Howard Stern to Palm: Keep Your Pre, Gimme a BlackBerry
Howard Stern may be many things but he’s not known as a techno geek like other stars. He has been a long-time user of the Palm Treo and he’s made it known he’s up for an update to newer technology. In a rare move for Palm, although a seemingly worthwhile risk, the maker of the Pre arranged to have the new phone special delivered to Stern over the weekend so he could give it a good look. Palm is betting the farm on the Pre and this was a gimmick tailor-made to further the buzz for the Pre. Except for Lotus Notes.
“They’re going to show me the Pre and then take it away. They’re trying to build excitement for this thing. If people don’t buy this I don’t see how Palm keeps going,” said Stern.
Who would have suspected that Stern is totally dependent on Lotus Notes in his work? He’s not the big technical geek you expect to be into Notes but apparently that is the case. After the brief exposure to the Palm Pre Stern has indicated it’s not for him as it doesn’t talk to Lotus Notes. Instead he wants a BlackBerry Bold to replace his aging Treo. Palm couldn’t have foreseen this but it’s not the outcome they were hoping for, that’s for sure.
This accentuates what we say over and over here on jkOnTheRun. Smartphones are very personal technology and the one feature that is not important to the majority can be a deal-breaker to some. Like Lotus Notes compatibility.
(via ZDNet)
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Does anyone care what that irrelevant moron has to say?
Apparently Palm does.
palm SHOULD have known that stern uses lotus notes, he’s been on it forever and regularly talks about it. he specifically stated that lotus notes compatibility is critical for his choice of phone.
You left out… “Stern did say the Pre was a nice device.” Also, that Palm Rep should be fired, last week CompanionLink was announced for the Pre, Lotus Notes can be accessed through CompanionLInk.
Yikes! Geeks don’t use Lotus Notes!
Oh yes they do !
Stern HAS used Lotus Notes for years. It does not take a techo-geek to be on Lotus Notes if your company uses it. Palm did not do their homework and paid the price for the public rejection.
Michael you’re absolutely right, Palm should have known about this and made sure the companionlink app was ready for Stern’s use. Although, I’d say, there aren’t many smartphone buyers buying smartphones for their connectivity to Lotus Notes. I mean come on, when’s the last time you knew someone personally on Lotus Notes at their company(the last I can think of, was about 10 years ago).
There are a lot of companies still using Lotus Notes. Obviously you don’t work for one of them.
Why does Palm want to market a smart phone to elderly, technophobic senior citizens anyway? If they want to appeal to the younger more tech savvy crowd they should offer them to Opie and Anthony
A large number of Tech companies use Lotus Notes. Hell IBM alone has over 350 thousand employees. And by ignoring Lotus Notes, you’re losing all those potential customers.
yeah, I remember Stern on K-Rock always screaming at bababooey about updating the Lotus Notes.
Agree with Bob though, given that O&A have been using video chat software (paltalk), twitter, myspace, facebook, you’d think they’d go there.
Of course little jimmy would sh*t all over it since he hates all of his phones.
What’s Lotus notes? (lol) marketing “Smart” phones to “Dumb” people sheez.