As previously announced, Palm's Chief Financial Officer, Douglas Jeffries, presented today at the Pacific Crest Technology Forum in Vail, Colorado today. We'd like Palm to finally come clean on some real sales numbers for the Palm Pre, but we'll post whatever updates we get as they come in.
Update: That's it, folks, the event is over. Sadly, no official word on sales numbers for the Pre. No official word on anything, actually. I had thought I'd heard a juicy tidbit about "billing teams" for the App Catalog, but it turns out it was "Building Teams" and it was just my deep-steated desire to keep carriers out of the payment process that fooled my lying ears.
Anyhow, our original notes on the investor presentation for the most rabid among you, after the break!
Jeffries' opening remarks: 2 years ago they began their transformation - all new executives. Upgrade to company's engineering team, literally brought hundreds of people in. Two paths as a part of the transformation on the product front - multi-year product roadmap, web-based Operating System. If you can control hardware and software design, you have a better product.
Launch of the Pre on webOS with Sprint in June. New hardware, software, services infrastructure. Looking to expand the business, methodical approach. Expand geographically and then expand on product roadmap - new "Iconic products" to expand the portfolio.
Q: What was surprisingly difficult? a: Doing it all at once was a big challenge, but going forward we're definitely going to follow the same strategy. Sprint has been great along the way for marketing, training, launch programs. Now that we're through the launch, reienforced the decision to go with them.
Q: Carrier response has been strong - how should we think about that opportunity in terms of timing and what has to happen to expand that? A: We've been fortunate, really good carrier interest. For us it's been working to find the right partner, looking ahead finding partners with the same strategic outlook as we do. Announced Bell Mobility in Canada, Telefonica in Europe. Going to be methodical about it. We'll be "somewhat measured."
Q: How are you talking with Carriers? A: The conversation around webOS is a more strategic conversation. We come with a product roadmap for the next couple of years. Discussion moves from "a product" to a more strategic relationship, "Long term relationships."
Q: Next Steps in Launching webOS - Response from the developer community? A: We believe that having apps is fundamental. High priority internally. We're in a Beta phase with the App Catalog. In the background we're working with developers to expand, thousands of developers have downloaded it, we'd like to move faster, but we want to make sure that developers have a great experience. Also want a great experience for customers.
Q: Briefly mentions PreDevCamp (not by name) - what about Price Point on apps A: Trying to make the experience better for both consumers and developers. High priority, trying to do something new.
Q: Timing? When is it coming out of Beta? A: As soon as it's ready. You'll hear it over and over again, "Not until it's ready."
Q: Getting the right amount of developer support from Palm - where are you at? A: We've had really great reaction. Volume of interest is rewarding, we are staffing up to provide more resources. Scaling up processes, billing teams (!).
Q: Palm brand in US is strong, in Europe not so much. Single SKU? What will is cost? A: We agree - brand is stronger in the US. Long term opportunity, we want to do it well. We think Pre is a great device to enter Europe with, but expect more devices down the road. Telefonica is one of the best marketers in Europe, feel good with them working with us.
Q: Developing concern around other smartphones, pricing pressure, Apple has set a bar from product and price standpoint. A: Our sample size is small - just one product out today. Carriers pay a premium for "iconic" products, Pre has been that sort of device. We do watch the competition, a lot of new Android products coming out. Iconic products get to be in a premium niche.
Q: Recap where margins are on the Pre and longterm A: In the process of shifting the company, PalmOS are low margin, webOS having better margins overall. Talk about webOS as a portfolio. Newer products have better margins. 30% is where we hope to be for webOS for the whole portfolio.
Q: You're not there yet, how about when? A: As you scale you gain efficiency, that 30% margin is over time, later in the year 2010.
Q: Component constraints? A: We're keeping an eye on it. Also looking towards longer term contracts. [More talk about supply chain, etc.]
Q: What is your biggest challenge, what should investors be aware of? A: The product is solid, performing well, both the Hardware and webOS. The launch is a good test for the Executive team, they came through really well. We just need to execute, the right people at the right time, just watch for a pattern of execution.
Q: The headcount is down from 2 years ago, will that rebuild? A: It was 40% turnover in that period in employees. Reinvigorating the company. We're through that, we'll add staff in a measured way. We'll avoid needing to downsize again
Q: Concern about being able to finance significant growth. You said you have capital on hand, but what might change that? A: We have a plan in place, we have the capital in hand to execute on that operating plan. If things go well, we may want to 'step on the gas' and bring in additional capital to accelerate expansion and growth
Q: Strong relationship with Sprint, the investment community is sensitive that you haven't been as 'effusive' about them as recently. A: I'm not sure that the tone has changed. The most recent was the earning call, they were complimentary.
