Smack! Smack! Smack!

Ouch! That smarts!

Verizon [VZ] has now gotten two of  Palm’s [PALM] flagship devices that Sprint [S] has been touting, although some may say unsuccessfully due to the odd way that software developers and consumers have been treated– or at least very mixed– there’s that new question as to how Verizon will position these smartphones.

The TV commercials for the devices are already rolling out… and this is certainly a new entryway for Verizon to cater to Palm enthusiasts who have given up on the Garnet/Palm OS.

Microsoft [MSFT] and Nokia are finalizing an agreement to augment Nokia (particularly Symbian/S60-based) phones and smart devices into becoming viable business-grade devices, or even components in functional corporate meshes.

Management Perspective

Despite the consumer penetration by Apple [AAPL] in the smart mobile device market, neither it nor Palm [PALM] with its new Pre device or even Microsoft itself, with its Windows Mobile platform, have made the significant inroads that RIM [RIMM] with its various BlackBerry platforms have made in the business community. And while adoption of Nokia/S60, iPhone/iPod touch, Windows Mobile, and Android smart mobiles in the SMB segment has been tremendous, none of them have been able to make that tremendous security investment and network ubiquity that larger corporate entities demand.

Research in Motion: Problems

Not to say that RIM has completely protected its devices from espionage or other nefarious hacking attempts. But given their early adoption into businesses, BlackBerry devices have had the benefit of early market entry and dominance to keep its competitors at bay. But for the past few years, with the encroachment of the iPhone and its powerful distribution channel known as the iTunes App Store, RIM has had an increasingly difficult time justifying its add-on costs to tech-savvy companies that have very specialized needs that should not be restricted to the RIM network services.

Even worse, the BlackBerry devices actively marketed for business use carry hefty price tags that are beyond the hardware and assembly costs and yet are not as subsidized or discounted by the wireless carriers. This has become so extreme that many long-time BlackBerry owners have eked out a living by sticking with their old models.

Palm: Problems

Despite the recent rollout of the Pre, and the expected launch of the Eos, Palm has been limited to Sprint [S] for its wireless service on the Pre, while the more ubiquitous Centro and Treo smart devices continue to appeal to both businesses and consumers because of the stable Garnet OS platform and the wide plethora of applications available. In fact, despite the development onslaught of iPod/iPhone apps being released, the total software base of Palm OS/Garnet OS applications far exceeds every other mobile phones’.

But since Palm has essentially abandoned Garnet OS in favor of its newer webOS platform, the death knell for the Treo and Centro devices– while delayed– has been pealing for quite some time.

Android Consortium: Problems

While conceptually a good idea, Google’s [GOOG] open source Android platform seems to be suffering from too much expectation and not enough implementation realization. Instead of a tremendous groundswell of product releases and massive application software offerings, the problems associated with multi-vendor “cooperation” have curtailed widespread Android OS product adoption. This may be another case of early market advantage by Apple, or it may be merely due to developer community splintering and over-division.

Windows and Symbian OS: Opportunities

Combining the technologies found in Windows (and other Microsoft technologies) and Symbian OS platforms definitely provides quite an opportunity. Focusing on Nokia devices, traditionally non-Windows Mobile based throughout its history, allows for better standardization for application development, and it brings a huge developer community from the standard Windows OS, the portable Windows Mobile and CE platforms, and even interest from the XNA-Xbox networking groups. Additionally, the Maemo and S60 communities can be brought to bear to help flesh out both the Windows Mobile Marketplace and the Ovi Store.

Even more intriguing is Sun’s [JAVA] and Oracle’s Java Store (known on the distributor side as Java Warehouse) availability, given the strong presence of Java ME on Nokia smart devices. While Java Store has not been formally launched yet, finalizing the available revenue models for software developers who want to leverage that channel would benefit all of these potential collaborators. Combining Java technology (and JavaFX Mobile, too, ‘natch) with the distributed computing opportunities by the usual Sun-Java partnerships, like with Amazon [AMZN] Web Services and Elastic Cloud, as well as plenty of other hosting services (like Joyent) would further intensify and magnify the reach and coverage for businesses and corporate users.

And, of course, there would be plenty of consumer bleed-through opportunities as a result… Could you imagine purchasing Xbox LIVE games from your smartphone and having the option of either playing them on the ‘phone or having them ready to play at home via the download queue?

Natali del Conte (you remember her, right?) has mentioned in today’s Loaded episode that Verizon [VZ] is preparing to receive Palm [PALM] Pre devices on their network, sometime in 2010.

Of course, this makes sense, since there is not much retooling required for Palm, since both Sprint and Verizon run their cellular networks on CDMA/EvDO type networks. Unfortunately for Sprint [S], this spells the end of the exclusivity deal for the Pre device. And, unless they can successfully leverage the somewhat-buzz around the Mi-Fi device, particularly regarding its unusually steep pricing model for the product and its service plans, they will lose a lot of momentum once again.

