Palm Pre Chopshop Economics

Imagine your Palm Pre is a high-tech luxury car that gets jacked and sent to the chopshop. How much would your average assailant gross? Around $170 according to some estimates.

This estimate doesn’t make much sense to me. If you gave me a Vtech engine, a steering wheel, and all those other thingies under the hood, I couldn’t whip up an Accord.

Speaking of intrinsic worth, Palm’s stock has yet to get a shot in the arm. Jon Rubinstein’s appointment to CEO to replace Ed Colligan after seeing Palm through the age of the PDA and the inception of the Smartphone, and dozens of other landmark firsts during 16 years, didn’t give investors a significant negative or positive epiphany.