I've copy pasted the article. The text only.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119750940823225431.html "Apple's'Podfather' Now Aims to Revive A Wilting Palm By PUI-WING TAM December 13, 2007; Page B1 In mid-July, as Palm <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=palm> Inc. was putting the finishing touches on its new $99 Centro smart phone, the gadget's development team received a stark message: It wasn't good enough. The warning was delivered by Jon Rubinstein, a former top Apple Inc. executive who this year joined Palm as executive chairman with a directive from Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan to shake up the struggling smart-phone maker. Mr. Rubinstein wasn't happy with the Centro's final touches, so he ordered several Palm executives to get on a plane to Asia to work more closely with the company's contract manufacturers. He asked product managers to look at details that hadn't been discussed before, such as whether the Centro's keyboard could be easily viewed in bright sunlight. "Given the aggressive schedule we had for the product, there was a general sentiment on the team that it'd be hard to pull everything off," says Rob Katcher, a Palm senior product manager. "But Jon wasn't going to compromise on quality or schedule." In mid-October, the Centro -- which has gotten warm reviews -- shipped a month early to Palm's carrier partner Sprint <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=s> Nextel Corp. Palm, which helped originate the smart phone earlier this decade, has been straining to get back on the right track after stumbling against hipper competitors such as Apple and Research <http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=RIMM> in Motion Ltd. As a result, the Sunnyvale, Calif., company hired 51-year-old Mr. Rubinstein to help turn it around. Although he officially joined Palm in October, he's been on-site since July and putting in 70-hour weeks, say people familiar with the matter. Alongside Mr. Colligan, he has cleaned up the company's product plans, overhauled its engineering staff, and made several strategic new hires. Palm has flailed recently as its core product, the Treo smart phone, has changed only incrementally. At the same time, Apple and RIM have invaded Palm's turf with sleek new gadgets such as the iPhone and BlackBerry Curve. As a result, Palm's world-wide smart-phone market share has dropped to 3.6%, down from 5.4% a year ago, according to Gartner Inc. Palm's stock has also languished. "I knew I couldn't turn the company around by myself," says Mr. Colligan, 46, who has been Palm's CEO since 2004. "I needed a partner on the tech front who could change the dynamics of our development team." So he hired Mr. Rubinstein. The onetime Hewlett-Packard Co. engineer worked with Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs at Mr. Jobs's former company NeXT Computer Inc. in the 1990s. When Mr. Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, Mr. Rubinstein became Apple's head of hardware engineering. Under his watch, Apple created the iMac and the iBook. In 2001, Apple unveiled the iPod, the hit music player that Mr. Rubinstein is credited with helping to invent. Sometimes called the "Podfather," he became Apple's first head of its iPod division. While Mr. Rubinstein left Apple last year -- a person familiar with his thinking says he wanted a break, partly to work on a home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico -- he remained on the lookout for new opportunities. In May, Palm said it would sell a 25% stake of itself to Silicon Valley private equity firm Elevation Partners. Under the deal, two Elevation partners joined Palm's board, and Mr. Rubinstein agreed to become executive chairman. Mr. Rubinstein now faces numerous challenges at Palm. Last week, Palm warned it would miss estimates when it next reports earnings on Tuesday, sending its stock plunging. Yesterday, Palm made some reassignments and staff reductions. Since it typically takes at least 18 months to develop new phones from scratch, it may take years for Mr. Rubinstein's impact to show up. "With the business smart-phone market dominated by RIM and the personal smart-phone market dominated by Apple, it's hard to say where Palm's opportunity is," says Andy Neff, an analyst at Bear Stearns & Co. So far, Mr. Rubinstein -- who heads all of Palm's research, development and engineering -- has kept mum about his plans. But people familiar with his thinking say he is focused on a new Linux-based software platform that would create one set of applications for all Palm products. He wants the platform, due out sometime next year, to be the basis for new phone formats, including possibly a 12-key phone. "There was a perception our products had gotten a little stale," says Mr. Colligan. "We'll break out of that." A chunk of Mr. Rubinstein's compensation depends on it. According to Palm's filings, one million of his Palm stock options are tied to the company's stock price hitting targets of 50% to 200% above their grant date price, or they will be forfeited. Mr. Rubinstein began his work at Palm several months ago, when a small team of executives flew to Puerto Vallarta to brainstorm with him about product plans. When Mr. Rubinstein arrived at Palm in July, he accelerated a restructuring of research-and-development teams, reorganizing them around single projects and appointing product directors to oversee projects from start to finish. Mr. Rubinstein also cleaned house. Within a month, he had identified some key engineers at the company who were promoted, say Palm executives. Some senior executives left, including Michael Farese, a senior vice president of engineering. At the same time, Mr. Rubinstein began recruiting new talent. Some senior positions have been filled. An Adobe Inc. executive, Pam Deziel, joined Palm last month as vice president of software product marketing. Overall, Palm's hiring process has sped up, with candidates now meeting with six to eight people instead of more than a dozen, says Stephane Maes, Palm's vice president of smart-phone product marketing. Throughout August, Mr. Rubinstein worked to streamline Palm's product plans. He and a small group locked down what projects would be kept and which would be taken off the agenda, Palm executives say. A new laptop-like Palm product, the Foleo, was canceled in September as it was about to be shipped. Palm's software partners say the new plan helps. "There had been issues for as long as two years over what Palm's strategy was," says Douglas Edwards, chief marketing officer of Handmark Inc., Kansas City, Mo., which makes mobile software. "Now we're not debating as many issues and wondering if our stuff will work with their devices." -- Amol Sharma contributed to this article. Write to Pui-Wing Tam at [EMAIL PROTECTED] " From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Carl W. Brooks Sent: 14 December 2007 07:51 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Treo] WSJ Article on Palm Can someone at least provide a title with the link? Thanks, I'll see you on the web! Carl W. Brooks http://www.Palmloyal.com Palm Podcasts, Daily News, Software, Hardware, Mobile Email Services and More! -----Original Message----- From: "Chris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:ChrisLyndy%40emailtreo.com> > Date: Thursday, Dec 13, 2007 8:54 pm Subject: Re: [Treo] WSJ Article on Palm To: <[email protected] <mailto:treo%40yahoogroups.com> >Reply-To: [email protected] <mailto:treo%40yahoogroups.com> I didn't find the article. Can someone post it? Chris & The Lyndy -----Original Message----- From: 'srivaths srinivasan' <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:vatman%40gmail.com> > Date: Thursday, Dec 13, 2007 8:39 am Subject: [Treo] WSJ Article on Palm To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:treo%40yahoogroups.comReply-To> : [email protected] <mailto:treo%40yahoogroups.com> http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119750940823225431.html -- Srivaths Srinivasan 'Kahan Kahan Se Guzar Aaye' [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | Calendar MARKETPLACE [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
