Smartphone market feels upheavals with ‘Palm’ that is losing ground. “Research In Motion’s” profit has scored two times profit on the other side. The company published its quarterly earnings this week. This turned market scenario paints a clear picture of what mobile users are demanding and what doesn’t work for them as much anymore.
‘Palm’ reported a quarterly loss of $9.63 million this second quarter, compared with a $12.8 million profit a year earlier. The company’s revenue went down by 11%, and Palm’s stock fluctuated heavily.
The company hopes that the ‘Palm Centro’ and the introduction of more ‘Windows Mobile-based Smartphones’ will be its ticket to recover the revenue jolts.
“We are pleased with the early success of the ‘Palm Centro’ and intend to deliver more Windows Mobile and Palm-based products throughout the next year”, said Ed Colligan, Palm’s president and CEO.
The industry experts are not that optimistic about ‘Palm’s’ future. Experts, cited Palm’s lack of innovation, an outdated mobile operating system, and a never-ending Linux initiative as the top reasons for mobile professionals to prefer ‘Smartphones’ from other manufacturers.
‘Palm’ is still continuing making ‘Smartphones’ based on the Palm OS, like the new ‘Centro’, but it badly requires evolving with the changing times. One option is to join Google in its Android initiative and consider using the future mobile platform for its ‘Smartphones’.
Palm is investing lot much hope into its ‘Windows Mobile Smartphones’, but they aren’t differentiated in a brutally competitive market with Windows Mobile products already available with brand names like HTC, Samsung, and Motorola.
“BlackBerry’s RIM” also reported earnings this week, which doubled in the third quarter. RIM’s revenue for the quarter grew up by 22% from $1.37 billion in the previous quarter. RIM’s stock was also up by 12% as a result.
More than 80% of RIM’s revenue derived from devices, 14% from services, and 4% from software. The company added 1.65 million BlackBerry subscribers, growing its subscriber base to 12 million. In addition to that the company also shipped more than 3.9 million devices.
“We are pleased to see continuing growth amongst business and government users, with the BlackBerry platform being deployed for a widening range of applications, and we are also pleased with the excellent consumer sales results achieved so far in the holiday buying season,” Balsillie said in a statement.
J.D.Power and Associates conducted a study and revealed that ‘Blackberry’ ranked at the top in overall customer satisfaction among all business ‘Smartphone’ users. Business users expressed their complete satisfaction with the BlackBerry operating system, including attributes like the ability to move between applications quickly and the fast speed of sending and receiving e-mails.
Apart from introducing improvements in existing BlackBerry products, RIM also entered into the consumer market, continuing to roll out its “BlackBerry Pearl and Curve” product lines. The company also introduced a “Dual-mode BlackBerry” with both Wi-Fi and cellular capabilities, and started an aggressive persuasion of customers outside the United States.
“RIM is blowing the doors off with 100% year-over-year growth. It redesigned its products starting in 2006 to be more fashionable and consumer friendly, and is reaping the rewards. Palm is getting squeezed by RIM for enterprise users and by Apple for entertainment-oriented Smartphone buyers,” says analyst Greengart.