Palm Badly Trailing RIMM

Palm Inc. (PALM) 3Q09 preliminary revenue forecast was well below our and Wall Street’s expectation. Although the decline was much anticipated, we are surprised by the magnitude of revenue decline.

Reduced demand for its maturing legacy Smartphone, weak consumer spending, and delay in shipments of the Treo Pro in the U.S. led to a 70.0% y-o-y decline in 3Q revenue.

Though Palm expects to launch its Palm Pre ‘next gen’ phone later in the year, we have doubts on the success of it given the current economic uncertainty that has dampened demand for consumer products. We continue to believe that Palm badly trails Research In Motion (RIMM) in the Smartphone market and will not be able to effectively compete as an independent company. We have a low confidence in its ability to survive with a weak market share.

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