Instant Alert
PalmOne Treo 650 Advertising Campaign Adjustment - ALL MKTS
The PalmOne Treo 650 Ad Campaign media placements have been reduced. Media placements for the following weeks have been postponed or cancelled due to inventory shortages caused by strong demand and recent discovery of interoperability issues with Gemplus 64K SIM Card.
Mon, February 21, 2005
Inventory Shortage Overview:
Demand for the Treo 650 has been far stronger than expected. The number of units originally forecast to be sold by the end of May are now forecast to be sold by the end of March. Currently, total Treo 650 sales are running at three times what was forecast.
The disparity between regional market forecasts and actual demand has led to a substantial backorder situation for Orange Treo 650 units – units that use Cingular SIMs and that are sold through retail, eStore and other consumer-facing channels. To counteract this deficit, Orange Treo 650s are being transferred from the Ft. Worth DC to Memphis. Also, Cingular has placed additional orders for Treo 650s with PalmOne early last week and requested accelerated delivery of pending shipments.
Interoperability Issues with Gemplus 64K SIM Card:
Interoperability issues between the Treo 650 and the Gemplus 64K SIM were discovered last week. In 25% to 33% of activations with Gemplus 64K SIMs, one or more of these problems occurred: voice mail retrieval numbers were corrupted; touch screens and keyboards froze; or the device reset itself repeatedly. Investigation of root causes for this phenomenon is ongoing.
Workarounds for the SIM interoperability issue include activating the Treo 650s with Axalto 64K SIMs or 32K SIMs of any brand. Substantial numbers of 32K SIMs are still available for all markets except for the Empire market.
Action Required:
Retail Store Managers and Regional Planners should place orders NOW for 32K SIMs for use with Treo 650 activations or use only Axalto 64K SIMs until the Gemplus SIM issue has been resolved.
Resolution of Inventory and Interoperability Issues:
To resolve the disparity between regional market forecasts and actual demand and to prevent future reoccurrences of such disparities, Supply Chain will work more closely with the Regional Planners to ensure market sell-through data flows back to the planners to ensure accurate forecasting.
On the SIM interoperability issue, once the root cause has been determined, appropriate steps will be taken to fix the interoperability problem and build preventative testing measures into the device certification process so that future SIM interoperability issues are discovered and fixed prior to launch.
Contact: Richard Goetter -
richard.goetter@cingular.com
Originally Posted by TonyH
it's also important to note that the portion regarding the 650 backorders are in reference to cingular orange (as supposed to cingular blue, formerly at&t), and not the european wireless carrier that also goes by the name orange.Instant Alert
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