Reuters informs us that Palm Inc has been hit by the depression so it’s planning on cutting its workforce. Palm lost an important market share to Apple and RIM, as both companies prepare for Christmas with their hot smartphones on popular carrier contracts. The company’s spokeswoman, Lynn Fox didn’t mention the exact number of layoffs, but what we do know is that Palm employs 1050 workers.
However, Palm has a mystery device and OS coming, the latter getting ready for a 2008 release, while the handset will hit the market in 2009, second half. The latest reports show that 5% of companies plan to buy a Palm device in the next quarter, 50% less than in 2007.
A solution for this problem might be the brilliant minds of John Rubinstein, iPod’s father and Mike Bell, ex-Apple official.
We’ll have to see that OS first, in order to decide if Palm can be saved or not… Worst case scenario, they’ll be bought by some other company or simply close down all operations, which would be a major loss for a brand with such a long history.
[via Reuters]
