the forum members. It turns out that Palm has been listening all along. Palm’s Steve Sinclair, Senior Product Manager for Palm OS Wireless Products took the time to respond, and I recommend you read the letter from him (PDF format). Sinclair shows a deep understanding of the issues concerned and I believe have responded in an honest, open manner. Kudos to him, and I hope we see more of this open communication from Palm in the future.

Personally, the reason that (sometimes) I give Palm a hard time is that as a long time customer, I want them to succeed and therefore I expect a lot from them. I wish them all the best in 2007.

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Filed under: Mobile World

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