Palm Closing Stores, Settling Lawsuit

Yesterday Palm announced it would be closing it's 34 retail locations by the end of the current quarter. "We continue to focus our company around core business initiatives and are consolidating more resources behind fewer programs in order to compete most effectively and build world-class, category-defining mobile solutions. We have therefore made the decision to close our retail stores," the company said in a statement regarding the retail move.
This news comes just a day after announcing they were settling a lawsuit over the company's Treo 600/650 smartphones. Treo 600 and 650 owners who have had their units replaced or repaired at least twice are eligible for cash rebates on new Palm smartphones, as part of a settlement of a class-action suit filed in 2005. The company will also repair any Treo 600 or 650 that hasn't failed twice, but is outside of the original warranty.
Things don't look too hot for Palm right now, last year after months of product development and hype about the Foleo, scrapped the product entirely before bringing it to market. Palm is facing heated competition from Apple and Blackberry as many users complain the Palm OS is simply outdated compared to newer touch interfaces like the iPhone and impressive newcomers like the HTC Touch and Verizon's Voyager. Palm's current efforts seem to be on the lower priced entry level smartphone market. Palm's new Centro is reportedly a hit, priced at $99 for new customers.


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