[英文] Palm公布最新财报..形势有好转但不理想

寂夜清风 · 发表于 2008-3-22 01:25

Palm Q3 FY08 Conference Call Highlights
      Posted By: Ryan Kairer on Thursday, March 20, 2008 3:52:48 PM

                     Palm Inc announcedits third consecutive quarterly loss today. The company posted a $31.5million dollar loss despite an all time record in smartphonesell-through. The build success of the Palm Centro drove an increasednumber of smartphone shipments but its lower average selling price didlittle to help Palm's bottom line.
In the quarterly conference call, Palm CEO Ed Colligan remarked it wasa tough quarter for the company but then went into his usual upbeat andoptimistic look ahead as he briefed analysts and investors on thecompanies long term prospects. Read on for the full highlights.

Colligan started of the call stating it was a tough quarter for Palmand that they still had a lot of work ahead of them. Colligan cited thedeclines in the handheld business, Palm's aging Windows Mobile productline and the lower than average selling price of the Centro for therevenue shortfall. He also remarked that the Treo 500v has not sold aswell in Europe as they'd like.

Centro Stregnth
The Palm Centro was againa big bright spot for the company as it drove an all time high of826,000 smartphone units shipped. The Centro is currently riding a waveof increasing sales of over 30k units per week, and is trending up incontrast to the usual smartphone sales track for Palm. The Centro isalso bringing in new customers for Palm as its own early buyer studyhas shown that more than 70% of Centro buyers were "traditional" cellphone users. Twice as many Centro buyers than Treo buyers were under 35and 95% of them have signed up for a data plan.
New Windows Mobile Products
Duringthe call Colligan made several references to its aging Windows Mobileline and announced that they would refresh the WM product line beforethe end of summer. He gave little specific details but did confirm itwould be targeted at enterprise customers and would be keyboard based.He also confirmed it would be announced as a new Treo and said it wouldinclude Microsoft's latest offerings. He later remarked in the Q&Asession that he felt it would be the "most competitive enterprisesolution on the market."
As expected Palm exec's are tight lipped on specific details at thistime, however the rumor-mill has been pretty active around the newWindows Mobile products. A recent report cited a device code-named the "Palm Drucker" sporting a 320x320 touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and WiFi and GPS capabilities. A possible image of this same device was even included in the background of Bill Gate's recent CES keynote speech and presentation.

Palm Systems Software Update (aka Nova)
Colligan said the company is ahead of schedule in certain regards totheir post recapitalization transformation. He also gave an update onthe progress of the next generation operating system. He is standing byhis earlier stated targetsof a general announcement before years end and new products based on itdebuting sometime in early 2009. He said the company is meeting itsmajor milestones and in general they are "on track" on development.
During the quarter Palm's revenue mix was 88% smartphones and 12%handhelds. 82% of revenue came from the US, while 18% wasInternational. Smartphone revenue was $275.4 million. Smartphoneshipments were at 826k, up from 686k, 689k in the previous twoquarters. Smartphone sell-through was at 833k units with a $331 perunit average selling price.

Handheld revenue for the quarter was $36.7 million. 198,000 units wereshipped for a 38% year over year decline. Handheld sell-through was282k units down from 323k the previous quarter. Palm executives gave nomention of addressing the declining handheld market or refreshing theexisting product line.
Although Palm has decided not to provide guidance for futurequarters while it focuses on its long term prospects, Colligan did seethe first half of FY09 (calendar July 2008 and on) as a turning pointon the road back to profitability. He stated that by then continuingCentro sales combined with the push for more higher end Treo's poweredby the new Windows Mobile products will drive growth and demand infuture quarters.

寂夜清风 · 发表于 2008-3-22 01:26

The Centro giveth and the Centro taketh hkklife @ 3/20/2008 7:39:41

Ofcourse Palm's new products are keyboard-based! Do we REALLY expectanything else other than SSS (small square screens) from them? Ofcourse we don't!As far as Colligan's complaints (declines in thehandheld business, Palm's aging Windows Mobile product line & thelower than average selling price of the Centro), ALL of that is theirfault.

#1 Had Palm not totally abandoned the handheld market ina fenzy of greed to cozy up to the carriers (namely Sprint &Verizon) they'd still be treading water, even if they had kept tweakingthe same 3 (or even 2) existing PDA formfactors/price points.

#2Aging WM line? Again, entirely Palm's fault. To not be the firstcompany out of the gates with a 320x320 WM6 smartphone is just absurd.The 755p formfactor would have made for an ideal first WM6 device. Oh,what's that you say? The carriers didn't comission a 320x320 WM6 CDMATreo from Palm? Oh well, that's what you get by selling your soul tothe carriers and then repeatedly bungling one release after another.

#3Lower than average selling price of the Centro? Again, entirely Palm'sfault. Had they not tried to sell the SAME smartphone 3x in a row (Treo700p, 755p, Centro) perhaps they could have commanded a higher price.Or even (GASP!) tried to introduce SOME compelling new hardware featureon the Centro to make it worthy of a higher price (128mb RAM, 2mpcamera, 2/4gb internal flash screen are all perfectly functional underGarnet). Heck, a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack would have given theCentro SOMETHING that the other Treos do not have. Instead, thatpitiful stock battery and tiny scren & keyboard aren't worthy of apremium pricetag and everyone (including the carriers) knows it.

#4.Oh, and the Treo 500 not selling well in Europe? That's Palm's faultfor comissioning a "me too" device that isn't even quad-band so it canbe sold in the US. Quite foolish if you ask me. Heck, had Palm just hada quiet 500v launch in the US and sold it through AT&T as a WMversion of the Centro (or, as a Moto Q competitor) or even justunlocked on their website it'd at least have gotten SOME attention. Andan utter lack of differentiating features over every other WM phone onthe market doesn't help matters either.

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Has-been smartphone maker Palm is having some luck selling itscheap, tiny Centro smartphone at Sprint (S) and AT&T (T): It helpedthe company sell a record 833,000 phones last quarter, up 13%year-over-year.

But business still stinks: The company swung to aloss and missed the Street's sales and EPS projections. Palm (PALM)shares are down 6% in after-hours trading - at $4.45, they're just 20cents above their 52-week low.

Palm (PALM) posted $312.1 millionof sales, down 24% year-over-year and missing the Street's $315.3million consensus. Adjusted EPS came in at a 16 cents per share loss,below the Street's expected 15 cents per share loss. And the companyreported a $31.5 million net loss, a huge drop from its $11.8 millionQ3 profit a year ago.
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/palm_q3_swings_to_loss_misses_on_sales_eps

ursace · 发表于 2008-3-22 02:59

应该挺不过今年了吧

Firefox · 发表于 2008-3-22 13:34

祝福一下

znsjpda · 发表于 2008-3-22 14:15

标题标的很清楚了，内容不看了。

memory59 · 发表于 2008-3-23 16:34

palm前两年干什么去了？挣得钱快花光了才发现不出新东西是不行的

crack1999 · 发表于 2008-3-23 17:41

希望是亡羊补牢，为时未晚啊！

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