How Palm's Treo Got Boost From BlackBerry Lawsuit

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Palm ramped up its marketing campaign for its Treo smartphone while rival Research in Motion was embroiled in a patent fight, the Wall Street Journal reports. 'The result: at least 1,500 new inquiries about the Treo in the past few months from corporate customers, resulting in 600 free trials, Palm says. In total, Palm says it has more than doubled its number of sales leads since October. "The doors have been opening," says Ed Colligan, Palm's chief executive. At a November staff meeting, Mr. Colligan says he told his staff to "step things up. We have to go back and knock on doors and respond as fast as we can." ... Internally, Palm executives say they believe that the Treo will outsell BlackBerrys by the end of this year.'"

Comments

that sucks

[BewireNomali]

because i've used both, and the blackberry far eclipses the treo as a mobile email device.

the blackberry is popular because it does mobile email REALLY well. It also excels in one hand operation because of the clickable scroll wheel. It's also intuitive and easy to use - as well as significantly lighter than its bulk would indicate.

the blackberry isn't an browsing device - it's for voice and text - and it's ideally suited for the workplace.

I haven't used the windows mobile treos, but the palm treos are heavy with small keyboards. The units don't multitask well - and they CRASH. I've never hada blackberry crash - treos freeze up all the time.

maybe the windows mobile treos are better - but treos need to go a long way, from form factor onwards, to truly best the blackberry atwhat it does.

Re:that sucks

[HaydnH]

"I haven't used the windows mobile treos, but the palm treos are heavy with small keyboards. The units don't multitask well - and they CRASH. I've never hada blackberry crash - treos freeze up all the time."

FUD!! Treo's crash due to 3rd party applications (at least with up to date firmware and default applications). If you get a crash on a Treo you can dial #*377 (code is dependent on Treo type) and it will tell you what application crashed it - remove the 3rd party app that's crashing your system and your fine again! The main reason why the palm Treo's are so good is that there are loads of 3rd party apps, however a lot have been written by hobbyists or for previous versions of Palm OS - why do people keep blaming Palm for other peoples errors?

If I put a cron job on my Linux box doing an init 0 every 5 minutes does this mean Linux is unstable??

Re:that sucks

[morgan_greywolf]

It also excels in one hand operation because of the clickable scroll wheel.

For most Slashdotters, this is, of course, the most important feature any Web-enabled mobile device. ;-)

Re:Ease of use or previousbad marketing?

[capecodcarl]

Having said that, perhaps the 700w (and subsequent Windows versions) will help with the learning curve for execs.

The synergy between the Windows OS and the Treo platform certainly creates an exciting new paradigm shift in the handheld market. Executives will see this as a new way to integrate wireless devices into their business processes in a way that will empower their knowledge workers while providing a solid return on investment for the company's strategic initiatives.

/BINGO!

TREO 650

[Reflex4468]

I've got a 650. It was my first Palm device, and I can now not live without it. I am a Professional Sound Tech, and now could not live without having internet and email coming to a device in my pocket. There is not an email push(yet), but it is coming. I automatically download my email every hour, which is fine for me. I currently use my treo for a movie player, mp3 player, cell phone, email reciever, computer remote control, and personal organizer. Go buy one.

Lots of inquiries, not so many buyers.

[Jack Johnson]

I imagine most of the attention came from people like me. Even though my employer would have been "exempt" from a shutdown, I was tasked with investigating alternatives to BB handhelds and BES last fall when the threat against RIM appeared to be real.

The worrying is over now and we're sticking with BB/BES.

Oversimplified conclusions

[moochfish]

In the quarter ended in late November, Palm sold 602,000 Treos, nearing the 645,000 new subscriber accounts that RIM signed on in the same period.

Internally, Palm executives say they believe that the Treo will outsell BlackBerrys by the end of this year.

Here's what's happened so far:

1. Company's reliability goes into question
2. Consumers look for alternatives

This is what Palm is hoping is #3:

3. Competitors overtake market

However, this is what is really happening:

3. Company's reliability no longer in question
4. Consumers stop looking for alternatives

Yeah. Maybe they would have outsold Blackberrys had the lawsuit kept on chugging or RIM lost. Unfortunately for Palm, that did not happen. Whatever edge they had during the lawsuit is now gone. How can you predict continued growth when the market changed in the past month with the conclusion of the lawsuit?