Palm still heavily in the red despite the Pre

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 18 Sep 2009 at 08:15

Palm has announced losses of $164.5m for the fiscal first quarter of 2009, despite the success of the Palm Pre smartphone.

The results mark the eighth consecutive quarter of losses, and are almost four times worse than the same period last year when the company posted losses of $41.9m.

Yet, despite the ever-flowing red ink, Palm beat analysts' expectations and also recorded healthy sales of the Pre smartphone. It sold 823,000 smartphones - most of which were the Pre - in the quarter, comfortably surpassing analysts' estimates of 700,000 - 800,000.

The company says it will now focus exclusively on devices based on the new Web OS operating system, such as the forthcoming Palm Pixi.

"We're receiving excellent reviews from customers who bought the Palm Pre for personal use," says chief executive Jon Rubinstein. "The Pre is also being adopted as a popular business device. Deployments of the Pre within large companies are on the rise."

British buyers will get the first chance to get their hands on the Pre next month, when it arrives exclusively on the O2 network. Palm has yet to confirm a UK launch date for the Pixi.