Q: Getting apps on the Pre A: It's the most frequent request we have on the Pre from consumers. A couple of things: it's the easiest to develop for. We've got functionality that other platforms don't have - multitasking + synergy + unobtrusive notifications. The developer experience is very important to use, we're spending a lot of time with developers. So it will take time, but early results are good.
....and that's it, folks!
Comments
very very excited to see what is in the future not only for the Pre but also for Palm. I do really hope that they continue to listen to the consumer and improve on the product that they have. I know I keep bringing this up but it's important to me... Video Camera. Also all day events don't show up in month mode on the calender. There are a lot of small bugs that need to get fixed and a few features that def. need to get added. But I do appreciate how palm has been handling all this by taking their time and doing it right... For that I stand up and Applaud them... "Thank You Palm. Seriously, Thank You."
I'm interested in the next round of product announcements. In particular, are they going to go outside of the realm of smartphones with webOS.
OK is it just me or is there a reason for the stone like fall of the Palm stock over the last few days
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/charts/chartdl.aspx?PeriodType=20&C...
In six days it has gone from 15.50 to under 14!!!!
Something definately happened on Monday !
Not that I follow it too closely, but a lot of investors thought Palm has been over-valued all along, so it's really just returning to reality maybe.
There is no need to panic stocks go up and down and 1.50 is no need to start worrying. Its tuesday and palm actually rose 20 cents. If palm drops to 8 dollars then we should worry.
there was a report itunes sync was closed again on aug. 7th., there are lots of shorts in as well. don't know if that's true cause i haven't updated my itunes. also i think there is, as i stated below, no news palmwise that indicates palm is more attractive today then it was yesterday. for example apps. i think, there will be a pop on earnings, a pop on truly positive news like the app store opens. cause that is real revenue. saying you're holding a conference is fine for developers but isn't anything investors don't already know, and it's not going to add to palms profitability like actually opening a store or not just announcing a euro release but having the release. i mean look at google news under palm. there isn't much of anything that's positive or more then speculation. There's also a conference call today and maybe it's people betting on more negative news.
honestly there hasn't been any palm news other then additions to the homebrew gallery in like two weeks. This techy stuff is fine for developers but this is basically like a linux programmer news. At this point. i don't care about conferences or any of this stuff. I just want actual improvements to my phone. Like, at this point i only check for new apps and updates.
thank god for homebrew people but now the only thing that truly gets my attention, the only story i care about new apps and real updates.
Is it just me, or does anybody else feel like the commercials for every other phone are so much better than those for the Palm Pre? iPhone is making the Pre look stupid with their new "Apps" commercials. My experience with my Palm Pre is really starting to agrivate me.
IS IT SUPPOSED TO lag super slowly when I have multiple cards open/ loading at once?
well i think the negative opinions on the commercials is pretty much a beaten dead horse.
I however do get a quite a bit of lag with more then three apps open. That said i rarely do that. so it's hardly an issue. i like where the pre has started. i'm a bit unhappy with some lack of details like who thought that copy and paste was good enough? Clearly somebody at palm thought that was good enough. And the music app looks nice but is quite far behind an ipod. I don't get how from a basic starting point you don't approach that by going we MUST do at least with the palm music player exacty what the ipod does. As a starting point. that is playlists properly, podcasts, music management, navigating your music library etc. like searching thru songs sucks. it's nice but not good enough for me right now. i just hope they fix these and it's not like streaming media on my xbox where like it's been out for years and like still barely plays videos with surround sound. because they don't have any interest in fixing it.
Favorite quote from above:
"We just need to execute, the right people at the right time, just watch for a pattern of execution."
I look forward to watching Palm's pattern of executing the right people at the right time ;)
Priceless!
i think think you're ignoring the comma placement. lol. Yeah funny though. when i read that the first thinking was, i so wish someone had asked, "err...was the fact that the app store wasn't ready at launch, and is basically still in Beta poor execution?"
Maybe I missed it, but I’m surprised that no one on this site mentioned that Jimmy Kimmel did some advertising for the Pre in the beginning of his show yesterday (8/10). I was very surprised and impressed that palm was able to pull something like that off
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