Palm has been working the celebrity circuit as of late; most recently they stepped up to help outspoken talk show host Howard Stern replace his aging Treo; Palm head of PR Lynn Fox called into the show, and recently Palm visited Stern's home to give him a private demo of their new webOS handset. Because he is a longtime Palm user, an endorsement for the latest and greatest Palm handset should be a no-brainer.
However, all the marketing effort backfired, with ZDNet reporting Stern giving a thumbs up to RIM's Blackberry Bold instead. He said the Pre was a "fine phone", but its inability to connect to Lotus Notes was a dealbreaker. Palm could have never suspected Stern to be using Lotus; but then again, maybe they should have had all their bases covered, especially since Stern is far from being a technophile. "I bet Palm wishes they could re-do this little experiment", states IntoMobile.
However, and probably too little too late, a commenter a ZDNet notes that a webOS app by CompanionLink allows Pre users to sync with programs such as Lotus Notes, among others (see article), and allows both USB and OTA sync. If the Palm rep had known this, perhaps the marketing move would have worked in their favor. RIM also received a marketing boost when U2 partnered with RIM for their upcoming 360 Tour, despite frontman Bono being a major Palm investor.
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