I had lunch the other day with one of the top independent folks in PR, a woman by the name of Kimberly Rose, and we were chatting about how the big PR firms (and I was clearly on a rant about Edelman), were constantly putting junior people on accounts and spreading the senior people so thin (or getting rid of them because they were too expensive) that they couldn't make much of a difference.

In this case, things started going south for Palm earlier in the month and typically PR would call down and attempt to control the message. Edelman was effectively AWOL and I couldn't see them doing much of anything to attempt to mitigate the damage.

They did get sample phones out to a lot of us, but there were two embargo dates and times 12 hours apart. In effect big publications like the Wall Street Journal, and New York times (the Times broke their embargo anyway) were allowed to publish 12 hours before anyone else could. Not that this worked, most published shortly after they saw the other pieces but folks had to be called in from home, and firms had to scramble to respond timely and I doubt many of us will ever sign an NDA from either Palm or Edelman in the future. Pissed off doesn’t begin to describe it.

This is called "Poisoning the Well" and what it does is assures that people that might have been supporters for Palm in the future will likely not be. When you are already fighting for your life this isn't the kind of "help" you need.

Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3

At the Apple World Wide Developer's Conference Apple was hitting on all cylinders with the only major exception being that the appearance by Steve Jobs, which was expected by many, didn't actually occur. In a way, this time, that may have been a good thing because everyone was able to focus on the products while his return would have likely focused most on him instead.

Apple did a nice job of cleaning up problems with their laptop lines and getting Snow Leopard ready to do battle http://www.itworld.com with Windows 7, an impressive piece of work and strategy, but they clearly held the iPhone for last to rub Palm's face in the fact that Apple could execute.

It is interesting to point out that it is clear Apple originally had planned to announce this later given they like to have product on shelves at time of announcement and, this time, that availability is still some time off (6/19). Apple appears to have adjusted the timing of their announcement to slow any momentum Palm was getting in the market and this strategy appears to be working. I still wonder if they didn't hold some stuff back so Steve would have something to present later in the month at the iPhone conference and on top of the actual product availability.

Apple, as expected, updated and removed many of the initial advantages that Palm showcased, with the exception of the keyboard and inductive dock, and showcased an application store lead that almost seems uncatchable. They are gaining so much in handheld gaming that I now wonder if Sony's PSP can survive.

Wrapping Up: Palm Lost

A lot of us were really rooting for Palm, and if you are a Treo or even Blackberry user, I still think they have the best phone even with the recent iPhone refresh. But their timing, execution, and particularly their PR was well off the pace needed to go after a company that executes at Apple's level. This was like arriving at a foot race in the best shoes, gear, and with the best training and running against a vastly more experienced and better funded competitor and then getting drunk the night before the race and tying your shoelaces together. Apple executed and Palm didn't which means this was less of an Apple win than it was a Palm loss. Palm better bring its game up or when RIM, Android, and Microsoft make their product refresh later in the year and Apple goes to war that battle may make Palm History.