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As the company has already predicted, Palm has posted a rather disappointing quarter yet again.  For its third quarter, Palm has reported a loss of $98 million.  It’s not all that surprising considering it only shipped out 482,000 units during the quarter, down 42 percent from the third quarter the previous year.

Despite the Treo Pro, Palm fully expected to post a down quarter as it puts the finishing touches on the Pre.  It would be safe to assume that a majority of people who would consider buying a Palm product at this point are just waiting for the Pre’s release.  With the promises of what it is supposed to do, this just makes sense.  Who would want an outdated Treo Pro when they could have the new shininess of WebOS?  If the iPhone could convince people to buy into AT&T, I’m sure the Pre could sway people into getting a Sprint contract.

Given the dismal seven quarters Palm has shown, it is hard to say if the Pre will be capable of saving the company.  With the features shown off in the iPhone 3.0 preview earlier this week, Apple may have convinced some naysayers, swaying them from the promise of WebOS, BlackBerries, Android and the upcoming WinMo 6.5.  Palm has said that they will have WebOS upgrades similar to the iPhone updates, but the Pre needs to hold its ground first. 

The Pre does look like a promising device with an interesting OS, but it’ll be hard to say just how many people it will attract.  Tech die-hards alone can’t sustain a device and a whole company.  Or maybe I’m just underestimating Palm’s relevance in the current mobile market.

Read [InformationWeek]