Palm released the full financial details today for the quarter that just ended for the company.

By now I’m sure that you have read that when all is said and done, Palm has lost money this past quarter, something that the company hasn’t done in over two years. It also seem that the current quarter will be about the same. I want to leave the financial analysis to those folks who have a better understanding of how it all works. Brighthand‘s Ed Hardy has written a good summary of today’s financial earnings statement. I would like to spend the next few minutes talking about Palm and where they are going.

Elevation Partners

Palm is moving forward with their recapitalization plan which will bring three members of the Elevation team to the Board of Directors at Palm. The arrival of Jon Rubinstein at Palm is generating a lot of buzz. Mr. Rubinstein is a former Apple, Inc. executive who was in charge of the iPod division. Analysts, investors, and customers alike are hoping that he will be able to bring some of that Apple magic to Palm and help then bring new products to market in a timely manner. According to Palm, the deal with Elevation Partners is expected to wrap up by the end of this month (October 2007).

Solutions Choices

With the introduction of the Treo 500v and Centro smartphones, Palm is indicating that they hare better positioned to meet the needs of customers at price points that make sense. The Palm smartphone line up is now positioned with the Treo 750 and 700wx at the high-end for enterprise customers. The Treo 500v, 680, and 755p hold the middle ground for the “prosumer;” while the new Palm Centro rounds out the consumer level category. With the Centro, Palm is clearly looking to grow their marketshare by drawing in new customer whom would have otherwise purchased a standard feature phone that is $99 or less with a new subscription.

Still to Come

Palm’s senior executives are still tight lipped about the company’s future plans, but it seems that they are committed to moving forward with their plans to release a new version of the Palm OS based on a Linux core. While Palm has yet to name this new software development effort, many, including myself, have taken to calling this new operating system, “Palm OS II.”

As far as the timing goes, Palm will only state that Palm devices running the new Linux operating system will be made available to customers by the end of the calendar year 2008. I would like to see Palm offering Palm OS II-based Treo smartphones by May of 2008.

And what about the Foleo? While it would seem that Palm is trying to divert attention away from the Foleo, there is a still a dedicated following who would like to see Palm deliver on the promise of the Foleo. Palm OS II is the key to finally bring the Foleo to market as any new Foleo product will likely run Palm OS II in place of the operating system that was to be included in the recently canceled device. If Palm OS II devices arrive at the end of 2008, then I would expect we won’t see a new Foleo product until mid-2009.

Related Articles:

Brighthand: Palm Takes a Loss for the Quarter…
Palm InfoCenter: Palm Reports Q1 FY08 Results…
TreoCentral: Palm Reports Q1 FY08 Results…

Palm will be posting their first quarter 2008 financials and hold a conference call tomorrow at 4:30pm ET, 1:30pm PT.

Details…

Alan Grassia to have a guest appearance on the Computer Outlook Radio Talk show.

Justin Nolan, the editor over at PDALive.com and co-host for John Iasiuolo’s Computer Outlook Radio Talk Show, has asked me to appear on Wednesday’s Palm handheld show. We’re planning on talking about Palm’s cancellation of the Foleo, “Palm OS II”, and the future direction of Palm.

The Computer Outlook Radio Talk show airs in 35 markets. If yours isn’t one of them (mine isn’t either) you can listen to the show live via an audio stream (Windows Media Player, QuickTime/iTunes, Real Player) daily at 5pm PT.

For more details, the live audio stream, and podcast archive RSS feed, visit the Computer Outlook Radio Talk Show website.

Palm has just posted a press release indicating that the company shareholders have voted to approve the $325MM investment in Palm by Elevation Partners.

“Palm, Inc., (Nasdaq:PALM) today announced that Palm stockholders have approved proposals that will permit Palm to conclude a $325 million investment by Elevation Partners, L.P., borrow up to $400 million in an associated debt financing, make a cash distribution of $9.00 per share to Palm stockholders, and make related adjustments to its equity plans.”

