Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Earlier this week, CNBC’s Jim Goldman wrote an article titled, “Palm Gets a Thumbs Down.” In the article, Goldman states that Pablo Perez-Fernandez, a Global Crown Capital wireless analyst, thinks that Palm’s major investor, Elevation Partners, could be preparing to pull out of the mobile handset company and take their money elsewhere. In his article, Goldman writes:

“Perez-Fernandez throws it out there that Elevation might divest, but he offers nothing concrete to support the claim. It’s reasonable, he tells me, given the circumstances, though he also tells me hasn’t gotten any specific information from Elevation on this front. He says Palm’s decision to launch a shelf registration on Nov. 3 because the company is so desperate for cash, will significantly dilute the shares, and the company risks a change in control because of that dilution. Under the rules of the Elevation deal, Palm is required to offer to buy back Elevation’s stake at a premium of 1 percent to 5 percent. Elevation, he thinks, would jump at the chance to get out. I sent an email to Elevation’s managing partner Roger McNamee this morning seeking some guidance, but I haven’t heard back.”

Interestingly, Elevation Partners co-founder and member of Palm’s board, Roger McNanmee stepped up to the mic yesterday to reaffirm Elevation’s commitment to Palm and to reassure investors that Palm is still on track to deliver a new mobile operating system, Palm OS II/Nova, by the end of this year (2008) and to release new devices based on that OS by the middle of next year (2009). Mr. McNanmee stated:

“Elevation Partners is very pleased with the progress Ed Colligan, Jon Rubinstein and the entire Palm team are making. The Company’s product pipeline, including a next generation operating system due out soon and a new device targeted for the first half of 2009, excite us enormously. Elevation supports Palm in taking the difficult but necessary steps required to migrate from legacy products. We have a very long-term investment horizon and have no plans to exit our investment in Palm.”

May people see Palm OS II/Nova as being Palm’s last change to become a relevant player in the mobile computing space. With devices from Apple and Research In Motion continuing to grab headlines, the public opinion is that Palm has been standing still for years and relying on new colors to keep people interested in their low cost, low profit Centro consumer oriented smartphones. Delays in releasing their next business class Windows Mobile Treo is not helping things.

Statements of reassurance from Palm’s major investor is nice and all, but the time has come for Palm to stop talking and to start showing people that they have something coming down the pipe that will be worth the long wait for Palm OS II/Nova.

On Friday morning I saw a post over on PalmInfoCenter.com reporting that Palm was rumored to have started yet another round of lay offs. I was told by my Palm contact that Palm was not releasing any information about the rumored layoffs.

By Saturday morning, Reuters had reported that Palm did in fact layoff a portion of their workforce.

“Struggling smartphone maker Palm Inc said Friday it is cutting its workforce, a move the company takes as it loses market share to rivals Apple Inc and Research in Motion Ltd.

Spokeswoman Lynn Fox said the layoffs began this week, but she declined to say how many jobs would be cut.

Palm, which employs 1,050 workers, makes the Centro and Treo smartphones. The company’s market share has been shrinking, with RIM’s BlackBerry becoming the device of choice for the business set and Apple’s iPhone a consumer phenomenon.

“The goal is to consolidate resources and focus our efforts more effectively,” Fox said.”

I feel sorry for the people who lost their jobs as we head into the 2008 holiday season. This is not the first time that Palm has had a reduction in headcount in the final months of the year and the current economic situation is not helping anything.

I know Jon Rubinstein is a former disciple of Apple chief Steve Jobs and secrecy is paramount. Since Rubinsein’s arrival at Palm, there has been an air-tight seal around the company preventing any leaked information about their it-will-get-here-eventually next generation mobile operating system Palm OS II/Nova. For a long time I supported the company’s decision to keep a tight lid on things until they where ready to launch the OS and the first mobile device that would be powered by it.

With the current state of the company being what it is, I think it is time to start leaking details on their new hardware and software sooner rather than later. Assuming that Palm has laid off 200 additional workers, the company is now employing about 850 people worldwide. On Friday, Palm’s stock closed at $2.24 after dipping to under $2.00 earlier in the week. And, in a second statement found on TreoCentral.com, Palm indicates that:

“The global economic downturn continues to dampen demand for consumer goods around the world, and the impact on the economic environment is worsened by our maturing Centro line and the length of time it is taking to ramp our new Windows Mobile products.”

I love using Palm’s products and I really do want to see them succeed with Palm OS II/Nova and their next round of hardware. It would seem that now, more than ever, everything is working against Palm. I’m really concerned that mid-2009, seven months from now, is too long of a wait. It’s time to start showing the world what Palm has been working on in their labs.

Clemens Schuchert, executive producer and host of Germany’s PUGcast – Sync Your Ears, has written a new article on securing your smartphone.

“Data is sensitive, regardless whether it is personal or business related. You neither want anybody to know your bank transaction codes or PINs for the cellphone, credit card, etc. nor to know which customers you serve. Thus, data is sensitive and needs to be protected. Who of you really take care of data protection?

From my experience in all regards of enterprise security issues, I may say that the most important security feature is the user himself, which often is left out in a pretty well designed enterprise security stratgey. This is fatal because the user is vital part of the strategy!

