I was just looking at a post I wrote a while back that went over the top ten reasons RIM should buy Palm and although it was a tongue in check top ten list, it got me to “thinking crazy” again. I am having a hard time remembering why this would be such a horrible move for RIM.
With Motorola announcing that they are in the process of buying Good Technology last week, Palm, which is still number two to RIM, just went from “limping along” to “Ahhh $#!+” as far as their outlook on the future of smartphones goes.
Palm, of course, won’t admit that their tough times ahead just turned into all but impossible times, and they won’t tell you that they are looking to get bought out, however, if the right company came along like, oh lets say a mobile device maker whose stock price is up almost 100% in the passed few months and is a (the) leader in the smartphone / PDA industry, I am sure they (Palm) would be extremely interested in talking about a buyout that could be spun like a merger of two equals in the market.
I know that I am talking crazy again so someone please remind me why this is such a horrible idea. RIM being able to buy Palm at a bottom basement price with the option of doing so with all cash or all stock because RIM is sitting that pretty right now cannot be a good idea. RIM increasing their footprint in a consumer market where they really only have one consumer oriented device by buying a company that lives in the consumer market can’t be good business.
I know that there is that old “Palm sucks compared to BlackBerry” argument out there, but lets be honest, Treos are going to disappear from the face of the earth anytime in the near future. Either Palm will figure it out, or, and more probably, the company that buys Palm will. I just need some to explain to me again why that shouldn’t be RIM.
If RIM purchased Palm what would they gain from gaining entry to a strictly hardware company at this point? Perhaps the blackberry OS on a Treo? Most people’s fervor for the Treo is aimed at the hardcore Palm OS users.
The would gain the all the die-hard Palm Addicts that are as dead set against moving to BlackBerry as BlackBerry users are moving to Palm devices.
Even with all the struggles that Palm is having, they still are in second place overall, and currently in first place, when it comes to individual consumers.
Additionaly, I don’t see RIM buying Palm to integrate into the BlackBerry. Palm could definately run as an independent business unit. The plus for RIM is that they assimilate one of their biggest competitors, that allthough is down, is definitely not out.