Ed Colligan: Palm to use webOS beyond Prē base

Palm's latest report of its total revenue in the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 doesn't sound encouraging enough for the company that has the most talked about smartphone of this year: the Prē™, Palm smartphone revenue was $77.5 million, down 72% from the year-ago period. Read the complete Palm Q3 FY09 results at Sammy's post.

But despite the huge net loss of $98 million on revenue of $90.6 million, down from $312 million a in the same quarter a year ago, Palm CEO Ed Colligan said the company is well positioned to launch the Prē™ on time: “We are under no illusions about the hard work that remains with bringing the Pre™ to market." And he added that “I have never had more confidence in Palm’s ability to bring a new product to market on time and at scale.”

Even though knowing the Prē™ is to be the savior of the ailing Palm, the company still keep tight lips about the launch date of the handset, but said the device and its software were “being polished up” and being certified from Sprint as the company prepares to ramp up manufacturing. “Right now we’re 100% focused on getting the Pre launched and the Sprint product out the door,” said CFO Doug Jeffries.

So much info for all of us who's been waiting for the Prē™, but still there are some interesting points delivered by Ed Colligan as reported by ZDNet blogger Larry Dignan:

• The company needs seamless execution on the Prē™ launch.
• Palm is “working hard with developers to get applications ready at launch” and “aligning marketing efforts with Sprint.”
• Palm wasn’t prepared to disclose a European partner for the Prē™, but the company has some “excellent options.”
• The company plans to establish a webOS™ ecosystem that goes “well beyond our base.”
• Palm wasn’t going to discuss its cash burn situation in the fourth quarter, but said its latest move to raise capital gave the company enough headroom to launch the Prē™.

The underlying statement is: Palm will use webOS™ for future devices beyond their current base (Prē™). Jeffries said the company’s cost cutting and the launch of the Prē™ –along with its webOS™– will “greatly improve” performance.

IMHO Palm is putting a lot of stocks into webOS™ (and also the Prē™), it's gonna be "do or die" moment for Palm when the Prē™ is launched, but that sure is make all of us pumped up right?