Palm may be halting February shipments

(Updated with Palm response) Palm has shut down all production of its phone lineup, OTR Global said today in a report. Three contacts in Taiwan's device supply chain claim that Palm has asked Foxconn and Compal without warning to shut down production of the Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi and Pixi Plus for at least the rest of the month. A chance exists that the Pixi Plus will continue to ship but that there may be as few as 5,000 units reaching Verizon this month.

No reason has been given for the alleged shutdown, though sudden stops are often characteristic of a discovered glitch or a last-minute feature change. Some Pre Plus owners have had complaints regarding GPS accuracy, while others have also claimed trouble sending MMS whenever using Wi-Fi. However, regular Pre users haven't normally encountered the same issues.

Any stop in shipments is a potentially deep blow to Palm. The Sunnyvale company is counting on its deal with Verizon to recover from years of sales declines. Its exclusive deal with Sprint in 2009 led to lower year-over-year sales this fall as the popularity of the phone was countered by a lack of carrier support in the US. [via BGR]

Update: Palm tells us that the shutdown is actually due to the Chinese Lunary New Year, which normally occurs around February and sees many technology companies shut operations temporarily.

By Electronista Staff