It is well known that AT&T is going to release two webOS powered models this year. PreCentral member TopTongueBarry claims to be an AT&T IT employee and says the carrier has just completed testing on the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus in front of a possible April 26th launch. He also says that AT&T will soon begin testing on another webOS device called the Palm Elan. The testing should start in 2 weeks for the handset, which talk within the carrier says is equipped with  a soft QWERTY keyboard. According to the word inside AT&T, the Elan will be released in Europe first. Another PreCentral member, Shadow-360, googled the Palm Elan name and found several accessories that manufacturers had listed as being compatible with the Palm Elan before taking them down. Because the same accessories were also for the iPhone, it points to a slate like form factor for the mystery handset. While all of this might be a strange and weird coincidence, a Taiwanese company named Elan once sued Apple for infringing on multitouch patents. Wow! Call it karma or the Circle of Life. You might also note the Palm Elan mentioned as a name in the picture below, next to the Pixi. Many webOS aficionados have been hoping for a high end device and hopefully, the Palm Elan is the phone that makes those wishes come true. Talk of a new webOS device has been circulating and we reported a similar story at the end of last month.
source: PreCentral via Engadget

With the fate on Palm still hanging in the balance in the near term, Verizon Wireless is looking to do something that’s considered as a bit unorthodox. One of BGR’s Verizon Wireless connects has informed them that Palm webOS devices on their lineup will not require a mail-in-rebate starting tomorrow. Instead, customers choosing to go with either the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus will receive the discount instantly – much like what indirect dealers like Best Buy or Radio Shack offers. This surprising move may spell some kind of ominous feeling as one source says that “we make a ton of money off people not sending those rebates in.” It also may point to the fact that they’re taking some daring measures as the handset offerings may not be preforming well and not meeting their expectations. Even though it’s only limited to the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus handsets, it would really be something if Big Red decides to ditch the whole concept of mail-in-rebates altogether – potentially paving the way to even greater rewards with its customers.
source: BGR

Some people detest it whenever a developer releases an app that really isn’t perceived to be one – actually, it’s basically the same thing when you visit a mobile version of a web site. Case in point Facebook’s app for webOS – it was basically the same exact thing whenever you visit the website on a webOS handset. Luckily though it managed to get a much needed facelift most recently to offer users a substantial way of keeping connected with friends. Some new features found on the latest version of the Facebook app includes an enhanced inbox, access to your friends photo albums, view profiles of friends and strangers, notifications for events & birthdays, and friend search to look up some old buddies. When you take a closer look at the application, you’ll be enthralled by how its come very far from its previous incarnations – making the overall experience seem spectacular when you pit it against the real deal on your computer. As with anything applications, we’re sure that this one is going to be updated on a consistent basis to further its capability for webOS owners.
source: Palm via PreCentral

As we’ve seen ushered by many analysts and people familiar with the industry, it seems like everyone is unanimous in seeing Palm release a new handset to combat their struggling woes. After their stock had been downgraded and expectations were not in line with their recent Verizon launch, it appears as though Palm might once again partner with Sprint in releasing their latest handset. Sprint of course already beat everyone to the punch in the 4G race by having their next generation network up and running in a handful of markets already, but some analysts see the idea as being risky – claiming that Palm wouldn’t throw all of its eggs in one basket when it comes to the future and embrace of the WiMAX network. Instead, analyst would rather see them update their existing 3G enabled handsets with larger touchscreens and focus on moving its distribution towards AT&T as a potential game saving move. Aside from the hardware aspect, it may also seem that Palm will really need to focus on their webOS platform and tweak it enough to make the experience seamless and innovative. With so many new mobile platforms expected to hit the market, Palm will need to revamp its own platform and keep it fresh enough to be adopted by new customers.
source: Computerworld via BGR

With Sprint receiving their Palm Pre and Pixi webOS 1.4 update on Saturday, it only took a day later before Verizon customers started to get the 1.4 update on their Pre Plus and Pixi Plus units. The total time it takes to download the 40-some MB file and install it is roughly 1 hour, so make sure your battery is fully charged before starting. The webOS 1.4 upgrade includes enhancements and updates to the SMS messaging, video recording with editing and uploading to YouTube, expanded calendar and tasks functions, more email options with ringtone selections, Yahoo! mail support, and much more. The full change-log for the Palm Pre Plus can be found here and for the Palm Pixi Plus here . We should also point out that Flash is not included in the update, however, it does make the web browser compatible with Flash 10.1 whenever Adobe releases it the first-half of the year. Let us know what you think of the webOS 1.4 update in the comment section below.
Source Verizon Wireless (Pre Plus, Pixi Plus)

As we managed to report not too long ago, Sprint has gone ahead  and reduced the price in half of the Palm Pixi from its original cost of $99.99 to now $49.99 – it happened ominously on the same day when Palm cut its revenue target and raised profitability concerns. Although many will see the 50 percent drop in price as an attractive offer, it still doesn’t beat the lower price that other retailers like Wal-Mart offers to customers who purchase the handset through them. Even before Sprint’s cut, Verizon reduced the price of its Palm Pixi Plus smartphone to $79.99 which boasts some improvements over the one offered by Sprint – this all points to the unusual move by mobile operators when they quickly reduce prices so soon after launch. CL King analyst, Lawrence Harris, said that “Inevitably this will hurt Palm’s profits.  If it’s not in the February quarter, it’ll be in May.” BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long also questions Palm’s outlook in the coming months as wireless providers appear to already have problems getting rid of Palm inventory. Palm of course partly blamed the poor marketing of its Verizon Wireless phones and has recently launched a new campaign known as Project JumpStart to aid Verizon employees in sales of its products. Despite all of their new plan changes, analysts still view it as not enough and that Palm will need to offer new phones with bigger screens and keyboards than what the Pre and Pixi offer. When you look at it, the Palm Pre has been on the market since last June and is quickly approaching its one year mark – possibly signaling the onset of a successor in the coming months.
source: Reuters

