Could the EOS be Competition for iPod Touch?

Could the EOS be Competition for iPod Touch?

This crossed my mind... what would be a more profitable next move for Palm??

• manufacture another phone so similar to Pre but for another Carrier?? (Doesn’t make sense), OR
• Roll out a non-phone, yet WiFi, media intensive device to compete with the iPod touch?? (more likely)

I think the second option is more likely because this would be direct revenue for Palm. Think about it... Palm can essentially exclude the Cell components from the Pre and market this new "Eos" or "PreOs" or whatever they call it. No Cell companies to worry about sharing profits with and no CDMA v. GSM to worry about... the Ipod Touch is like $230 and Palm could steal the market by selling theirs for like $175 - It can only be cheaper to manufacture sans cell components

If they don’t have that in the short term business plan, they need to fire that guy and hire me

I think your first option is much more likely than the second. Suppose we say that Sprint has 20% of the market... why would you release a single phone and slice out 80% of the population from buying it? It makes a lot more sense financially to release similar phones with the same OS on multiple carriers. You're expanding your market, and giving developers more incentive to build applications for your OS.

Remember, Palm is in the smartphone business, not the media player business. Apple has been making iPods for years, and the iPod touch is an extension of the iPod with a touch screen and media playing abilities.
Now, since the iPod Touch and iPhone share the same OS, you get a lot of really nice applications that can be used on both. The Touch does also perform the role of an "internet device", in that it supports internet connectivity and provides that interface to the apps.

I don't think it's impossible that Palm will release an internet device with no cell antenna, but I doubt that will happen until a vibrant application community already exists.

who cares, i think those rumors about Eos are certainly going to make some kind of difference on people that were going to switch to sptrint for the Pre... Not Kewl!! i hope all of this is just that .. a rumor!

i think the media has a lot to do (often) in how well things go for carriers.

This is true, however why spend so much time developing a second device when the Pre could just as easily serve the same purpose?? do you think they are saving that much money per phone to manufacture this Eos phone? why not shop the Pre to other carriers (I know they have done this and the other carriers are waiting to see how the Pre does on Sprint first before they bite)

Now, your second point almost makes my point more valid... you are right that the Touch is an extension of the iPod line, but remember that Apple didn’t start out making cell phones and music players... They were founded as a computer maker and while they continue to hold a piece of that market, Apple may not even be around today if they hadn’t diversified into the music player & cell business. Palm may very well be following suit. Think about it... This way, some potential customers who have BB or other non-smart phone can purchase the non-cell Pre/EOS or whatever this device will be called and Palm still gets paid. I think this is the way Palm can stay afloat... Whether this is their plan or not remains to be seen...

Now, I admit that you may be right about it being a bit too soon for a non-cell media device to be released because the App store is not even open yet, but developers will have many apps ready in the next 6 to 12 months which would then be a perfect time to release a device such as this

not to sound rude buuuut.. I'm pretty sure the EOS is a phone.. not a palmpod. and i don't really think palm would try to topple apple in the two areas they've been dominating. palm should make a computer OS.. WEB OS for desktops!!! it's brilliant! i thought of that.. all by myself. yeah.. be jealous.

Ur not sounding Rude my friend, And It probabely is a phone, but I stand firm on my premise that IF Palm went after the WiFi Music player market, they would more than likely take a sizable share away from Apple et' al...

and I like the Palm Pod name... I'm going with that from now on... Kuddos 2 you Hooper! :w00t:

However... you say palm shouldnt go up against Apple in the iPod department, But you think Palm has a chance of beating out Microsoft's PC OS stranglehold? :blink: - ummm lets think that one through...

I saw this EOS on another site as an AT&T product with a cost of $349. I think it is just an additional web os unit that would replace the Palm Pro or Centro for other carriers.

lol i was kidding. but it turns out it might actually happen.. how weird.....

Seems to me like it would be a step backward for them... my Palm TX does everything you mentioned, except it doesn't have the WebOS.

Palm left the PDA stuff behind and went to smartphones because that seems to be where the market is. Creating a media-intensive EOS, while incorporating WebOS and the contacts/calendar and other "Smart" apps, would be tantamount to going back to PDA's with a new OS.

Besides, I really want the new Sony Walkman X when it comes out... :wink:

Palm probably is not interested in making music devices. They are in the business of making phones, selling them at a high markup to cellular companies, and then supporting them. Nothing more. Selling a music-only device is killing the middle part of their profit scheme. It just doesn't make any sense for them to do that.

Basically they would need to sell a device BETTER than the iPod (which to be honest I'm not sure if the music features of the Pre are better than the iPod features of the iPhone) at a lower cost.

I think there's definitely an argument to be made on the iPod Touch theory. I think one of biggest reasons Apple launched the Touch was to push the operating system - it allowed non-AT&T users (and really anyone) to buy a device that uses Apple's vision of what handheld computing should look like. With Palm, one of their biggest priorities (if not THE biggest) for Pre is to make WebOS the new user-experience paradigm for handheld computing. Introducing a non-cellphone device that is connected via WiFi would allow WebOS to reach anyone.

That being said, I think the non-Sprint phone theory is more likely.

I think Palm went in two different directions when it comes to PDA v. smart phones. Lets not forget that the Treo Pro is still out there and people who want a more power business solution will prolly go for that... The Pre as you imply, and I agree, seems to be aimed at a different, larger demographic; and yet the pre has the ability to satisfy a younger cloud using business base.

Thank you... I'm glad I'm not the only one... and I agree with you; this EOS is not going to be an "iPod Touch" rival, but I think we both agree that Palm stands to gain in the same way Apple did by launching one. for the vary reasons to say :w00t:

So, pretty much a PDA... like where Palm started.

Someone said something about WebOS for desktops...? That could actually be pretty good, imagine having all these apps open, then hitting a key to minimize them all into cards, spread across multiple monitors. The quick launch could be a dock, and the launcher could work well on a desktop too with the addition of some categories. Its all based on linux, so there's hardly any reason they couldn't recompile it to make it run on x86. Yeah, Desktop WebOS would be sexy.

palm will not make a "palm pod" ever even they said they are an phone company apple has at least 70% of the market for media devices and cant forget about Microsoft zunes who are 2nd in this race and others who try to get a share...to be honest i think it would be a waste of money for palm to even try

The Palm Eos does not have the IT factor when it comes to looks. The device itself looks unattractive, and for god's sake I wish they will change it.

Because, if they want, they could keep the Pre exclusive to Sprint, while make other devices for other networks, giving them the same experience but in a different look. Plus the Pre is a new line up, while the Eos will more then likely take the Centero space, while the Treo line will stay Windows Mobile. (I heard somewhere that the Treo line will stay Windows Mobile).


I think the Eos will be a phone for the AT&T network. However, you guys need to think that the guy running Palm use to be the head of the iPod business. If anyone could take on Apple with music, I do believe he could.