Struggling US mobile device maker Palm posted more disappointing results on Thursday, showing it is not getting the boost it was hoping for from its latest handsets, the Pre and the Pixi.
The Sunnyvale, California-based Palm reported a third-quarter net loss of US$22 million, nearly doubling its loss of the previous quarter.
Quarterly revenue was better than expected at US$350 million, but Palm’s fourth-quarter revenue forecast was well below the expectations of Wall Street analysts.
Palm chief financial officer Doug Jeffries said revenue for the current quarter was expected to be “less than” US$150 million. Analysts had been expecting US$305 million.
Palm shares plunged 14.87 percent lower at US$4.81 in after-hours trading after a 5 percent rise during Wall Street trading.
Palm said it shipped 960,000 smartphones during the third quarter, but only 408,000 were actually bought by consumers, a drop of 29 percent from the second quarter and down 15 percent year-on-year.
Palm chairman and chief executive Jon Rubinstein remained optimistic.
“Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong,” Rubinstein said in a statement.
“The work we’re doing to improve sales is having an impact, we’re making great progress on future products, and we’re looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners,” he said.
Jeffries told financial analysts in a conference call that with the heavy build-up of inventory “carriers have deferred orders or reduced the size of their existing orders.”
“Our focus [in the fourth quarter] is to accelerate the sell-through. Sell-through rather than revenue will be the real measure of our success,” he said.
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