In the US, Sprint Palm Pre owners are getting the first taste of the latest version of the platform while the O2 and Movistar variants are also getting in on this treatment. The download itself is at a mere 39MB and will be all that stands in between your way from getting video recording, Flash, enhanced message notifications, and improved battery life that’s all found on webOS 1.4. Everyone else will have to eye these owners with envy as they will become the first to test out these new features. As they prepare to launch the update on other carriers and handsets, it’ll be a test to see how quickly Palm can expedite the roll out of their next installment of the platform as things have begun to look shaky for the company. They’ll need to really capture the attention of consumers if and when they release the next version in order to compete in this ever fierce market.
via Engadget

After Palm reported to Wall Street that sales performance of their new webOS-based smartphones was far below original expectations, CEO Jon Rubinstein sent an email to all Palm employees explaining in more detail the reasons for their disappointing financial results and the steps the company is taking to right the ship. Below is the text of the actual memo as posted by the Wall Street Journal:

Team,

This morning we announced preliminary results for our 2010 third quarter. Since the quarter has not yet closed, it is too soon to offer exact numbers, but we stated that we expect to report revenues for Q3 between $300 and $320 million. We also announced that we expect our revenue for this fiscal year to fall below the guidance we gave to Wall Street, which ranged from $1.6 to $1.8 billion. As we mentioned in our press release, our softer than expected performance is due to slower than expected customer adoption of our products, which in turn has prompted our U.S. carrier partners to put additional orders on hold for the time being. On a positive note, we expect to exit the quarter with over $500 million in cash on our balance sheet. We’re scheduled to announce our full financial results in March.

I realize this news is difficult to swallow. We made this announcement today to prevent a surprise for Wall Street when we announce quarterly earnings in March. In the meantime, the entire executive team has been working extremely hard to improve product performance, and have implemented a number of initiatives to increase awareness and drive sales.

Dave Whalen and I just returned from a very successful meeting with Verizon Wireless, where they acknowledged that their execution of our launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales. To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations—all getting the word out about Palm.

All of these efforts are examples of how we are working to accelerate adoption and grow distribution of webOS. In the next few weeks, your management will work with you to make sure your priorities are laser-focused, primarily on helping to increase sales, improve product quality and differentiate the Palm product experience.

Our goals are taking longer than expected to achieve, but I am still confident that our talented team has what it takes to get the job done.

We’ll schedule an all-hands meeting after our earnings announcement in March, and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Go team!!!

jon

Palm has bet it all on the success of webOS and their Palm Pre and Pixi, recently adding Verizon and, hopefully soon, AT&T. Sales on both Sprint and Verizon networks has been disappointing and they will be competing with the likes of the iPhone on AT&T’s network, so hopefully they can pull a rabbit out of their hat and once again become a major player in an already crowded field of smartphones. Do you think Rubinstein’s email inspires confidence?

source: WSJ

It’s unclear if Palm’s recent announcement about lowering its fiscal year 2010 guidance had a play in Sprint lowering the price of the Palm Pixi to $49.99. Since its release with the number three wireless provider, the Palm Pixi stayed in the $99.99 price boat for a while – it was considered by many to be too high and would not garner the attention it needed at that level. When Verizon came along and introduced the Palm Pixi Plus to their webOS starved customers, they managed to offer their version at the same price – but it housed a bit more features to justify a better purchase decision than Sprint’s version. Maybe this might be an attempt to really get people to take notice now – it should’ve probably been like that from the beginning. Some argued that the original $99.99 price of the Pixi really made customers consider to upgrade to the Palm Pre which was priced at $149.99. For all we know, this move by Sprint could spell some other ominous feeling that lurks behind the walls over at Palm – or maybe it could reinvigorate sales that could potentially lead to some serious profit.
source: Sprint via PalmInfocenter

Things have definitely been rocky over at Palm where they witnessed some extreme lows to only experience the fruits of their success again and finally brought straight back to reality in the course of a year. With that said, Palm has gone ahead and updated its guidance for its fiscal year 2010 revenues that is expected to be “well below” the forecasted range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion. They now anticipate third quarter revenues to come in somewhere between $285 million and $310 million on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and between $300 million to $320 million on a non-GAAP basis. Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said, “Palm webOS is recognized as a groundbreaking platform that enables one of the best smartphone experiences available today, and our work to evolve the platform and bring industry-leading technology to market continues. However, driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated.” Palm expects to announce its official third quarter earning on March 18, 2010. Six months ago when the Palm Pre was still garnering a lot of attention, it was unfathomable to see Palm almost back to its original situation before the unveiling of webOS. They’ve managed to dodge a lot of stuff in the past, but fierce competition in the market may force them to look elsewhere to survive in this cut throat industry.
source: Business Wire via Mobileburn