The Debate on Licensing Palms OS - Essay Example

Palm (A The Debate on Licensing Palms OS (1997) al Affiliation) The problems arising in the palm case is unstable leadership team after the departure of Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan who were the co-founders of Palm Company and market stagnation due to lack of product innovation resulting to deteriorating financial results (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). These problems lowered the opportunities for future growth of the Palm Company since the external and internal changes adversely affected the operations of the company. By reuniting the two palm groups, which were platform group and product group into one, the company faced constrains in ensuring all the features promised in the operating system were included causing delays in the new releases (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). Palm’s business model indicates the core aspects of the company including the purpose of the business, target customers, and the strategies to ensure the going concern of the company (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). The customers of the company included handheld computer manufacturers, larger software development companies, hobby programmers, venture capital firms, smaller development companies, and large electronics enterprise (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010).. Palm customers think that the company should license its operating system and open it to other handheld computer manufacturers. They feel that licensing the OS will make the platform available to other firms thus enhancing hardware development. Notably, the company focused on creating applications for PalmPilots to enhance its adoption. Consequently, the demand for Palm applications increased while larger software enterprises developed Palm software.30 (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). The customers valued the portable devices with an ability to retain data. Palm offered software that allowed greater connectivity between non–pen-based PDAs and adopted Graffiti technology that allowed Palm devices to recognized specific characters with a reduced processing power (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). The consumers also valued the Touchdown device that was simple, compact, and fast. The device retailed at a cheaper price. These aspects helped the company to attract 51% of consumers in the PDA market (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). Palm executives developed the tablet computer GRiDPad and wrote their software applications. The company contracted Tandy and Casio to manufacture and distribute the Zoomer product. As such, Tandy released Zoomer while Casio released the Z-7000 (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). However, Zoomer failed terribly forcing Hawkins, Dubinsky to design their device, Touchdown. The internal development of the Touchdown entailed 25 people and an industrial design for designing the form factor of the device (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). The executives authorized a takeover by US Robotics that offered financial assistance, modern technology, and marketing network. The company executives also travelled across America to promote their value propositions by establishing contact with editors and computing influencers (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). The company enhanced adoption by contracting software developers to develop applications for PalmPilots using SDK (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). This increased the availability of shareware applications. The company also posted PalmPilots on the internet, which enhanced the demand for Palm applications. Apparently, the company had an effective way of interacting with the customer through their journey. For instance, the company allowed software developers to create applications for PalmPilots by giving them the requisite materials like SDK. Palm also availed some programs free to the consumers. This encouraged larger software developers like Symantec to start developing Palm software. The company designed and offered products that addressed consumers’ needs at a cheaper retail price than other PDAs. Indeed, to counter the identified problems the company’s business model should flexible enough to address the new challenges and the management should work together towards solving the problems and attaining the company targets. In addition, the business model should establish the needs and wants of the customers to meet and exceed the customers’ expectations through innovation and invention, which in turn will lead to, increased revenues and thus counter the problem of market segmentation. Palm earns revenue from the value propositions. Apparently, the company refused to collaborate with hardware partners while releasing the “Touchdown” device thus safeguarding its design process, sales distribution rights, and intellectual property (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). Palm’s takeover by US Robotics allowed the company to access nationwide retail stores that increased its market network. The company controlled the sales strategy by selecting its retailers. Moreover, the company priced its products reasonably and ensured the products are compatible with other electronics like desktop PCs (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). By focusing on hobby programmers and smaller development companies, Palm enhanced the availability of various shareware applications that increased the demand for Palm applications. For the business to compete unique strategic assets are mandatory. Indeed, after the failure of the Zoomer product, Palm realized that it must have platforms to in order to sell its applications (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). The business also requires monetary resources, professional labor force, modem technology, intellectual property, and a huge network to enhance product development and market presence. Indeed, the potential for network effect can increase the competitive advantage of a company. The leadership team should network to come up with new and exciting products to suit the customer needs and this can only happen only if the employees work towards a common goal. The launching of PalmPilots on the internet enhanced the demand for Palm applications. The internet can lead to the creation of new markets and more customized products invented with internet and technology. The use of internet and technology has greatly improved the business world by increasing the customer awareness on the availability of products and services. Pricing is a very crucial factor in this context. The Palm Company should ensure that the prices of their products and services are competitive (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). In addition, the Company should also make sure that the developers of the products and services benefit from them in order to motivate them in their work to reduce the turn over and keep the company in business. The users of the company products should be able to access them at competitive or affordable prices to create a positive impact on the market. For instance, the company charged reasonable prices for its products thus attracting huge demand. The major cost drivers for the business include required software reliability, software tools, software engineering methods, and development schedule, marketing, modern technology, and establishing platforms. These cost drivers influenced revenues since they determined the pricing of the final product. In order to create a standard, the leadership team and all other employees should work at the interest of the company, which is to achieve specific goals and make profit. For instance, Palm created a new standard for handheld computing by pricing its products reasonably and enhancing their compatibility with other electronic gadgets. Working towards the same goal increases cooperation and reduces competition and rivalry among colleagues. The cooperation in turn will result to increased revenue and a greater profit margin. The company should have a standard of ensuring high quality products with low power usage and high performance characteristics (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). To focus on its key activities, the company cannot collaborate with companies that will control its design process, intellectual property, and sales distribution rights (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). The company should not engage in partnerships that will jeopardize the company’s goal of becoming a market leader or investing in future opportunities. From the perspective of a Chief Executive Officer, I would recommend that all the departmental leaders to come up with the objectives and targets of their departments in order to identify the high performing and non-performing staff and departments. In addition, I would forecast future growth of the company and establish how to achieve the forecasts and invest in related profitable ventures (Mitchell, Casadesus –Masanell, & Boudreau, 2010). To achieve this, a promising team full of motivation is very essential together with a ready market for the products and services. From the perspective of a marketer designing the next market, I would make a recommendation of understanding the needs of the customers in order to develop a product that will meet the wants of the customers and hence reduce the market stagnation and the leaders to pull up ideas to come up with excellent products and services. From the perspective of business developer recruiting new licensees, I would recommend an increase in the number of licensees in order to meet a larger market and hence increase our market share and in turn increase our sales and profit margin. From the perspective of developer relations manager recruiting new developers, I would make a recommendation of improving the recruitment process to ensure that people with brilliant ideas are not locked out. I would also recommend that the recruited developers benefit from what they do, so the company should be fair in paying the developers, and in this way, they will be motivated to come up with more customized product and services. References Mitchell, J., Casadesus –Masanell, R., & Boudreau, K. (2010). Palm (A). The Palm debate on licensing Palm’s OS (1997). Harvard Business School. Mitchell, J., Casadesus –Masanell, R., & Boudreau, K. (2010). Palm (B): 2001 What Happened?—Palm Pursues Limited Licensing. Harvard Business School. Read More