14 DAY TRIAL // Sunnyvale-based mobile phone maker Palm halted the manufacturing of its webOS-based Palm Pre and Palm Pixi handsets about three weeks ago in China, and now the company has reportedly resumed the making of the two devices. The handset vendor already confirmed that factories were producing its phones again, yet it seems that the announcement was made via an employee’s personal blog.
Last month, Palm has shut down the production of its Palm Pre and Pixi handsets, saying it does so because of the Chinese New Year. However, the move was intriguing due to the fact that the manufacturing was halted for the entire month and not for a week only. Moreover, Palm also released updated revenues forecast recently, stating that they will not reach the originally expected levels due to slow sales of its webOS-based mobile phones.
The announcement regarding the resuming of Pre and Pixi production was made via the blog page of Lynn Fox, the company’s VP of corporate communications, who says the following: “We started the line back up at the end of February.” Moreover, he also stated that the company did not usually announce those things, and that was why it hadn't made a formal announcement.
Both Palm Pre and Palm Pixi (as well as their upgraded 'Plus' models) are registering rather slow sales on the US market, though in Europe they have been said to be among the most successful devices in O2's lineup. However, Palm already said that it would work together with Verizon Wireless for boosting up sales, and the resuming of manufacturing shows that things are moving in the right direction for the company.
Palm has had some rough quarters lately, and the launch of webOS and of the handsets powered by it was expected to help it regain some of its foot hold. The mobile operating system has some powerful competitors on the market today, but there are chances that Palm will find the solution to become the leader it once was.