Gawker has an exclusive about Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt’s biggest relationships, one of which is Steve Jobs. It’s interesting because it’s not that often you see a more intimate side of a person like Schmidt. To me, it’s telling and explains (just a little) why Schmidt does what he does. It’s almost as if Google took a pet project like the Nexus One and turned it into a major focus just because Schmidt wants to throw sand at Steve Jobs. You can also see that now with this new television set-top box Google is working on with Intel. Schmidt has taken Google into Apple territory because maybe he wants to prove to Steve Jobs that he can do it to.
All I know is this, Schmidt as CEO is beholden to the board and the stockholders and his decisions may very well get the best of him if seemingly continues to do things with the company just to spite someone else. Steve Jobs is a brilliant man and Apple has been making hardware and software much longer and in greater scale than Google. Schmidt may have well bitten off more than he can chew and the next relationship he ruins would be with the company that employs him.
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It’s not looking good for Palm. They just reported a dismal quarter with an even dismal forecast. As a result, today alone Palm is worth nearly 20% less than it was yesterday and more than 50% less year-to-date (and it’s only March).
Why am I mentioning Palm today? Well, for one, they positioned themselves as a direct and better competitor to the iPhone while neglecting and ignoring their true competitors — Google and Microsoft. Secondly, I think their CEO lacks vision and really didn’t understand how to deliver truly innovative devices. Yes, they were pioneers of PDAs and smartphones, but that was at a time when the market was nascent. In my opinion, they rested on their laurels and milked their successes.
Then comes along the iPhone, a truly revolutionary device, and what does Palm’s CEO go on record saying?
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” – Palm CEO Ed Colligan
That was in 2006. Then after watching the iPhone rocket to stellar success, they came out with an iPhone copycat three years later. At that time, analysts and industry watchers questioned the then high price of the Palm Pre device compared to the iPhone. His response:
“Why would we price ‘Pre’ less than iPhone when we have a significantly better product?” – Palm CEO Ed Colligan
There was nothing significantly better about the device. I believe it had early success because at the time Sprint didn’t have a device on the market to sell to their customers like AT&T and Verizon. So, Sprint’s customers were just to be happy to buy anything remotely resembling the iPhone. Then reality set in. The device was no iPhone. At that point, the sales trajectory turned negative and it’s been all downhill from there especially once Google got in the game to take attention away from Palm along with Microsoft, RIM, and others.
I say this all to say that maybe Palm should’ve focused its efforts on refining and polishing its WebOS initiative and worked harder on developer relations so that it could have an app catalog that may not have had more apps than the iPhone, but arguably better apps. Instead of worrying about what Apple was doing and talking bad about them every chance they got, maybe they should’ve worked on the nagging details that makes the Palm Pre a pain to use and own.
Ed Colligan, here’s a truism that I think you should’ve read daily as you tried to develop a strategy to keep your company relevant.
Pride is the very gateway to defeat.
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It appears that Apple has launched a series of new iPhone television commercials last night. What’s interesting about them is that they obviously use younger voices in the voiceovers. In the past, without even having to look at the television, I knew an iPhone ad was playing — instant recognition. But with these ads, once I heard them mention iPhone I looked up because I thought the commercial was originally for something else. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, it’s just different. I’m assuming that they’re using different voices and scenarios to appeal to a younger demo. It’ll be curious to see if they are aiming at targeting specific subsets of users.
You can view the commercials here.
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One word, “Wow.”
Apple swung for the fences and I think they hit a grand slam. The device is amazing. It’s priced aggressively. It runs almost 100% of the iPhone apps. It will run upcoming iPad apps. It will have productivity software. Runs iTunes. Has iBooks and an iBook store. Plays games. And it washes your dishes and cooks your dinner. This device is drool worthy. One of the things that interests me the most, however, is actually the chip that runs it. It’s Apple’s own A4 chip. That’s most certainly a result of Apple’s acquisition of PA Semi in 2008. Hopefully, I will be able to dig up some good information on it and will be able to talk about it.
I’ll be back with more.
(Photo courtesy of Apple.com)
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