SUNNYVALE, USA – Palm has disappointed investors after posting a loss of US$22m for its third-quarter earnings report, sending its stock price tumbling to three quarters of its original value.

The smartphone maker had promised a powerful comeback by launching its new user-friendly webOS smartphone operating system, together with the breakthrough Palm Pre device, dubbed to be yet another “iPhone killer”. This followed few more mobile phones than ran on the same software platform, including the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, both announced at the CES 2010 earlier this year.

The loss was not has bad as a year ago, where Palm saw a US$98m loss for its past Q3 result. The justification for the latest earnings result is the late launch of the Pre Plus, which came after the Verizon Droid, its competitor.

In terms of specific numbers, 960 000 smartphones were shipped by Palm this quarter, 23% up from Q2, and up nearly 300% year-on-year. Only 408 000 units of these smartphones were actually sold, around 30% less than the previous quarter, and way below than the 500-600 thousand sales analysts were expecting.

Palm said it expects its Q4 revenue to be less than US$150m, also below expectations.

On the upside, there are over 2 000 apps at Palm’s App Catalog.

The manufacturer’s CEO, Job RubinStein refused to comment on the possibility of a major player buying out Palm, a rumour doing the rounds in the industry.

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Palm Blames Loss on Late Launches, Promises to be Aggressive