There are severel protection levels, which make it quite secure to have all sensitive data on your smartphone.
In general, there are five protection levels:
(01) device based
(02) user based
(03) application based
(03) file based
(04) disk/card based (for expansion media)”

Keep reading How to Handle Sensitive Data on Smartphones…

PalmGear.com, one of the early staples in the Palm ecosystem, returned to service today under new management.

PalmGear.com, was shutdown earlier this year by parent company, Motricity. and customer accounts were migrated to sister site, PocketGear.com. During the process, many freeware and shareware applications disappeared while most commercial Palm OS software was rolled into PocketGear site.

Under new management, lead by a former Motricity executive, PalmGear.com has gone back online in all it’s former glory. To help celebrate the return of PalmGear.com to the Palm community, a 20% discount promotion is in effect for all of the software being sold on the site. During check out, use the coupon code “NEWOWNERS”. The code will remain in effect until September 14th, 2008.

I’m glad to see PalmGear.com return. I do hope that the PalmGear brand can be rebuilt by the new owners. I’m even more excited that I don’t have to deal with the old PocketGear.com site that I griped about in my 1SRC Editorial, “Adios, Motricity.” And while I have yet to receive a “welcome back” email that I suggested in the editorial, I have confirmed that my old PalmGear.com account is still in effect providing me access to all of the great Palm OS software and license codes that I had previously purcased.

Welcome back, PalmGear! We’ve missed you.

While doing a little “fall cleaning” in my home office I happened across an old receipt for a SanDisk SD card from January 2004. I was really excited to have all of this extra storage space for my trusty Palm handheld.

Oh, think of all the wonderful things that I was able to store on that card: Pictures, a handful of my favorite .mp3 files, Office documents, and articles clipped from the web for offline reading thanks to iSilo. Those were the days.

It is funny how our perception of technology changes over time. Back then that 256MB SD card cost me $74.95. Today, for less than half of what it cost me to purchase a 256MB card in 2004 I can now buy a 4GB microSD card for my Palm Treo 750. Just imagine what $15 will buy in 2012 and what we will be doing with all of that space on our mobile computers.

Ah, technology.

Engadget is reporting that Palm has hired well known software interface designer Matias Duarte. The company has confirmed that Mr. Duarte has been working for Palm since September 2007.

Mr. Duarte’s title at Palm is listed as Senior Director, Human Interface and User Experience and is likely working on the new user interface for Palm’s next generation Linux operating system, Palm OS II/Nova.

Bringing in Mr. Duarte is likely the work of Jon Rubeinstein who is leading an internal revolution at Palm with the intention of making the company relevant in the mobile computer market.

What I find interesting about this is that Palm has stated that Palm OS II/Nova is due to have the core OS completed by the end of this calendar year. Once the core is complete, the work on the interface would begin. It sounds like Palm has an entire team already working on the interfaces for the next generation Treo and Centro smartphones.

Is this yet another piece of evidence that suggests that Palm OS II/Nova will be ready before the middle of 2009? I think so.

Read the full Engadget article…

[Thanks to all the folks who sent in this tip.]

I noticed while reading the July 1 posted SEC Form 4 filing for Palm Founder Jeff Hawkins today that he is now listed as “Former Officer.” This is in stark contrast to the listing of “Founder and Member of the Exec” that was listed on the Form 4 that was posted on June 16.

What Does This Mean?

A quick trip to the Palm website still lists Mr. Hawkins as being part of the Palm management team with the title of “Founder”. I attempted to contact Palm’s public relations department earlier today to obtain a clarification as to Mr. Hawkins’ relationship with the company. As yet, Palm has not responded to that email.

As you may recall, Palm isn’t the only business that Mr. Hawkins is involved with. In 2005, Mr. Hawkins started a new company called Numenta to “apply neuroscience research to computing problems.” It is entirely possible that Mr. Hawkins is simply putting more time into this other passion, the study of the human brain.

I will provide updates as more information is made available.

Palm has announced that their year-end financial results conference call will be held Thursday, June 26, 2008.

The conference call will be hosted once again by Palm’s CEO, Ed Colligan and CFO, Andy Brown. Interested parties can listen in on the conference call via a steaming Internet feed from a line on the Palm Investor Relations website.

Blogger Dan Frommer has posted some of his notes and impressions from this past Monday’s Palm presentation delivered by Palm VP & CFO Andy Brown. Of Palm’s presentation, Mr. Frommer writes:

“Palm’s (PALM) finance chief Andy Brown knows plenty about his company’s forthcoming Linux-based operating system, which has been under development for about two years and is set to be finished around the end of this year. (Yes, this is the miracle next-gen OS steered by former Apple engineering guru Jon Rubinstein.)

What does he want us to know about it? Nothing! In a fireside chat at JPMorgan’s annual tech conference, Brown refused to answer (with substance, at least) any questions about the OS, other than telling us it will be awesome and that it will be a platform for a bunch of devices, not just one.”

But my favorite few lines from the Silicon Alley Insider posting is this:

“- Next-gen OS is a platform for a range of products — not just one. “Clearly more of a platform for a range of products. One of the reasons we canceled a fairly significant product about a year ago was because we felt as though having a one, unified user experience for Palm products was important, that could be extensible beyond one product.””

Here’s to hoping that we see a Foleo II in 2009!

You can read the full post here…