Sprint [S] has finally released a press announcement concerning the Palm [PALM] Pre launch: June 6, 2009 is the official release date. The earlier speculation about the launch date appears within the range, and it sounds like the pricing is in line with other current smartphones offered by other carriers.

A lot of people, myself included, are a bit torn about the Palm Pre. It lacks the venerable yet reliable Palm OS (Garnet), instead running on its new webOS platform. It also is not available to a lot of long-time Sprint contract holders as an add-on, instead requiring a new two-year contract (obviously with a new TOS).

Developer Perspective

To developers, webOS presents a thorny problem.

Previously, the discussion about mobile software development was focused on the existing players, and that includes Palm OS. Of course, in addition to merely developing the applications, finding the appropriate marketplace for sales and marketing is key to success. When we last visited this subject, it was noted that there was no official centralized marketplace for Palm devices.

Now that webOS enters the arena, there is further fragmentation of the developer support for Palm devices: first, it began with PalmOS (Garnet), then Windows Mobile, and now webOS. While Palm claims that using JavaScript with their proprietary Mojo framework will ease development, the fact that it signifies a considerable amount of retooling for dev shops and studios (already driving their projects with Java, Objective-C, NS Basic, and various C++ flavors, just to name a few) is problematic at best. Some smaller shops may have already ruled out webOS and the Pre as a result, waiting to see the larger developers’ experiences with webOS. Unfortunately, this means that the explosive innovation that has highlighted the dramatic success of Apple’s [AAPL] App Store may not occur for Palm and the Pre.

In the meantime, both Apple and RIM [RIMM] have already made further inroads in expanding their user bases through greater distribution channels and product repricing. Other vendors have already begun constructing their own mobile app stores, so Palm would have to provide work overtime to appear developer-friendly and provide open access to the developer SDK.

Business Perspective

To many consumers and businesses, Palm has taken a backseat to strong contenders in the smartphone market. For a few years, it has been RIM, followed by Apple, and now HTC/Google [GOOG]. For many people, however, the Centro has been quite an interesting slim form factor, and with its attractive low price point and availability across multiple carriers, it has been quite a success for Palm. The question becomes whether the Pre should really be positioned as a premier product in the same category as the iPhone, T1, Bold, and Storm.

As a business, features that appeal to you tends to revolve around the communications features and app-specific capabilities for work activities. But since those features already exist in current smartphones, there is little incentive to switch carriers and devices unless there are contract expiration opportunities. Also, there are convergence devices like the iPod touch and netbooks that obviate the need for smartphones under many user scenarios.

As a consumer, if you are willing to be an early adopter, this would definitely be something to try. But if you are already satisfied with your current smartphone and do not require third-party apps, there would not be much need to switch, either, except for curiosity’s sake.

N.B.

Other related Javamancy posts (in reverse chronological order):

• More Palm Pre Release Date Speculation
• Palm OS Development Still Predominates
• Caveat Venditor: Profiting from Online Mobile App Stores
• Palm Pre Pricing and Availability Still Fuzzy
• Palm Pre

Remember Palm’s [PALM] Treo Pro?

If not, you’re apparently in good company. The smartphone was initially rolled out to a very hum of fanfare, being essentially an unsubsidized GSM device.

Now, however, it comes available as an AllTel [VZ] subsidized phone, with plans to offer Sprint [S] service in the hopefully near future. Obviously, unlike the previous GSM phone, these new models provide support for CDMA2000 and EvDO Rev A, which makes supporting AllTel/Verizon and Sprint networks possible.

This seems to come in the shadow of the trickling of Palm Pre news yesterday. While it certainly appears that there is little to differentiate one WinMobile 6.1 phone from the rest, having a workhorse alternative to the whiz-bang new devices on the block helps the bottom line.

Yesterday, Palm [PALM] and Sprint [S] revealed more information about the Palm Pre and its service plans in a Webcast, although still no definite release date or the phone pricing (subsidized or unsub, either). However, the release window of “sometime in the first half of 2009″ is presumably still more-or-less intact. Also, the Pre is expected to be attached to Sprint’s Simply Everything plans.

N.B.

For more information, found externally:

• On Gizmodo…
• On MobileCrunch (including slides from the Webcast)…

Remember the previous Palm Pre mention here?

• Palm Pre

… And in case you missed the epic saga of my smartphone selection process that culminated with the Centro, in chronological order:

• Palm Centro: The Beginning, Part 1
• Palm Centro: The Beginning, Part 2
• Palm Centro: The Beginning, Part 3

Unveiled today at CES 2009, Palm’s [PALM] Pre certainly caught my attention. As you may know, my adventures with the Palm Centro has yet to reach its one-year anniversary, but I’ve been a long-time Palm device user (like the original Palm Pilot and Palm III, and then the Treo 650), so while I’ve certainly thought about acquiring an Apple [AAPL] iPhone 3G, I’ve been able to live quietly and comfortably with my Centro and its WiFi companion, an iPod touch.