“We appreciate our stockholders’ strong support of these proposals and look forward to an era of renewed innovation and focused execution at Palm,” said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer.”

It will be interesting to see what becomes of this deal. Many Palm fans are hoping that this agreement will help put the company back on track with new and innovative products while avoiding the problems that plagued the recently canceled Foleo mobile companion.

Read the full Palm press release…

Later today Palm will be hosting their annual stockholder meeting.

Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) will hold its annual meeting of stockholders on Wednesday, Sept. 12, at 9 a.m. PDT at its headquarters, 950 W. Maude Ave., Sunnyvale, Calif. The record date for this meeting was set as Aug. 8, 2007. The agenda for the meeting is outlined in the company’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 8, 2007.

During this meeting, I expect the vote for approving the Elevation Partners recapitalization deal. If approved, shareholders will receive a $9 dividend, Palm will receive about $325MM from Elevation, and Elevation will gain to seats on the Palm Board of Directors and two existing board members are expected to step down.

Read the full press release…

Palm’s end of Q1FY08 results conference call has been scheduled for October 1, 2007. As with previous conference calls, Palm’s CEO Ed Colligan and CFO Andy Brown will be presenting the performance results of the quarter ending this month.

Full press release…

Earlier today on the Palm company blog, Palm CEO, Ed Colligan responded to Engadget’s open letter which was posted on the Engadget website this past Tuesday.

“I forwarded it to our entire executive staff and many others at Palm have read it. Although I can’t say I agree with every point, many are right on. We are attacking almost every challenge you noted, so stay tuned. Let’s remember that it is very early in the evolution of the smartphone and there is enormous opportunity for us to innovate. We have only just begun to fight!

Thank you for taking the time to write. I really do take your comments to heart and I know the team at Palm is totally committed to delivering the best mobile computing solutions in the world.”

-Ed Colligan

Commentary

I think that this really gets back to what I’ve been saying about Palm in my weekly 1SRC.com podcasts: That Palm has been steadily executing a plan that will make Palm the company it was allowing them to bring innovative products to market. We know that Palm is working on a number of major projects and all we have to do is wait for them to be ready. I know that there have been delays, but do you really want more buggy hardware and software? Let’s just give Palm the space they need to get everything done correcrtly right out of the gate.

If you are a Palm fan, you MUST read Engadget’s open letter to Palm written by By Peter Rojas, Ryan Block, and Joshua Topolsky.

“Dear Palm,

Man, what a crazy year, right? We know things haven’t really been going your way lately, but we want you to know that we haven’t given up on you, even though it might seem like the only smartphone anyone wants to talk about these days is the iPhone. It can be hard to remember right now, but you used to be a company we looked to for innovation. You guys got handhelds right when everyone else, including Apple, was struggling to figure it out. And it was the little things that made those early Palm Pilots great — you could tell that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to think about what made for a great mobile experience, like how many (or rather, few) steps it took to perform common tasks.

The problem is that lately we haven’t seen anything too impressive out of you guys. Sure, over the past few years the Treo has emerged as a cornerstone of the smartphone market, but you’ve let the platform stagnate while nearly everyone (especially Microsoft and HTC, Symbian and Nokia, RIM, and Apple) has steadily improved their offerings. So we’ve thrown together a few ideas for how Palm can get back in the game and (hopefully) come out with a phone that people can care about. (And we’re not talking about the Centro / Gandolf.) Read on.”

Keep reading…

iambic is running a special 99-cent promotion on their Tipper application for Palm OS, Windows Mobile/Pocket PC, and Windows Mobile Smartphone platforms. At that price, I’ll probably buy one copy of each just so I have my bases covered.

Promotion information…

I have just completed the move to a new domain and hosting service. Hopefully this move will ensure that the Foleo Fanatics website will be ready to serve up all of the Foleo goodness that you need.