Market Performance of Palm Inc - Case Study Example

Palm Overview Table of Contents Introduction 3 Palm Inc. 3 Current Situation 4 Mission & Vision 4 Strengths 4 Weaknesses 5 Competitive Analysis 5 Current major competitors (Top 3) 5 General Environmental Analysis 7 Recommendations 8 Mission, Vision and Objectives 8 References 9 Introduction Merger and acquisition has been one of the most widely practiced strategies in the business world over the past few decades. It is considered as an important strategy in the process of beating the competitors. However, prior to merger and acquisition it is very crucial to have a clear picture about both the organizations that are going to be merged with each other. Recently, the business world has observed the merger between two of the most popular organizations in the computer and mobile phone industry and these are HP and Palm Inc. This paper is prepared with the objective of providing a clear understanding regarding the strategic position of Palm Inc. The paper includes mission and vision of the company. In addition to these the paper also contains the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of Palm Inc. Palm Inc. California based Palm Inc was established in the year 1992. Till July, 2005 the company was known as PalmOne Inc. (Business Week, No Date). The company provides mobile products to its individual as well as business customers who are spread throughout the world. It is popular for offering integrated technologies that allow people in staying connected with friends, families and colleagues. Thanks to these technologies, customers of Palm Inc. are enabled to share and access all the important and latest information and hence manage their everyday lives more effectively. The company employs almost 1000 people (Business Week, No Date). Current Situation Mission & Vision During the early days Palm’s main mission was to become a leader in the software market for handheld computers as well as for various other communication devices (Butter & Pogue, 2002). With the passage of time, the company has broadened its view. It has thought beyond becoming a leading software maker in the world of handheld computer. At present, the company’s vision is improving and enhancing the daily lives of individuals and organizations. The company aims to enable it’s customers to access and share any type of information through various advance mode of communication at any time from anywhere in the world (Tiffany & Peterson, 2007). Strengths Palm Inc. is mainly known for smart phones. It is one of the leading names in the world of ‘Personal Digital Assistants’ (Ogg, E. 2010). The company has an exclusive brand identity due to its strong presence in the market of handheld computers. In fact there was a time when the company used to dominate also 70% of the handheld computer market in US (Ogg, E. 2010). As a result, it can be said that the company has reasonably strong brand image in the mobile communication market. After being acquired by a big company like HP, Palm is certainly in a better position now. HP is known to be one of the biggest companies in the computer manufacturing industry. It has strong presence in all the major PC markets in the world. Palm is expected to get all the possible financial support from HP to complete its major projects. Furthermore, the excellent brand image of HP is likely to help the company in the process of selling its products in the global markets. Palm Inc deals with high end technologies and it has enough technical expertise to challenge the big brands like Apple, Microsoft and Google. With the help of HP, the company can improve its technological base and come up with new advanced high end products for its customers. The famous webOS of Palm is still one of the best operating systems that are ever designed specifically for various mobile applications. The company is also famous for the creation of Pre which is considered as one of the best smart phones in the world (Saitto and Levy, 2010). Weaknesses Palm Inc., one of the most innovative companies in the high end computer technology industry, has lost its glory because of various wrong decisions that are taken by its management. Over the years the top and middle management of Palm has struggled to make effective decisions that would enable the company to stay ahead in the competition. They failed to introduce the right product at the right time. Product like Foleo was ‘misfired’. Furthermore, most of the products of Palm were introduce in some of the selected markets. As a result, a large of section of global technology market was untouched. In simple words, Palm has failed to reach all of its target market. Competitive Analysis Current major competitors (Top 3) Three main competitors of Palm Inc are Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion. All these companies are known as the dominating players in the high end mobile communication technology and related industry. Product lines: Some of the major products of Palm are Palm Pre, Centro smart phones and Treo. All these products provide a wide range of entertainment applications and productivity tools for the business as well as individual customers. Another important fact about Palm is that it offers an operating system called PalmwebOS. This system is specially built for the mobile phones. In addition to these products, Palm is also known for offering handheld computers and various accessories like micro USB cables, memory expansion cards, charging kits and vehicle power adapters. The products of Palm Inc are sold to distributors, wireless carrier, resellers and retailers through various online as well as offline channels that are located throughout the world. Competitive Strategy: As far as competitive strategy is concerned Palm Inc mainly relies on differentiation strategy. The company is better known for its innovative product line that is greatly differentiated from the competitors’ products in terms of technology that is used and various high end features. Major Strengths and Weaknesses: Differentiated products that are empowered by high end communication technology are the main strength of Palm Inc. Product differentiation is driven by innovation and this is why Palm Inc is considered as one of the most innovative companies in its industry. On the other hand the company’s main weakness is the lack of support from the management. The management of Palm has failed to capitalize on its innovative product line in the long run and as a result it has struggled in staying ahead of its competitors. Opportunities: Palm has the opportunity of making some innovative devices that will help the customers in using various existing communication devices more effectively. In simple words the company can take the advantage of the market that is created by its competitors’ products. Threats: Failure of Palm’s management has affected its product development process. As a result it is lagging behind its competitors in terms of innovation as well as market capitalization. General Environmental Analysis General Opportunities: Palm is already merged with HP which is one of the largest organizations in the global computer technology industry. As a consequence, now it is likely to have sufficient financial as well as technological assistance. In short, now Palm has the opportunity of taking up bigger projects and completing them successfully in the stipulated time frame. HP has strong distribution network through which the company meets the demand of its customers who are spread all the over the world. Being, a part of HP, Palm can now take advantage of this global distribution network to introduce its products in various major markets of the world. In the present competitive business world it is very crucial to have strong foothold in the developing economies in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage. With the help of HP’s distribution network, Palm has the opportunity to make its products popular in these economies. General Threats: Over the years Palm’s major threats have come from its competitors. Rivals like Research in Motion, Microsoft, Apple and Google have over performed Palm through their highly innovative products, excellent market reach and strong brand equity. Palm has been unable to retain its success in front of the technical and financial capabilities of these organizations. Recommendations Mission, Vision and Objectives In order to gain sustainable competitive advantage Palm Inc should focus more on the aspect of innovation while introducing any new product. Furthermore, with its innovative product line the company should try to touch the lives of the developing economies more effectively and this should be the mission of the company. Palm Inc. should have a vision of redefining the usage of mobile communication technology. At present, the company’s main objective should be completing its ongoing projects successfully and developing new products and markets with the help of HP’s infrastructure. Palm should develop a proper plan for its upcoming products keeping the emerging economies in focus. In fact the company can think about developing products on the basis of the needs and demands of the people in the developing countries. References Business Week, No Date, Palm Inc., Bloomberg Businessweek, Retrieved from http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=32657, March 10, 2011. Butter, A., & Pogue, D. 2002, Piloting Palm: the inside story of Palm, Handspring, and the birth of the billion-dollar handheld industry, John Wiley and Sons Ogg, E. 2010. HP buying Palm for $1.2 billion, Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20003695-260.html March 10, 2011. Saitto, S and Levy, A. 2010, Palm Said to Tap Goldman, Quattrone to Find Buyers, Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-04-11/palm-said-to-put-itself-up-for-sale-hires-goldman-qatalyst-to-seek-bids.html March 10, 2011. Tiffany, P., & Peterson, S. D. 2007, Business Plans For Dummies, 2nd Ed, Wiley-India Read More