As opposed to their last report from September, which was somewhat ambiguous on Palm’s current fortunes, ChangeWave Research’s latest 90-day overview of the consumer smartphone space is decidedly more gloomy.
The survey of 4,068 consumers showed that in addition to Palm’s marketshare falling slightly by 1%, consumer preference for webOS has also dipped in the face of fierce competition from new Android handsets, dropping from 8% to 4% of planned future smartphone purchases. As the report’s authors note, Palm’s best chance to boost their slowing momentum is their upcoming launches on new carriers, finally freeing them of the Sprint exclusivity that many have blamed for webOS’s relatively unspectacular sales figures thus far.