It’s a slider smartphone, running on the new Web OS (the new replacement for the venerable Palm OS Garnet), and with a convergent messaging method (they’re calling it “Synergy”, but it’s still convergent messaging, folks!), built-in WiFi access and GPS, and a 3 megapixel camera (finally!). It will start as a Sprint exclusive device, with EvDO Rev.A access, so people like me may actually be happy with the performance. Tethering? No word yet on pricing, but Bluetooth tethering is touted to be available. 

Check out the details list on the Palm site.

The device is advertised to be available “sometime” in the 1st half of 2009… so there are several months to go.

More Reading

In case you missed the epic saga of my smartphone selection process that culminated with the Centro, in chronological order:

• Palm Centro: The Beginning, Part 1
• Palm Centro: The Beginning, Part 2
• Palm Centro: The Beginning, Part 3

Is Sprint [S] finally becoming customer-oriented?

The Problems

Since Dan Hesse came into power at Sprint, there seemed to be a lot of restructuring of plans to grab more wealth from hapless customers. It seemed to most analysts and pundits that Sprint was somehow repositioning itself as a “luxury” carrier, in a market that cannot afford to present itself as “luxury” services, particularly given the long history of excessive profit-driven fees and stiff penalties against loyal long-time customers and new customers alike. Of course, that tactic just does not work, and both new and existing customers have demonstrated their strong dislike of Sprint’s poor customer service and product offerings by fleeing the carrier for greener pastures.

Even I had an extremely rough customer experience with Sprint during my transition to the Centro smartphone (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of the first saga).

And on the topic of mobile devices: Sprint has not been able to easily attract first-tier manufacturers to launch their latest and greatest products under their banner. Some of it is due to technological mismatches, but some of it is due to preference on the part of the manufacturers… This is Not A Good Thing.

Turning the Corner?

So what is a carrier with declining revenues and market share, a less-than-stellar product catalog, and poor customer service supposed to do to avoid bankruptcy and/or getting splintered into separate bits of fishbait for the other carriers?

Yesterday, Dan announced that they will be eventually upgrading their customer service software to allow for pro-rating of the early termination fees (ETF’s) charged to customers who struggle to leave the carrier. While other carriers have been pro-rating the ETF’s for quite some time, Sprint arbitrarily charges a fee in excess of $200, regardless of how loyal a customer has been. Of course, charging such inordinately high ETF’s by alleging that the cost is justified because of the subsidy offered by Sprint for the devices that customers have is a specious argument: many customers actually bring their own devices into a plan or have already approached the end of their agreements, so the devices have already been completely paid off by the customers.

Couple this announcement with the training being given to customer service reps to attempt to improve how customers are treated, and perhaps Dan will be able to stop the hemorrhaging of valuable customers and the revenues that they command.

A Fair Management Decision

By updating their customer service software to pro-rate the ETF’s is a good idea. It is a concept that should make customers feel comfortable with giving their business to Sprint, with the perception that they will finally get a fair deal. 

In turn, manufacturers may finally determine that Sprint will become a worthy carrier to do business with. With Sprint’s attempts to roll out its WiMAX offering, more enterprising manufacturers with higher capacity devices will become interested in hooking on, but no salient bets are taken just yet on this topic.

In addition to dealing fairly with customers, this about-face on Sprint’s part should also hopefully ease lawsuits and fines by the government regulatory bodies.

The next steps that Dan must act upon, in order to be successful:

• Implement the next wave of customer service improvements;
• Reformulate the cellphone plans to be value propositions instead of “luxury” items;
• Partner with more technology companies and manufacturers to gather a more attractive product catalog, particularly with convergence devices;
• Partner with other market providers/vendors to extend Sprint’s reach and visibility (via Wi-Fi, or public terminal services);
• Rethink a lot of the add-on “services” to wireless customers, and bundle the more utilitarian ones with value plans and larger packages;
• Rollout WiMAX to the public en masse.  

Not a cakewalk, sure… but the road to success rarely is.

N.B.

Other Reading

• “Sprint to join rivals in cutting termination fees” (Yahoo! Tech/AP)

The Story So Far

In the first part of this three-part story, I discussed the circumstances for the search for my new smartphone.

In the second part, I discussed the major highlights of my investigations into the smartphone options. But I did not finish mentioning all of the devices I checked…

Last Device: Palm Centro

The last device that I was considering was the Centro. From many “pundit” accounts, this was a device that was more style than substance, and some people even theorized that it was specifically targeted toward women because of the slimmer case and the smaller keyboard, compared to the Palm Treo models.

