Palm's Hail Mary to be a Sprint 4G handset?

By on Mar 2, 2010 at 7:28 AM
Rumor March 2, 2010

palm-sinking-ship

Speculation is running rampant about the future of Palm after it lowered its guidance last week with analysts, pundits and bloggers alike offering up advice to the struggling company. One of the more unusual suggestions has Palm partnering up with Sprint to release a WiMAX handset, noting that the manufacturer and the carrier have had a close relationship in the past and the market for a WiMAX handset is brand new and wide open. Some analysts dismiss this idea, claiming that Palm would not risk its future on an untested and relatively niche market, and they point towards updated 3G hardware with a larger touchscreen and distribution on a major carrier like AT&T as Palm’s saving grace. The Wall Street Journal even chimed in with its “people familiar with the situation” reiterating the claim that Palm will release a webOS device on AT&T in the next few months and projecting that Palm has new hardware on tap for later this year. In the end, Palm has one or two final high stakes hands to play and let’s hope it has enough cash in the bank to be able to ante up what it needs to stay in the game.

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  • Soy

    Epic Win for that picture! So true!

  • Mike S.

    I hope Palm does well even though I don’t use their handset. But, most appropriate picture nonetheless.

  • Don Louie Cantone

    Palm will be fine if some of these narrow-minded people would at least give it a try. All the snap judgements because it isn’t on your carrier, has a smaller screen, dislike of the keyboard or some combination without ever having one

    • too bad for you

      Being “narrow-minded” is hardly an accurate depiction of the buying market. Being “selective” might be a better and more accurate choice of term. Especially in these economically depressed days we’re living in, the buying public better realize the costs associated with a 2-Year contract than they used to. Suck it up, Bunky.

  • Chapps

    I give kudos to Palm for their WebOS platform, and think that the Pre and Pixi are fine smart/data phones. But hooking your dreams on a failed carrier is not the way to go. Why Sprint? Why not AT&T or Verizon? Sprint has a tiny portion of the market and just doesn’t matter any more. I know the Palm devices are coming to AT&T and currently on Verizon, but Palm crippled itself by going with Sprint first and innovating for that same carrier.

    • Don Louie Cantone

      I think the new plans and data requirement will emphasize the difference. Verizon tried to force the Connect/Premium by discontinuing the stand alone data option and when that didn’t work forced data became the norm. While the other carriers have a 3G Web OS Sprint will have 4G Android and Web OS

  • bob

    if they want to have a prayer of survival they better launch a large screen tablet… wimax if it’s on sprint.. att is already nearly as fast as sprint’s wimax in many places so there’s no hope at all if they dont include wimax on a sprint device…

  • ceeaser28

    first im a proud owner for a pre on sprint since launch (june 6) secound these are the rumors since last nov. with a C40 in sprints inventory that showed up. Also the reason Palm released pre on sprint instead of the other two major carriers is very simple. First the Pre as some of us know was not a finished product when it first launched, the reason for the 9 updates since it launched. They released it like that because the company was cash poor and needed to just get out on the market. Hence Verizon with there strict protocal would have never considered the pre at that point in time being crippled. Also At&t had the iphone 3Gs that launched weeks after the Pre, and Palm would have sold next to nothing if they did so. So with the inside information I have they will release devices on At&t, and Tmobile this summer, then release a wimax verison on sprint. The release of a wimax verison on sprint is very smart, also Palm knows Sprint will sell better with their products as they always has on sprint, and they sell better then they do on Verizon and At&t. Even the pre and pixi they sold well over a million devices on sprint, and yet they are the num 3 carrier.

  • ceeaser28

    also At&t has no such test, neither Verizon or tmobile in that sense stated that their 3G is as fast as Sprints 4G wimax. What a bad statement of bad information. At&T and Verizon will need to upgrade to LTE 4G to compete with Sprints Wimax 4G period.

  • HO

    Reason #1 why Palm will sink is simple: US.

    Nop, I didn’t mean the US doesn’t care, but is the fact that they only keep playing in the US market while other companies expand to different markets, look at any big cellphone maker, Palm is the only one who decided to push a CDMA device centered, CDMA is DEAD, please take a note and stick it on the forehead of every high up guy over HQ, ever wondered why “Droid” was released in Verizon but also Motorola released a GSM version as well?

    Sorry but locking urself in a safe box was the 80′s business way.

  • 3 Phones Jugglin

    I think a 4G Handset would save Palm. In fact i like WebOs…but im not gonna settle for that Tiny screen.

    *4G
    *Landscape Qwerty
    *Minimum 3.6 Screen
    *Better Keyboard Buttons!

  • Matt

    Narrow minded because some people dont want a small screen or a small sucky keyboard?

    What a stupid statement. Is the screen going to magically get bigger after I buy it or something?

    You should get a job at Palm. They seem to have the same line of thinking of lets give the users what they don’t want and hope they buy our phone.

    Some people want a big screen..Some people want a nice keyboard that works well.Make something people want to buy.

    • Don Louie Cantone

      I think it’s narrow-minded because screen real estate is not much different unless talking about the Droid and pigeonholing the keyboard without even trying it.

  • Cool Beans

    Palm is smart to team with Sprint since it is the only carrier with no flagship device. Palm, as well as other people with common sense, know that there will be little competition. Sure Sprint will soon be releasing the Supersonic, but not everyone desires for such a high end phone. Most consumers view such devices as complicated. Palm’s OS is simple and intuitive and on a company who doesn’t push just one device, sales will be great. All that is needed to make it a hit is advertising. Palm devices on other carriers will be overshadowed and overlooked as we seen with Verizon.

  • Tony da Tigra

    I think humans just wern’t ready for webOS. It’s more of a year 2015 kind of OS.

  • Cadillac Cowboy

    Meh, Palm’s finished because they can’t be bothered to sell their product to a wider audience and you know what?

    I have no sympathy for them!

    If Palm CHOOSE to limit their products to North American customers ONLY, well they have NO ONE to blame but THEMSELVES…

    There’s plenty of Australians that would INSTANTLY buy the Palm Pre and/or the Palm Pixi if it was released in Australia tomorrow, but a growing number of people are (like me) quickly loosing patience and instead changing to competitor’s products, such as the Research in Motion (RIM) “BlackBerry” range, Android OS-powered devices and Apple “iPhone” range!

    So long Palm – you pioneered the PDA/smartphone industry and have made some impressive milestones, but if you keep the clowns you got there now around, you won’t be around for much longer…

  • Jesse

    Every time I play with webOS I am impressed. It is the only mobile platform that feels like it was designed in the 2000′s. When Palm announced the Pre I was desperately hoping it would come to AT&T before my contract was up, but alas it did not and I’m not switching to Sprint. I ended up going with the 9700 (which is amazing) but if the Pre had been there 6 months ago, I would of gone with that.

    I feel it takes a serious cult following to make people follow a phone to a carrier, and i think the iPhone (and maybe the sidekicks way back in the day) that made people do that. Palm is not a strong enough brand on its own to draw people to the third largest carrier. Palm failed by not putting its phones on every network the second they came out. If you only sell hardware, wouldn’t it make sense to have your hardware readily available? Take a cue from RIM. Yes RIM has exclusive devices like the storm and bold, but they sell hardware on every carrier. Palm shot itself in the foot and now it’s too late. People that were going to get a pre but didnt wont now because of the lure of droids and iphones and bolds oh my!

  • Ray

    Why does Kelly Hodgkins title most of her articles in question format?

  • will

    i have a palm pre. I love WebOS but hate the palm hardware. Id like to see htc buy palm and start pushing out some kick ass phones with WebOS

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