Bye Bye Palm,

I was the HUGEST fan. Their marketing killed them. Palm OS, almost 20 years old, was way better than BlackBerry and Windows Mobile and Symbian with their advances combined today. The company is dying purely because of mis-management. 20 year old technology is better than the best everyone else is doing now.
Palm’s new price target: $0
By Blake Ellis, staff reporterMarch 19, 2010

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Palm’s future already looked bleak. But after reporting worse than expected results for the third quarter Thursday, some analysts think the company’s stock is now essentially worthless.

Shares of Palm (PALM) plunged 19% to $4.59 a share early Friday, a new 52-week low. Investors are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the company’s future and several analysts downgraded their positions on the stock to “sell.” Two analysts even lowered their price targets to $0.

Palm’s Pre smartphone has failed to live up to expectations. Some analysts question how much longer the company can survive.

In its quarterly earnings report Thursday, Palm posted a loss of 61 cents per share, substantially missing the 43-cent loss expected by analysts.

While the company touted its high volume of shipments, analysts are worried that major carriers such as Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) and Sprint (S, Fortune 500) just haven’t been able to get Palm’s phones off their shelves.

Morgan Joseph & Co. analyst Ilya Grozovsky, one of the two analysts to cut its price target on Palm shares to $0, said “Palm is essentially an accelerating death spiral.”

“They have had a tremendous problem selling their devices even at carriers like Verizon with 80 million subscribers,” he added.

Grozovsky said Palm has attributed its sales slump to salespeople at the wireless carriers not being well enough versed about the potential benefits of new Palm phones such as the Pre and Pixi. So the company is boosting its marketing and re-training sales representatives.

Grozovsky isn’t buying this argument though. “They keep saying, ‘we need to market, market, market,’ because in their mind it’s a marketing problem,” he said. “But it’s not about the trainees and the sales people, it’s just too competitive of a space right now for Palm to make any difference.”

Palm has struggled to make a dent in the smartphone market. Apple’s (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPhone and Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry are far more popular. Competitors Nokia (NOK) and Motorola (MOT, Fortune 500) have also had more success in the market.

In an attempt to reassure investors worried about the company’s financial situation, Palm announced in February that it had $500 million in cash on hand. But analysts expect this buffer to soon be lost given the pace at which the company is burning its money as its attempts to pick up flagging sales.

Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek who also lowered Palm’s price target to $0 Friday, wrote in a report that “Palm’s troubles will only accelerate as carriers and suppliers increasingly question the company’s solvency and withdraw their support.”

Misek added that he thinks Palm’s current cash level can only keep the company afloat for about another 12 months.

The Penguin

There was a penguin, driving in his car. All of a sudden, he started having car trouble.

You know how penguins are, they’re pretty lucky, and his car coasted to a stop right in front of an auto repair shop.
So, the mechanic is working on the car, and the penguin sees an ice cream store across the street.
You know how penguins are, they love ice cream, so the penguin runs across the street and gets a big vanilla ice cream cone.
The penguin is eating his ice cream cone, and you know how penguins are, they’re messy ice cream eaters, so he was getting ice cream all over his beak and face.
All of a sudden, the penguin sees the mechanic across the street, waving at him to come over about his car. So the penguin goes over to see what the problem is.
“It looks like you blew a seal”, says the mechanic.
Blushing, the penguin says “No, it wasn’t a seal, I was just eating ice cream!”

So Happens It's Tuesday


I said it before and I say it again. My Spanish study is interfering with my blog. I study in the time I used to post.

I bought a box of cigars. Some La Gloria Cubana Deliciosos. Exclusivo Cuba. They came in a porcelain humidor jar. There were only 2000 units made. They are about the same size as a Robusto only a little longer. Nice!I should have washed my coffee cup before I took the pic!I got the bottom pic from cubajournal.blogspot.com

Cayman Brac Agriculture Show

I look at these pics, and notice they are strangely devoid of people. Let me assure you there were lots of people there, I just took my pics before the show opened. There were a lot more there than I took pictures of too, there was lots of food and booths with people selling all kinds of things.

Trees ready to plant
I liked this old mulcher, off in the back.
The business end
Peppers growing in box garden
The box garden
The Mad Hatter.

(I asked a dancing girl for 2 favors, 1:Can I borrow your hat and sunglasses, and 2: will you take my picture wearing them.)

It was a good time at the Brac Agriculture Show. We had pretty good quality on the broadcast too!

Mau & Gaylene

My Brother In Law and his wife moved here from Bonaire and arrived Sunday evening. My wife is very happy to have them, as am I. She’s very much a family person. They’ll be working at a dive shop in East End.

Weird Dream


Last night I dreamed that I was at a big carnival or party at this concrete dock by the sea. There were lots of people I knew, none of them well. When I looked up I could see stars in the clear blue sky, even though it was bright daylight. Except the stars were blue. And symmetrical, like a pattern, not random like stars. Like something big, hovering high.
I was trying to show everyone, and apparently no one could see them but me. But everyone who said they couldn’t see them, never even looked up at the sky.