PhoneLon

We were mightily impressed with the Palm Pre when we first laid eyes on it last year. So much so that this particular blogger actually put his money where his mouth is, stumped up the cash and bought one. And whilst it’s not without its flaws, there has yet to be a single moment when I’ve regretted my decision. Unfortunately for consumers, this opinion isn’t universally held. With Palm struggling to gain traction, particularly here in the UK where the Pre has failed to step out of the iPhone’s shadow, the Goliath turned David is definitely starting to feel the strain.

This has been reflected in several ways with the price of Palm’s shares plummeting and CEO Jon Rubinstein having to re-evaluate strategies and re-forecast sales targets after the Pre, newly updated Pre Plus and Pixi simply failed to sell as well as first expected (and as well as many feel, myself included, should have). These financial failings are now starting to mount and a rather juicy rumour is starting to build momentum; could Palm be up for grabs?

At the moment, Palm have yet to deny or confirm the rumours but already various suitors are being lined up to swing in and rescue the US company. The front runners at the moment are HTC, no strangers to the mobile phone market having just released the excellent HTC Desire, and Lenovo, a company with more experience in PC’s and Laptops with limited experience in manufacturing and releasing mobile phones.

There are of course pros and cons for both. Putting HTC in charge of manufacturing a Pre successor would be a master stroke (after all, if they’re good enough for Google…) but could they be trusted to leave WebOS as it is? Or would they feel the need to throw Sense UI at the operating system and over complicate things? Similarly, as Lenovo have little footprint in the mobile phone market, this could be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing. They wouldn’t be in a position where they’d be imposing themselves too much on Palm but at the same time may lack the experience required to turn things around.

In addition to these two, any number of names are being thrown around from RIM (the people behind BlackBerry) and Nokia, to Google, Microsoft and even Nintendo! Obviously some are more realistic than others and it’s also worth pointing out that there are other options on the table, from licensing WebOS to other manufacturers to simply seeking further investment. Whatever the truth is, the next few days and weeks could prove pivotal in Palm’s future.