The guidance given in Palm’s last two investor calls have pointed to revenues as high as $1.8 billion by the end of the second half of its current fiscal year. In order to obtain that kind of revenue, the sell through of their devices needs to increase substantially, and a survey conducted by Deutsche Bank and research from Kaufman Brothers suggest that Palm is doing just that.
Deutsche Bank, maintaining a its BUY rating on Palm with a target price of $20, conducted a phone survey of 210 Verizon outlets in 38 states suggesting that while Verizon has yet to fully engage in promotion of Palm’s product (I can attest to this with personal experience), Palm is closing in on Blackberry for most preferred at %17.
Kaufman Brother’s Shaw Wu anticipates that Palm will ship 1 million webOS units this quarter, with Verizon adding another 550,000 to 600,000 shipments alone. Wu’s research also indicates that those buying the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus are picking those devices over Verizon’s current Android offerings, and the handsets of more established players like RIM and Microsoft.
As Palm’s CEO Jon Rubinstein pointed out in his interview with Kara Swisher at CES this year, new carrier rollouts build on top of previous ones. Palm is now looking at a potential subscriber base of over 100 million domestically (which will increase substantially with the addition of AT&T sometime this year), and as the company builds and maintains its momentum, that $1.8 billion in projected revenues by the end of its fiscal year is beginning to look less absurd after all.
[via: everythingpre]
Thanks to montag for sending this in!