14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile phone carrier Verizon Wireless is expected to start selling at least one smartphone coming form the Sunnyvale-based handset vendor Palm, that's something that most of you might already know. What might haven't been yet unveiled to you is the fact that Verizon is also expected to have the Palm Pixi on its airwaves in the near future, and that it has already placed orders for the device from the phone maker.
The Palm Pixi is being manufactured by Compal Communications, reports DigiTimes, noting that the shipment volumes for the handset have been reduced during the fourth quarter of the ongoing year, due to the failing of some tests at Verizon. The first shipments of the Palm Pixi were expected to arrive in Q4 2009, yet it seems that they have been delayed to the first quarter of the next year.
“Shipments of webOS-based Pixi smartphones to Palm by Compal Communications in the fourth quarter of 2009 will total only 600,000 units instead of 800,000 units projected previously,” notes DigiTimes, citing the Chinese-language Commercial Times newspaper. “The orders for Pixi smartphones were reduced as part of the cellphone's software has failed to pass tests conducted by Palm's client, Verizon Wireless,” the site continues.
Things seem to be pretty clear here, one should agree. Verizon is known to be intensively testing the handsets it puts on sale so as to have all things in order, and it seems that the launch of Pixi is conditioned by it passing those tests. Big Red is also known to be working on bringing to its users webOS handsets and, while some expected for the Palm Pre to arrive in the following months at Verizon, it seems that Pixi is also set to make an appearance on its offering. However, there are no details on when the phone will arrive, but, as Engadget notes, we can only keep our finger crossed for it to arrive sooner rather than later.