

Five years after the iPhone, carriers are the biggest threat to innovation - quadrahelix
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/5/3138711/five-years-after-the-iphone-carriers-are-the-biggest-threat-to-innovation-editorial

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rkudeshi
Very surprised to read this nugget. I had no idea Verizon was so culpable in
Palm's implosion.

>Just look at the tragic story of Palm, which went from darling of CES 2009 to
legendary failure in just 31 short months. The company initially wanted to
ship its Pre smartphone on Verizon, but the carrier backed out and Palm was
forced to languish on Sprint, where it was unable to compete directly against
the iPhone. When Verizon finally picked up the Pre Plus the next year, the
carrier ordered millions of devices and then flippantly refused shipment and
decided to focus on the Motorola Droid, leaving Palm sitting on millions of
unsold units that couldn't be used on any other carrier in the world. The
decision cost Palm hundreds of million of dollars and led directly to the
company selling itself to HP.

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maxharris
"When Verizon finally picked up the Pre Plus the next year, the carrier
ordered millions of devices and then flippantly refused shipment and decided
to focus on the Motorola Droid, leaving Palm sitting on millions of unsold
units that couldn't be used on any other carrier in the world."

Was this breach of contract, or not? If Verizon's "flippant" refusal of
shipment was permitted by the contract, then this is Palm's mismanagement.
They should have negotiated terms that would have mitigated this risk, or
insisted on "NO DEAL" precisely because of this risk.

Palm was a large company. They had lawyers - what were they doing and saying
about this?

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dm8
Carriers hate to be called as "dumb pipes" but unfortunately they have become
the dumb pipes only. Any idea why Verizon blocked Google Wallet? Isn't it
illegal?

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raganesh
I guess this post by MG Seigler is relevant here:
<http://parislemon.com/post/15604811641/why-i-hate-android>

Before anyone makes any Ad Hominem comment, may I please request to focus on
the point in that post relevant to the thread here?

