Palm expected to ship about 1 million phones this quarter

17th February, 2010 by adina
Tags: , , ,

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu estimates that Palm will ship around 1 million webOS phones this quarter. Industry sources make the expert believe Palm will see a sudden rush until February thanks to the Pixi Plus and Pre Plus and will ship much more than the 780,000 devices shipped in the earlier period. Verizon alone may have given Palm between 550,000 and 600,000 shipments.

The same contacts claim that those buying the Pixi Plus o Pre Plus often pick these over Verizon’s Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris rather than more prominently aging platforms like Windows Mobile or BlackBerry. Verizon is believed to see Palm as a valuable resource to keep smartphone sales higher should Android not be successful, although the Droid has been a real success, maybe one of the best in Verizon’s recent history.

Shaw Wu has also minimized the fear of a production halt, as it is not unusual for Chinese-language companies to shut temporarily their production during the Lunar New Year, but production ramps up before and after the holiday.

Higher shipments are a critical help to Palm, as it is still recovering after both declining sales and its temporary exclusivity with Sprint; the company needs multiple carrier deals and updates like the Pre Plus to sustain interest. Many people expect Palm to successfully and more directly compete with rivals like the iPhone if and when AT&T Pixi and Pre will ship in the spring, although it is unlikely to near Apple’s success, at least in a short term.


  • Share

 

Readers Comments