An Apple iPhone? Nah, not worried, reckoned Palm CEO

Tom an industry veteran (and also, if you’re a fan of fine ales, a regular consultant to Bowman Ales) sent me this rather interesting story by Mercury News from November 20th 2006. Interesting reading given yesterday’s announcement not two months after the article was published.

Link: MercuryNews.com | 11/20/2006 | An Apple phone? Palm CEO says, `What, me worry?’

IS APPLE SERIOUS COMPETITION?: Palm CEO Ed Colligan seems downright nonchalant about rumors that Apple may introduce a mobile phone to market in the coming year.
Responding to questions from New York Times correspondent John Markoff at a Churchill Club breakfast gathering Thursday morning, Colligan laughed off the idea that any company — including the wildly popular Apple Computer — could easily win customers in the finicky smart-phone sector.
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”

I’m really surprised that important people didn’t know about this.

Fair enough me, sat here in Shitsville, didn’t quite know what Apple was bringing out. Like everyone else, I was feverishly checking rumours and indulging in all sorts of speculation. My only accurate speculation being: They’ve got to do something to stave off the Sony Ericssons and Nokias of this world.

So, I think it’s fair enough for me to be effectively clueless, for me to be guessing and for me to be having quite a bit of fun doing so. But I don’t think it’s good enough for the Chief Executive of Palm to not have a clue, to blithly assume that ‘PC guys aren’t going to figure it out.’

It’s downright embarrassing.

That Apple UI isn’t anything new per se. I’ve seen finger manipulation in use, not in a production service mind you, but I’ve seen it operational. What the hell are Palm doing sat there knocking out and being associated with the likes of the Treo 750?

The Steve Jobs presentation complete with, what appeared to be a fully working, reliable, stable and quick iPhone device, really made me think. If Apple can do this, if ‘PC guys’ can knock this together, what are ‘Mobile Guys’ doing putting out rubbish like the 750v? (I’m calling it ‘rubbish’ on behalf of these woeful comments submitted by pained users).

I really wonder what Ed thought of the iPhone. When he was sat there watching Steve prance about the stage (“isn’t it cool, eh? eh?”) with the iPhone, did Ed sit back and think, ‘Arse…er…. what have we been doing?’

Or did he think, ‘Nah, heh. They don’t have a clue. We’re prefectly fine?’

I wonder. I really do.