I have been following the Palm Inc. downfall ever since I found they would not support Windows Vista 64-bit Operating Systems with a USB Hot Sync. I have been a loyal customer of Palm since the first Palm Pilots. When I heard that my sister was laid off from Palm I started to do some searching in the news. The only thing I found was this article on PalmInfocenter:
A Round of Layoffs at Palm
Posted By: Ryan Kairer on Thursday, November 20, 2008 9:02:14 PMRumor:PalmInfocenter has received a couple of unconfirmed reports that Palm Inc. has had a round of layoffs this week. One report from a reliable source claims as many as 200 people were let go from the US team on Thursday. Most of the cuts are claimed to be in the sales and marketing departments. Sources also postulate that Palm will be closing some offices in Europe and Asia as well.
The news comes during a rather rough week for Palm’s stock and the US stock market in general. Shares in Palm closed at a new all time low over continued uncertainly about the general economy and Palm’s long planned turnaround. The last major round of layoffs came around this time last year when around 250 people were cut. Palm’s last reported head count in August was around 1,050 employees.
The company just recently reported its fifth consecutive quarterly loss back in September. At the time Palm CEO Ed Colliganstressed that the company was “still solidly in the midst of its transformation with some significant hurdles yet to come.” Palm is due to report the results of the current quarter on December 18th.
I can let you know now that this is not a rumor. My sister, who worked in the testing of new Windows based Palm smart-phones, was laid off on Thursday November 20, 2008. I have yet to talk to her and once I do i will report more. I am hoping she did not sign a non-disclosure agreement as I want to get all the information I can and let you the readers know.
My wife and i were discussing this and find that one reason Palm is not making money is that they are not supporting all of thier products and many loyal customers are leaving them to go to either BlackBerry, the iPhone or any of the other smart-phones that are out there. Even a regular cell phone has some PDA functions built in. Alarms, calendars and contact lists.