According to a report from OTR Global, a research firm, Palm has suspended production of both the Pre and Pre Plus. The report also indicates that production of the Palm Pixi may also have been halted.
Key sources in the Taiwan handset supply chain said Palm Inc. has ordered assembler Foxconn International Holdings Co. Ltd. to suspend production of both the Pre and Pre+ in February. “The decision is very sudden, and Foxconn was told to reduce all February Pre forecast to zero on Wednesday and nobody knows whether shipment will resume in March,” said a key source. The source said the CDMA2000 Pre to Sprint and the CDMA2000 Pre+ to Verizon were affected.
Pixi Production Suspended Too?
One source said Palm also told Compal Communications Inc. to suspend shipment of the Pixi and Pixi+ in February, while another source said that production is still going ahead with the Pixi+ to Verizon, but actual delivery in February will amount to less than 5,000 units.
It’s not clear what could have triggered the move though. Could there be a few too many Palm devices in the channels? Is another device about to be announced? More Palm buy-out rumours? Hopefully we find out more soon!
Update: It would appear that this is nothing more than a production halt due to the upcoming Chinese New Year. According to Palm:
Palm regularly adjusts its product manufacturing levels to manage inventory. In anticipation of the Verizon Wireless launch and Chinese New Year, we increased production levels prior to February, and anticipate ramping production back up after the Chinese New Year ends.
(via PreCentral.net)