Palm to Focus on WebOS in the Future; no more Windows Mobile

After reporting widening losses for the last quarter, smartphone maker Palm Inc. has announced in a recent press call that it will no longer manufacture smartphones running the Windows Mobile operating system. Instead, the company will focus exclusively on developing its own WebOS platform in the future.

For the fiscal first quarter of 2010, Palm managed to sell a total of 823,000 smartphones, with many of those believed to be the Palm Pre. Although the sales figure of the Pre is better than expected, it still failed to make up for the lowering shipments of other Palm devices, as the results are 30 percent down year over year. Also, the company posted a widening loss of $164.5 million, compared with a loss of $41.9 million in the same quarter last year.

Facing stiff competition from rivals such as BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and iPhone maker Apple, the struggling smartphone maker has decided to give up Windows Mobile, which can be found on the Palm Treo Pro. The plan is to focus future development solely on its WebOS operating system. This new system is the foundation of the Pre and the new Pixi, a more affordable and compact version to the Pre that is expected to arrive in the coming holiday season.

"While there are still Centros and Treos moving through the channel, our future engineering efforts are based around WebOS," Palm’s chairman and CEO Jon Rubinstein said in a statement, "We're launching more great Palm WebOS products with more carriers, and turning our sights toward growth." The company has shown its effort by speeding up updates to the WebOS system, such as improved Exchange security policies, to make its devices more appealing to business users.

Still, keen competition with other rivals is inevitable in the upcoming holidays, including the hot iPhone 3G S, Motorola’s first Android handset the Cliq, a new version BlackBerry Storm and the Android-based Sony Ericsson Xperia X3. We shall wait to see whether Palm’s strategy could help regain its momentum and turn its fortunes around.

Tags: Palm Pre Accessories, Palm Treo Pro Accessories, Palm Centro Accessories, Apple iPhone 3G S Accessories, BlackBerry Storm 9530 Accessories, Motorola Accessories, Sony Ericsson Accessories