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Executive Summary
Palm, Inc is a leading global provider of handheld computing devices and handheld computing operating systems. Palm enjoys market share dominance in the handheld computing industry with a leading 39% share of handheld devices and a leading 57% share of handheld operating systems. While Palm continues to lead the market in number of handhelds used, it has seen its market share decrease due to new technologies and competition. Palm’s sales have also dwindled due to these same forces as well as macroeconomic conditions.
Palm is currently organized into two operating entities: PalmSource, which produces the Palm Operating System; and Palm Solutions Group which develops, manufactures, and markets handheld devices (hardware). The 57% market share Palm has on the handheld OS is attritubale to the licensing arrangements Palm has made with handheld manufacturers such as Sony, Handspring, and Kyocera. The broad user base (Palm Economy) which has manifested a community of developers of the Palm platform has also helped build the market dominance Palm currently enjoys. ... Palm’s latest product line, the Tungsten T and Tungsten W were efforts to move into the Enterprise market. The Tungsten has not proven to be as fruitful of a product line as Palm hoped. Lack of sales has caused Palm to refocus its strategy more on consumer and wireless products. Although, the Tungsten line has not been successful, the Zire has been Palm’s most successful product launch in terms of units sold. ... Palm’s recent struggles mirror the problems the industry is facing. Palm recently cut revenue estimates from between $230 - $250 million to between $205 million and $210 million. ... In addition to decreased revenue and low demand, Palm has also recently laid off 19% of its workforce, is facing a significant lawsuit from Xerox for possible patent infringement of the Graffiti handwriting-recognition software, and is going through costly restructuring of the company. All of these issues have hindered Palm’s ability to generate income and invest in significant future technologies. Consequently, investor confidence has subsided in Palm (see chart on page 2). As of March 20th, 2003 Palm was trading at $10. ...
While Palm continues to cut earnings estimates and struggles to generate income the handheld computing industry’s future is bright. Although Palm is not a good intermediate investment the possibility for future growth and planned improvements in operations procedures make Palm an attractive long term investment.
Palm History
Palm, Inc. ... Palm recently divided into two separate entities: PalmSource, Inc. and Palm Solutions Group. ... PalmSource will market and develop the Palm Operating System while Palm Solutions Group will focus on production of the Palm handheld devices. While, PalmSource is a wholly owned subsidiary of Palm, Inc. the company will report consolidated financial information under Palm, Inc. ... Palm expects the separation to help each group focus its strategies and lower consolidated operational costs.
Palm was originally founded in 1992 as Palm Computing, Inc. In 1995, Palm was acquired by U. ... In 1999 3Com separated Palm into its own business, which became Palm, Inc. Void of any real threat from Micrsoft in the late 1990’s and Palm’s highly touted ease of use, Palm achieved its current status as the leading manufacturer of handheld computers and handheld computing operating systems. Palm’s family of handlheld devices had grown since its inception. Its original lineup of the Palm III, Palm V, and Palm VII, now includes the m100 line. ...
Industry & Competition
Palm is far and way the market leader in the handheld computing industry however its hold on that spot is slipping. Licencees and more feature rich operating systems such as Microsoft’s Pocket PC are eating into Palm’s market share. Although Palm currently holds a 39% market share of handheld devices it has an even stronger grasp on the handheld operating system as companies such as Handspring, Sony, and Kyocera license the Palm OS on their handhelds.
Approximate Word count = 3089
Approximate Pages = 12.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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