The layoffs were first reported and then confirmed last week by
PalmInfoCenter. The confirmation from a "Palm spokesperson" read in part, "The impact on the economic environment is worsened by our maturing Centro line and the length of time it is taking to ramp our new Windows Mobile products."
Palm this summer ended a year-long draught of Windows Mobile Treo models when it finally shipped the
800w. A few months later, it delivered the
unlocked Palm Pro, though the device was nearly identical to the earlier 800w.
Meanwhile, Palm's online Job search site continues to list openings for five Linux engineers (no Windows Mobile engineering positions are listed). This suggests that Palm -- like its PalmSource spinoff -- may have decided to bet on Linux.
Times change, though. Given current market realities, Palm may decide to follow
Motorola's lead and abandon its in-house Linux efforts in favor of
Android, Google's free Linux smartphone stack. Doing so might free up more developer resources to help with Windows Mobile integration issues, operator-specific development requirements, or whatever else has been slowing down its smartphone pipeline.
A long-time leader of the PDA market, Palm was also an early leader of the smartphone market. Equipped with tiny QWERTY hardware keyboards, Palm's Treo devices were iconic smartphones in the early days of the market. The company today employs about 1,050, according to reports. The very brief
PalmInfoCenter story is
here.
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