Palm profits take a hit failure of Pre and Pixi

Palm mobile

Predictions from mobile manufacturer Palm that its two latest devices would swiftly take off have been dashed with the evidence coming in its latest results.

The company today released a profit warning for the three months leading up to February, claiming it is likely to make in between $300 million (198 million) and $320 million, falling short of its previous $425 million estimate.

A statement from the company blamed "slower than expected consumer adoption" of the Palm Pre and its budget device, the Palm Pixi, both released last year, and this has led to not just a lowering of its quarterly forecast but also a drop in its fiscal year 2010 revenues prediction from $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion.

"Driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated," said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive of Palm, in a statement.

"Our carrier partners remain committed, and we are working closely with them to increase awareness and drive sales of our differentiated Palm products."

The Palm Pre is only available in the UK through O2 after a long wait for it to come over from the US whereas the Pixi is yet to even reach these shores.

Final results from Palm's third quarter will be released on 18 March.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.