Palm's Hail Mary to be a Sprint 4G handset?

Speculation is running rampant about the future of Palm after it lowered its guidance last week with analysts, pundits and bloggers alike offering up advice to the struggling company. One of the more unusual suggestions has Palm partnering up with Sprint to release a WiMAX handset, noting that the manufacturer and the carrier have had a close relationship in the past and the market for a WiMAX handset is brand new and wide open. Some analysts dismiss this idea, claiming that Palm would not risk its future on an untested and relatively niche market, and they point towards updated 3G hardware with a larger touchscreen and distribution on a major carrier like AT&T as Palm’s saving grace. The Wall Street Journal even chimed in with its “people familiar with the situation” reiterating the claim that Palm will release a webOS device on AT&T in the next few months and projecting that Palm has new hardware on tap for later this year. In the end, Palm has one or two final high stakes hands to play and let’s hope it has enough cash in the bank to be able to ante up what it needs to stay in the game.

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