Hot Off the Wire –Palm phone sales plunge 28%; Opera browser shipments soar; Taiwan firm to fight Apple phone suit

Posted Mar. 19, 2010 at 6:36 a.m.

Hot Off the Wire –Palm phone sales plunge 28%; Opera browser shipments soar; Taiwan firm to fight Apple phone suit

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A roundup of the latest high-tech news from The Associated Press:

• Palm's phone sales slump and its stock dives

NEW YORK — Palm Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) reported sales figures Thursday that showed it's having a difficult time getting consumers to pay attention to its phones in a market dominated by iPhones and BlackBerrys. The company's shares plunged in after-hours trading.

The company shipped 960,000 smart phones to stores and distributors in the quarter that ended Feb. 26, 23 percent more than in the previous quarter. However, the number of phones that were actually bought by consumers was 408,000, down 29 percent from the previous quarter.

By comparison, Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones in its most recent quarter.

"Our recent under performance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong," Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said in a statement.

Palm reported a loss of $22 million, or 13 cents per share, for the quarter, its fiscal third. But that was mitigated by an accounting effect brought about by the recent drop in Palm's stock price. Excluding that effect, the loss was $102.8 million, or 61 cents per share. In the same period a year ago Palm lost $98 million, or 89 cents per share.

Revenue was $350 million, up from $91 million a year ago, when Palm was waiting to release its newest phones.

• HTC says it will fight Apple suit

NEW YORK — HTC Corp., the Taiwanese cell phone maker sued by Apple for patent infringement, said Thursday it will defend itself against charges that it lifted iPhone technology.

In his first public comment on the suit, HTC chief Peter Chou said the company "disagrees with Apple's actions," though he did not go into specifics.

Apple says HTC's phones — several of which use Google Inc.'s Android mobile operating software — infringe on 20 of its patents. The patents cover technology like iPhone two-finger screen recognition, which allows users to perform multiple functions on the gadget.

The suit, filed earlier this month, served as a warning to rivals that Apple Inc. is ready to aggressively defend its technology amid intensifying competition in the smart phone market. Phones based on Google's Android software have emerged as a major threat.

• Microsoft rival says antitrust measures helping

BRUSSELS — Norway's Opera says downloads of its browser have more than doubled after Microsoft Corp. was forced to give European users a choice of Web software to settle European Union antitrust charges.

Microsoft started sending updates to Windows computers in Europe in early March that tell them to pick one or more of 12 free Web browsers to download and install, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Some 100 million Europeans using Microsoft software will be asked to choose between rival browsers by mid-May under a deal the company struck with EU regulators to foster more competition.

Tags: Hot Off the Wire, Apple

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