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

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

Just about a week before Steve Jobs held up the iPad in San Francisco, the word was that Verizon was going to be the iPad’s carrier and that this time, Big Red would not make the mistake of showing Steve Jobs the door. So many thought that it was Verizon’s time in the sun, that when Jobs announced that AT&T was to be the iPad’s initial 3G carrier, the oxygen level in the room decreased by 50%. Now nearly a week after the tablet’s announcement, there is word that perhaps Verizon isn’t totally done. According to Silicon Alley Insider, Fox News reporter Clayton Morris has a source inside Verizon who tells him that a CDMA version of the tablet is still in the works, and would be a new hardware version. Two Wall Street analysts, Brian Marshall of Broadpoint AmTech and Ashkok Kumar of Northeast Securities both believe that a Verizon branded iPad is on the way. Marshall says, “Based on some of my datapoints, I still think VZ will happen in the near-term on the iPad and in 2H10 on the iPhone.” On the other hand, both incorrectly predicted that Big Red would be named as a carrier at the event last week. And yes, Verizon could end up watching Apple and AT&T ring up accounts from the sidelines. Apple CEO Tim Cook said during his company’s post earnings conference call that multi-carrier solutions are not the best option for every country. So we are back to the same rumors and guesses that mark Apple’s lack of a relationship with Verizon. Apple’s relationship with AT&T meanwhile, has obviously been repaired. But WILL Verizon get the iPad?
source: SiliconAlleyInsider via AppleInsider

We know that AT&T is going to offer two webOS models from Palm by the first half of this year. It is obvious to expect the two to be GSM versions of the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus. And now we have a European testing and certification company, TUV Rheinland, that appears to be testing two models-the P101UNA and P121UNA. We have already cracked the code in the past with the P101 representing the Pre Plus and the P121 standing for the Pixi Plus. The UNA represents the GSM version of the phones. Thanks to the lab, both devices now have their US + Canadian NRTL Certificate which means that the GSM models meet OSHA and SCC (Standards Council of Canada) requirements. No, it is not the FCC so there still are some other “t’s” that have to be crossed and “i’s” to be dotted before we can feel comfortable with saying that the webOS duo are coming to AT&T. But knowing that GSM versions of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are out there is a necessary first step in the journey to the carrier and Luke Wilson.
source: TUVRheinland (P101UNA), TUVRheinland (P121UNA) via Engadget

As we previously reported, two webOS devices are expected to hit AT&T by the first half of the year. Now let’s play Cellphone Trivia. How many webOS phones do you know? And how many are supposed to go to AT&T? Great. You’re a winner. To add to the math, pre central took a look at the server logs offered by DSL Reports and found AT&T branded versions of the Pre and Pixi running webOS 1.3.8 on the internet. This doesn’t guarantee that the carrier’s two webOS devices will be the Pre and Pixi, but the math sure adds up. While Verizon plans on releasing its version of the two phones with webOS 1.4, it remains to be seen if AT&T will at least match Big Red’s OS build if it indeed launches a Pre and Pixi of its own.
source: precentral

Good news coming out of AT&T’s Developers Summit that’s being held right now in Las Vegas! Ralph de la Vega has just announced that two webOS handsets are expected to land on AT&T sometime within the first half of 2010. With the Palm Pre’s debut quickly approaching the one year mark, it’s been a long wait to see a GSM version come out for AT&T. So far there is no concrete information if it’s going to be either of the existing current Palm smartphones, the Pre and Pixi, that’ll make its way to AT&T. Frankly though, customers from the number two wireless carrier in the country have been on the back seat during this mobile platform war going all out. Not only is this considered a victory for AT&T, but Palm will be getting more face time in between customer now that they’re on-board with three out of the four major providers.
source: Engadget

A reliable source has told PreCentral that they spotted an AT&T-branded Palm Pixi out in the wild, more specifically on San Francisco mass transit. There is no picture available to make visual confirmation, so the existence of an AT&T Palm Pixi will have to be taken on faith. Of special interest is the branding of the device with AT&T – branding is usually not a practice performed well in advance of a phone release so if this phone is already branded, then the release may be mere months away.

source: precentral

Visit the download page for Adobe Flash from an iPhone and Adobe tells you in no uncertain terms whose fault it is that the software will not play on your device. “Apple restricts use of technologies required by products like Flash Player. Until Apple eliminates these restrictions, Adobe cannot provide Flash Player for the iPhone or iPod Touch,” says the writing in the box.

Now we take a look at what it says when you try to get Flash from a device using webOS. “Adobe Flash Player is coming to Palm’s webOS in the first half of 2010.” This is certainly exciting news for Pre owners and might actually be enough to sway those sitting on the fence to land on the side of the fence belonging to Palm’s handset. Besides the Pre, there is also talk that the recently launched Motorola DROID will be getting Flash 10 support in the first half of next year. This looks to leave Apple out in the cold unless they start playing nice with Adobe. Remember Apple, pride comes before a fall.

Rumor or wishful thinking? According to a tipster from precentral who attended the Sprint Open Developers Conference, Palm presented a demonstration of the Pre operating on AT&T’s GSM network. Surely this must mean that Palm was using an unlocked GSM Pre, which begs the question — when is it coming to AT&T?

It wasn’t long ago that Palm offered the unlocked version of the Treo Pro on their site, so perhaps we could see the same strategy for the Pre? It would come at a price (unlocked, no contract required), but there are likely many business and consumer users that would pay it. Or, hopefully AT&T will join Verizon in the near future and offer the Pre at a subsidized price. At this point, we can only hope, but Palm running this demo at the conference is a good sign.

source: precentral

Now that the GSM version of the Palm Pre is being made available to the masses over in Europe, our friends using network providers that are GSM based in the US are eying that coveted device. Sure customers on either T-Mobile or AT&T can jump ship and head over to Sprint so they can experience the WebOS powered device. If the CDMA flavor doesn’t sit with them, they can choose to purchase an unlocked handset from gray-market retailers in Germany. Not everything will the same however – this version has the QWERTZ keyboard layout that will throw off US owners from speed typing. Actually the Z and Y buttons are swapped, so maybe there’s less adjusting required. Fortunately you’ll be able to choose the language – ranging from English, German, Spanish, French, or Italian. In addition, you’ll have to revert back to using EDGE because this version doesn’t support US 3G frequencies – then again you’ll have Wi-Fi if you really need a faster connection. With no word yet on whether or not AT&T and T-Mobile are planning on adding the Pre to their lineups, importing yourself one will probably be the only option for now.
via Brighthand