People are saying Palm is worthless. First, that’s an absurd statement — stocks can’t really go to $0, it’s not how the market works.

But that said, here’s a snip from a fresh-as-last-week business strategy email wherein I discuss the low end of the smartphone market in the context of what platforms to target:

I think Palm and Microsoft are being left in the dust, but I’m staying open-minded.

My reasoning ran thusly: I don’t know anyone who has a Palm smartphone, or wants one, and the only person I know with a Microsoft smartphone is an artcriminal who knows nothing about technology. Microsoft smartphones were hot shit back in ’02… And I haven’t heard anything impressive about them since.

Palm is trying to market their way out of this problem, when right now the smartphone market seems technology-bound — they should fire 50% of their SGA expense people (Selling, General, and Administrative) and double their R&D. At least. Given that they have $500 million in cash on-hand (which they seem to have got by issuing stock — HUGE WARNING SIGN) they should spend ALL OF IT trying to build a better burrito (proverbially).

And, as Warren Buffett says, if you can’t beat ‘em then start looking to sell off your IP and return that money to the shareholders.