Palm sold 42% fewer smartphones last quarter than the one before. Anyone in the market for a new phone knows something much better than the Treo Pro is coming soon. It seems that the announcement of the next-gen webOS based Palm Pre, while driving traffic to Palm’s website, is killing their sales of their other devices.  Well, duh.

Given that we know the Pre will be released in the next few months (in theory any time before June 30th), it’s pretty darn logical that everyone would wait for the next coming of the Jesus-Phone… no, not THAT Jesus-Phone. I’m talking about the Palm Pre.  With Palm in a position to finally make a comeback from irrelevancy, their own plans are causing them immediate harm. However, short-term losses will hopefully be made up by some long-term boosts in revenue as the webOS platform develops and expands to other devices.

No one should be worried. The numbers were more than likely expected to be bad. The Treo Pro and Centro are going to be phased out, and their sales are going to decline as the Pre’s release approaches.  Here’s the specifics. Maybe Palm qualifies for a Government Bailout now?  3rd Quarter-Palm lost $98 million, or $0.89 per share.  Total revenue was $90 Million, less than the expected $105 Million projected by analysts.  Remember, this is all a part of any new-product transition strategy. There will be short term losses before the long term gains.

[Via PCWorld]

Palm Pre: 26-minutes live demo!