Palm played things very close to the chest during their investor conference call announcing their Q3FY09 financial results. Let's bullet point it up:
- they're still very firm that the Pre will launch in the "next 15 weeks" (that's just another way of saying 1st half of 2009, if you're wondering),
- they are still very excited about their new hires,
- they still believe they're in a firm cash position to be able to successfully launch the Pre,
- they still are keeping mum about European carriers,
- they still intend to have some key 3rd party applications available at launch in their App Store,
- they still make next to nothing on Centro sales (which is why their gross margins were a measly 5% last quarter)
- they still believe that there is plenty of room for the Pre in a crowded smartphone space, given how fast it is growing
You're probably wondering about that headline, though, so are we. While we await details from Palm (Update: Palm says "no comment"), what we do know is that part of their reported Q3 losses came from a $5 million dollar hit from a robbery, Palm's new CFO Doug Jeffries tells the tale:
Our GAAP reporting also includes a five million casualty loss in Q3 from a theft which occurred at one of our third party operated warehouses. This loss is covered by insurance and we will recognize a recovery when we receive the insurance proceeds.
Yipes. Good thing Palm's getting that $5 million back, if you haven't caught the storyline yet -- they're going to need that cash.
Comments
Palm didn't get robbed. Palm got pwned. It's a good thing they have insurance or it would have been pwning+no insurance=epic fail.
This explains the hyped-up Twitter post several weeks back about the closet full of Palm Pre's....:P
I'd put money on it that a bunch of centros and treo 755's got "stolen." Nobody was buying them and Palm probably needed the cash.
If it was pre's... well may the lord have mercy on palm.
Launch the damn thing and they wouldn't have to steal it
It was about 15,000 CDMA Treo Pros.
Production of Pre has not commenced.
the pro seemed like an ok phone
im thinking of buying one to hold me over until palm can get it together when this pre is coming out
zwpu8wsgllj41mu2
$5 million dollar robbery of Palm Pre's that's quite a few cases of PDA's even at retail value. A simple ADT home security system could have probably prevented it.
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