Palm dumps Windows Mobile in favor of webOS

Palm said it will no longer develop handsets based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, instead focusing its future smartphone efforts on its own webOS platform. Speaking on a conference call Thursday to discuss its fiscal first quarter financial results, Palm chairman and CEO Jon Rubenstein said the firm has already signed contracts with additional operators to bring webOS-based devices to new and existing markets--the Palm Pre, the first webOS smartphone, is scheduled to debut in Europe via Telefonica, while the forthcoming Pixi will arrive in conjunction with Sprint. "Due to the importance of webOS to our overall strategy, we've made the decision to dedicate all future development resources to the evolution of webOS, which means that going forward, our roadmap will include only Palm webOS-based devices," Rubinstein said.

Palm reported a Q1 net loss of $164.5 million, wider than the loss of $41.9 million in the year-ago quarter. Palm had total revenues in the quarter of $68 million, down 81 percent from the $366.8 million it posted in last year's quarter and also down from the $86.8 million it had in the previous quarter. Palm shipped a total of 823,000 smartphones in the quarter, up 134 percent from the 351,000 it shipped in the last quarter, but down 30 percent year-over-year.

For more on Palm's webOS focus:
- read this IntoMobile article [1]

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Palm to release webOS [3] SDK, allow legacy apps
New Palm OS [4] touts constant connection to web