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Is This Palm's Death Knell?

By Anders Bylund – Updated Apr 6, 2017 at 12:35PM

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The bell tolls for Palm, with Verizon wielding the clapper.

"For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on

For whom the bell tolls"
-- From "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica, 1985

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is either doing Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) a huge favor right now -- or reading the handset maker's last will and testament.

You can get a Palm Pre Plus for a measly $50 right now, or a Palm Pixi Plus for $30. Those are two massive price cuts, considering that the Pre Plus cost $150 last week, even with the requisite 2-year Verizon Wireless service contract. The original Palm Pre, which was supposed to save Sprint Nextel's (NYSE: S) bacon last year but never did, launched at a $199 price point.

Verizon's curious move raises two distinct possibilities:

  • Pres and Pixies are cluttering up store shelves and warehouses, unsold and untouched, and Verizon is desperate to get rid of this worthless junk. That would be the last will referenced above.
  • Verizon wants to promote these models for whatever reason, and it's willing to subsidize them just to get the ball rolling. In this case, Verizon's marketing power might pull Palm up by the bootstraps. Maybe.

The second option is not as grim as the first from Palm's point of view, but either way suggests that the Pre's fizzled launch wasn't Sprint's fault. Verizon can't sell the darned things, either, short of taking drastic measures.

And the wireless giant certainly has reason to clear some space on those shelves. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and its Android partners want to push out a few new models to Verizon this summer, and if the stars align just right, there might even be an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone on Verizon's horizon, too. A deluge of smartphones are coming to sweep away Palm -- and maybe even Research In Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry.

Does Palm have one last trick up its sleeve, or did the bell just toll for the company that made PDA gadgets cool? Discuss in the comments below.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund owns shares in Google, but he holds no other position in any of the companies discussed here. All April long, he frolics in the joys of National Poetry month. Sprint Nextel is a Motley Fool Inside Value choice. Google is a Motley Fool Rule Breakers selection. Apple is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation. Try any of our Foolish newsletters today, free for 30 days. You can check out Anders' holdings and a concise bio if you like, and The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors.

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Stocks Mentioned

Verizon Communications Inc. Stock Quote
Verizon Communications Inc.
VZ
$39.52 (-1.03%) $0.41
Palm, Inc. Stock Quote
Palm, Inc.
PALM
Alphabet Inc. Stock Quote
Alphabet Inc.
GOOGL
$98.74 (-1.40%) $-1.40
Apple Inc. Stock Quote
Apple Inc.
AAPL
$150.43 (-1.51%) $-2.31
Sprint Corporation Stock Quote
Sprint Corporation
S
BlackBerry Stock Quote
BlackBerry
BB
$5.07 (-3.24%) $0.17

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