Palm Launching WiMAX Handset On Sprint

The sale of Palm Pre and Pixi handsets have not quite met expectations. A report on Softpedia reveals popular analyts’ speculation that the company plans to bail itself out of this situation by launching a WiMAX handset on Sprint.

However, not everyone thinks this is a possibility. Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney says a new WiMAX model will be poor leverage for the existing product portfolio of Palm and the company has to focus more on competing better with the iPhone and Nexus One. Dulaney says

“Palm needs to first and foremost build a phone that looks like the iPhone and the Nexus One and get rid of the Pre’s [physical] keyboard. Making it thin would be great with a touch screen that’s 3.7 in. to 4.3 in. They have to hit the next home run here.”

Neither Palm nor Sprint have commented on the speculations.

[ComputerWorld via Softpedia]

Palm Elan TouchScreen Phone Coming To AT&T?

Ok, first and foremost, we are not still sure if “Elan” is the name of an upcoming model from Palm or if this is a codeword for something that exists already. But rumors are in that AT&T has been testing on this WebOS handset due for release in the first half of May.

You might recall that we had written about WebOS coming to AT&T last month. Back then, the speculations were that Palm Pre and Pixi could be the models coming to Ma Bell. The new name doing the rounds is expected to be a completely touchscreen phone with soft keyboard – much like the iPhone or Nexus One.

We hope this rumor turns out to be true. You can then expect the Palm handset to be out on AT&T stores on May 10.

[via PreCentral]

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Investment To Exceed $1 Billion

A while back, there had been rumors that Microsoft could be acquiring RIM or Palm in order to turnaround its sagging fortunes in the smartphone segment. However, according to Bill Koefoed, a manager of Microsoft investor relations, the company could be investing as much as $1 billion in developing its Windows Phone 7 platform.

What this could then mean is that an acquisition of Palm or RIM is out of question now. One had imagined Redmond to acquire one of these handset manufacturers not just for the hardware but also the OS platform that they had built. But with so much money pumped into the research and development of the company’s in-house OS, it is unlikely that Microsoft could still be looking at an acquisition.

[via Forbes]