Centro Size

The size of the device is very important. I’ve seen countless phones “dribble” from the fingers of road warriors to smash onto hard pavement. I had dropped my cellphones in past, with and without the so-called “protective cases”. Being able to use the device to type and point efficiently and accurately with one hand is a critical feature, something which my Treo 650 was unable to support given its encumbering bulk and shape.

The contour of the device initially presented some concern as well. The Treo models that I sampled had some issues with the keyboard buttons that were too close to the two bottom corners; it was exceedingly easy to inadvertently put pressure of those buttons, whether in a pocket or any sort of carrier. Oddly, although the Treo models have evolved over time to become more rounded and more sleek (to some extent), a lot of the holsters and carrying cases seem as if to have been primarily designed around the Treo 650 but retrofitted to work with the newer Treos, which lack the external antenna and have a different fit within the cases. When I was trying out the live Centro at the physical storefront, it was unfortunately tethered to the display stand with a large security claw that actually obscured several of the buttons around the bottom corners, including the Menu, Dot, Shift, and Enter keys. As a result, testing out the typing functionality of the Centro was drastically impaired.

Centro Keyboard

That brings me to the keyboard composition itself. It was the first Palm device I’d seen in a long time that sported non-curved key positioning: instead, it has straight horizontal (and also vertical) key positioning. At first, I was thinking that would be a significant hindrance, but as I played around with the live device, I noticed that there was virtually no impact. But perhaps the most divergent feature was the keyboard button texture: unlike the previous Treo models, the Centro has rubbery, non-slip plastic “bubble” keys, not the rounded chiclet style. While the keys are much-much closer together on the Centro than the Treos, it is the important texture distinction that enhanced my appreciation of the Centro over the Treos: this new keyboard formulation actually helps with fingernail typing, which I suspect persons with even a bit of a ‘nail on each finger will appreciate. Every so often on my Treo 650, I’d notice a finger slipping off of a button surface to fall into the groove in between keys… but not so with the Centro. That’s a good thing, folks.

Centro Display

Based upon my Treo 650 screen response problems, I knew that Treos are confused whenever their screens are covered by screen protector films (in contrast to the original Palm PDAs and the Sony Cliés), especially where there is a lot of dust, fingerprints, or loose debris involved. Reading through the user’s documentation for the Centro, I noticed that it actually advises against using any screen protector films.

The screen resolution is the same as the larger Treos’, but the actual real estate is smaller, giving the impression of a sharper image. Given the comparative small screen size of PDAs and smartphones compared to, say, notebooks and desktops, I was not terribly worried about the Centro’s screen. In fact, unless I held the Centro next to a Treo, I did not notice a dramatic screen size decrease on the Centro. Functionally, since the screen was scaled down at the same ratio, there was no usability impact during my testing.

Centro Operating System

A nice feature is the availability of the Garnet OS on the Centro. Providing a software upgrade/transition pathway from the Treo 650 to the Centro makes sense for people (such as myself) with a heavy investment in Palm OS applications. The current default software provides improvements over the corresponding ones that shipped with the Treo 650, so no surprises there.

Centro Camera Work

Ugh.

It could’ve been better: the camera and vidcam features are about the same as the other Treo models, but by the system specifications, marginally improved over the Treo 650.

An odd thing I noticed with the camera feature is that I can no longer just snap the photo and then start using the Centro for another task. Instead, I have to wait for the photo to appear on the Centro’s screen before going to do something else; if I don’t, the photo ends up with unnecessary shake. It’s as if the electronic shutter in the Centro is deliberately slowed down. This may be a nasty side effect of not having an associated flash. Of course, the software for the camera feature should’ve been able to account for this. This is a small yet significant usability issue.

The Verdict

So, small issues aside, I settled on the Centro, and I signed up for a Sprint [S] plan to go with it. Unfortunately, while signing up for the phone and plan was initially done online (with some problems with Sprint’s online ordering portal with regard to handling credit cards), I had a unduly horrible and lengthy ordeal trying to just get the Centro activated on the Sprint network. Eventually, after a total of 16.5 hours spread across five days, I finally got the phone activated and my billing account corrected.

Warning to Prospective Sprint Customers

Sprint’s customer service has never been stellar, and recently with the dramatic loss in customer confidence and service cutbacks, Sprint customers continue to suffer even more. As with any phone carrier, it is extremely important to scrutinize the customer service quality levels before committing to any contracts or service agreements; with Sprint, even more so now.

The Uncertain Future

In a perfect world, this would be the end of the story. But with a mobile epic of such magnitude, it rarely ends as a happy, tidy, short closure. Selecting the smartphone is one thing; using the device everyday, for both mundane tasks and critical needs, is often something else entirely.

But as the title of this three-part story plainly states, this part of the epic tale is done, gentle readers. It is the end of the Beginning, but not the beginning of the End.

Fin.