
Palm Needs a Much Stronger Signal
LAS VEGAS (TheStreet) -- It's another new dawn for Palm (PALM) . The company announced a relaunch of its Pre and Pixi phones late Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Verizon
(VZ) - Get Report
, the No. 1 U.S. carrier, will start selling the revamped Palm smartphones on Jan.25, said Palm during its CES presentation.
Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein unveiled new smartphones at CES |
Forgive the deja vu, but Palm's latest breakthrough moment comes exactly a year after its last big one, when the up-from-the-ashes tech shop, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., announced the Pre phone at the same venue.
This time, it's much different, of course. Instead of an exclusive deal with flailing No. 3 carrier
Sprint
(S) - Get Report
, Palm's got Verizon in a special pact, though
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
claimed Tuesday that it too
will start selling Palm's phones by midyear
.
One new development is that the Palm phones will have a "hotspot" feature that will share up to five Wi-Fi connections with nearby devices, similar to the Mi-Fi offering from Verizon.
"Today's significant carrier agreements and innovations are clear signposts towards Palm's successful turnaround," RBC analyst Mike Abramsky wrote in a research note Friday.
Palm Pre/Pixi Plus smartphones for Verizon
Palm shares jumped 11% Friday as investors cheered the news.
The confirmation of the Verizon partnership could put to rest concerns that Verizon was less than enthusiastic about adding the slow-selling Palm lineup to its roster.
As
TheStreet
first reported in September, Verizon was almost single-mindedly focused on the debut of its new
(GOOG) - Get Report
Android phone, the
Motorola
(MOT)
Droid
. At the time, Verizon had its hands full with new BlackBerries from
Research In Motion
(RIMM)
and a $100 million ad campaign for the Droid.
It remains to be seen how supportive Verizon will be from a marketing and inventory perspective. There have been recent reports
of delays for the Pixi at Verizon
, with less-than-robust quantities on order. As
TheStreet
reported Wednesday,
Verizon will have its own version of the Apple (AAPL) - Get Report iPhone
later this year, which may not help Palm sales.
Palm had a phenomenal 2009. The company delivered two new phones on a new operating system. The rebirth of the nearly-failed smartphone maker helped push its stock up over 200% last year.
But the smartphone sector has only gotten more competitive.
Google debuted its own Nexus One phone
, Motorola has new models coming, and sleeping giant
Nokia
(NOK) - Get Report
has a potential revival in the works.
Palm got by as a smartphone underdog last year -- now it has to prove it's a real contender with this second shot at Verizon.
-- Reported by Scott Moritz in New York










