With the coming addition of Palm to its inventory, AT&T will soon be the only carrier that can boast of offering devices based on all five of the top smartphone operating systems: Apple’s iPhone, Palm’s webOS, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry OS, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Google’s Android.
Two weeks ago, AT&T added its first Android-based phone, the Motorola Backflip, and it promises more on the way. The company is currently the exclusive carrier of the iPhone.
“Customers purchase based on either phone or carrier, so AT&T carrying all these platforms makes them attractive to consumers,” said Michael Gartenberg, a partner in the Altimeter Group, a technology consulting firm.
But Palm’s partnership with the nation’s No. 2 wireless carrier, first announced in January at CES, could be crucially important to both companies as the manufacturer struggles for market share.
Last week Palm officials announced a bleak forecast for this quarter, with revenues projected at half of Wall Street estimated. Palm also revealed that more than half the 960,000 handsets shipped last quarter went unsold. (Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Geldblum reportedly estimates that the overall unsold Palm inventory may be as high as 1.15 million phones.)
The bad news sent Palm’s shares tumbling to a one-year low. But the AT&T news gave the share price a slight boost in early trading Monday, up five percent to $4.21.
“With today’s news of the AT&T deal, Palm is now on three of the major carriers in the U.S.,” said Gartenberg. “Combined with some renewed marketing efforts, Palm has the ability to maintain position in the market.” (The other two Palm smartphone carriers are Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless.)
AT&T has not announced a date for the premiere of the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus at its stores, but said they would sell for $149.99 and $49.99, respectively, with…