Pre Plus and Pixi Plus to fuel Palm surge

Palm will ship as many as 1 million webOS phones in its current quarter, according to estimates from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Pointing to industry sources, the expert believes Palm will have seen a sudden rush between December and February thanks to the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus and should ship many more than the roughly 780,000 it moved in the earlier period. Adding Verizon may have given Palm another 550,000 to 600,000 shipments alone, according to the insiders.

Unexpectedly, those same contacts also claim that those buying the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus are often picking these over Verizon's HTC Droid Eris and Motorola Droid rather than more conspicuously aging smartphone platforms, such as BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. It's thought that Verizon sees Palm as a hedge that keeps smartphone sales higher should Android not necessarily bear fruit, although the Droid has been one of the better-selling smartphones in recent Verizon history.

Wu has also been quick to downplay the production halt scare and notes that it's not uncommon for Chinese-language companies to temporarily shut down production during the Lunar New Year as long as they ramp up production before and after the holiday.

The higher shipments would be a critical help to Palm. As the company is still trying to recover following both declining sales as well as its temporary exclusivity with Sprint, it will need multiple carrier deals and continuous updates like the Pre Plus to sustain interest. Many expect Palm to finally take on competitors like the iPhone more directly if and when the AT&T Pre and Pixi ship in the spring, although the scale is unlikely to near Apple's in at least the short term.

By Electronista Staff