Can Palm really make an impact with Nova?
Published: 6 January, 2009
READ MORE: Palm
This week sees the huge Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicking off in Las Vegas, offering the year's biggest showcase of the latest gadgets and media systems. Amid the current slowdown in handset spending, there may be less focus on smartphones than there was in 2008, when the mobile phone was racing across the border with entertainment and CE devices. However, there will still be plenty of netbooks, Bluetooth, mobile internet devices and systems that turn the phone into the controller for home media networks. And Palm hopes to steal the show, at least in the smartphone area, with the launch of its Nova operating system, on which it is pinning its hopes of escaping relegation in the mobile league table.
The blogs are alight with speculation about exactly what Palm will launch at its event on Thursday, the event's opening day. There are high hopes that the company will unleash something stunning, but the few details that have leaked so far suggest that these hopes may be based on sentiment - the market's attachment to the venerable Palm platform, the pioneer of so many trends that are now mainstream; and a wish to see some viable alternatives to Symbian, Android and iPhone. There is less indication that Nova really will be that different from any other Linux-based smartphone platform. Even the most positive blogs refer to it as "iPhone-like", which is almost inevitable, given the market impact of Apple - but Palm needs to do a lot more than just emulate the iPhone, if it is to gain the new momentum it badly needs.
Palm is now widely expected to launch a device or two alongside Nova, a move that would help address the problem of bridging the hiatus period between its ageing Treo range and the new products. Previously, phones were not expected to be unveiled until mid-year, which could have delayed actual sales until the fall. The first device, according to "sources", will feature a slider display similar to the Treo's keyboard, which would appeal to Treo fans, but not necessarily the wider market that Palm needs to court. It should also have a large touchscreen to pull in these new converts - like all smartphone makers, especially those with an enterprise heritage like RIM and Hewlett-Packard, Palm is looking to create a business/consumer hybrid that will extend its reach into the high end consumer market (but with better margins than the fully mainstream Centro), and provide everything a power user needs for both professional and leisure purposes.
But like the rest of the features that are likely in Nova, this is nothing new, and Palm is coming from behind, with a tiny market share (under 3%) and many months of lag behind rival launches like Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1. Highly adapted for web services, touchscreen Linux, widgets, an app store - all these are likely to be well executed, but merely reflect the general trends in the market. So success will require imaginative design and heavyweight marketing, to lure carriers and users - and can Palm afford such a marketing program?
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