Palm Changes Outlook for Fiscal Year, Cites Slow Sales

Indeed, I chewed on how shaky Palm's outlook was just recently. It seems that Google's (GOOG) Android platform completely spoiled the party for Palm, racking up quite an audience as 2009 closed while having multiple products use it under the hood instead of Palm's "our handset or else" approach.

That approach worked for Apple (AAPL) and continues to work wonderfully. However, Palm is no Apple and can't come close to competing with the entire media ecosystem Apple has available. It's no surprise, then, that Palm is falling below expectations financially. The company stated that revenues for the current quarter and full fiscal year will be "well below its previously forecasted range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion". Yikes.

Can Palm survive or is this the beginning of the end? The newest Palm products really are a work of art, both from a physical design and a usage standpoint. That's not enough against Apple's power and Google's assault with touch-screen handsets from almost every U.S. carrier (Palm is solely with Sprint Nextel and Verizon, and only with a few products).

Palm's lowered guidance references "slower than expected consumer adoption" of its products, resulting in lower than expected order volumes from carriers and the deferral of orders to future periods -- and that's trouble. If demand isn't materializing by now, it probably never will in the amount that is needed to save Palm from going bust for good -- or from being purchased outright.