Business Bytes
March 18, 2010

Palm Needs A Hand

 

Palm's latest quarterly report is out and the news is not good. Smartphone sales are in the dumper, with only 408,000 units sold. Ouch!

By comparison, Apple sold 7.5 million iPhones during the same three months (ending February 26th). According to Google, 60,000 Android phones are selling each day. That's on pace to sell five million a quarter. And then there's Palm that can't even break 500,000. Ouch! Again!

Palm actually shipped just over 900,000 units. So 400,000 Pre and Pixi smartphones are laying around the backroom of a lot of stores and warehouses right now. Did I mention "ouch"? Expect good sales to clear out the inventory at some point.

Palm is one of those companies that should be doing better than it is. But, it just isn't. So, is it too late to sit at the big table in the smartphone market? Would new ownership help?

My guess is "yes" and "no". Too bad. I have a soft spot for Palm from the days of owning a trendy Palm Pilot back in 1997.

It coulda been a contender.


Renee Oricchio

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987.