Two of Palm's Windows Mobile Devices May Be Delayed

The debuts of two of Palm's smartphones have reportedly been pushed back from mid-year to the end of the year. Still, there's a silver lining for this company: these will apparently be Windows Mobile models, not the Palm Pre.

The source of this information, a report in the Commercial Times, gives no description of these models, not even what operating system they will run. These un-named devices are being assembled by Compal, who says the delay is the result of poor performance with the current generation of Qualcomm processors. A new generation of chips from this company is expected out later this year.

Not the Palm Pre
Despite its lack of details, this report, if correct, could not be referring to Palm's most important product, the Palm Pre. This upcoming smartphone is not being assembled by Compal, but rather Chi Mei Communication Systems (CMCS).

In addition, the Pre is based on a Texas Instruments processor, not one from Qualcomm.

However, this doesn't answer he question of what devices are being delayed. All that can be surmised about them is that they must be unannounced phones running Windows Mobile, as Palm has stopped developing new devices running the Palm OS.

Questions Still Remain
Still, this doesn't completely clear matters up. There are already many Windows Mobile 6.1 devices on the market based on the current generation of Qualcomm processors, so this may be a reference to the next version of this operating system, Windows Mobile 6.5.

Problem is, Microsoft won't release 6.5 to device makers until later this year, so there's no way Compal could have scheduled phones from Palm running it for mid year.

Source: Commercial Times via DigiTimes