UPDATE 2-Palm warns on Q3 sales, shares fall 11 pct

Reuters ^ | Tuesday, March 3, 2009 | Tiffany Wu & Ritsuko Ando, ed by Gary Hill & Bernard Orr

[SunkenCiv]

Palm Inc (PALM.O) warned of weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue due to lower demand for its older phones, a weak economy and late U.S. shipments of its Treo Pro, sending shares down 11 percent in extended trade. The company forecast continued margin pressure from legacy products in the current quarter even as it prepares to launch the new Pre phone, throwing cold water over investor optimism that the touch-screen smartphone could quickly revive Palm. Palm also said it was looking at ways to bolster its capital position, while it aims to strike back at rivals like Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd's (RIM.TO) (RIMM.O) BlackBerry. "The much-anticipated launch of the Palm Pre remains on track for the first half of calendar year 2009, but as expected we've got a difficult transition period to work through," Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan said in a statement... The company said it had sufficient cash but intends to strengthen its working capital due to the difficult economy and the launch of the Pre... Palm shares fell 83 cents to $6.55 in after-hours trade following the announcement. They had more than doubled since the company unveiled the Pre at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, on hopes that it could win back some of the market share it has lost to the iPhone and BlackBerry.

[SunkenCiv]

Palm Slapped By Dwinding Sales

Palm Warns Revenue Set To Fall 70%

[misterrob]

The markets are down in after hours trading

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks.

[Myrddin]

I still have the Palm III I purchased in May 1998 hanging off my belt. It still works fine. I change the batteries about once a month.

[RayChuang88]

Here's the problem: Palm products are being way overtaken by the Blackberry line of smart cellphones and ESPECIALLY the iPhone.

[Defiant]

The Pre looks like it will be a very nice phone. I hope the company is in good enough shape to support the roll-out, and that the Pre helps it revive. We need more competition in smartphones.

[B Knotts]

I’m surprised by this...the Centro seems to be selling well. Admittedly, it is the last of the old Palm OS smartphones, but the low price seems to be moving a lot of them. I got one, and it’s fine. Beats the heck out of a BlackBerry, anyhow. Those things are a total pain.

[martin_fierro]

Sad but true. Palm's circling the bowl.

Even Mrs. F & I, longtime users of the Handspring and Treo products, just switched over to Blackberry.

[KeyLargo]

World’s Greatest Hacker Says Obama’s BlackBerry Can Be Breached

Monday, February 16, 2009
By Joshua Rhett Miller

AP

Jan. 29: President Obama checks his BlackBerry as he walks along the West Wing Colonnade towards the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.

Jan. 29: President Obama checks his BlackBerry as he walks along the West Wing Colonnade towards the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.

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There’s a new “holy grail” for hackers — President Obama’s super-secure BlackBerry.

Despite warnings from his advisers, the president insisted on keeping his beloved PDA, which now has specially designed superencrypting security software.

But that just makes cracking into it more challenging — and, yes, it can be done, says the world’s most famous hacker.

“It’s a long shot, but it’s possible,” Kevin Mitnick told FOXNews.com. “You’d probably need to be pretty sophisticated, but there’s people out there who are.”