Palm sales disappoint

NEWS Palm has revealed its latest sales figures have fallen below expectations and it will fail to hit its targets. The handheld maker says revenues for its current quarter, which ends today, will be about $230m, versus the $290m - $300m it had previously forecast. In a statement, acting Palm CEO Eric Benhamou said: "Demand in spring did not materialise as we had previously expected, but rather market conditions deteriorated compared to both the year-ago quarter and recent months." The company still expects to be profitable later this year but the shortfall is a blow which means it will likely dip into its cash reserves. Palm also said it is on track to complete its three main objectives for 2002:
- create two companies, one device-oriented and one based around the Palm OS
- execute the company's enterprise strategy
- migrate the Palm OS to the ARM processor