False alarm: Palm not halting production of Pre, Pre Plus
Palm responds to earlier reports that it suspended production of the Palm Pre and Palm Pre Plus.
Everyone, calm down. Rumors of the death of the Palm
The rumors started spreading like wildfire earlier Thursday when a report by OTR Global said three different sources confirmed that Palm suspended all future orders of the Pre and Pre Plus.
In the memo, a "key source" was reported as saying, "The decision is very sudden, and Foxconn was told to reduce all February Pre forecast to zero on Wednesday and nobody knows whether shipment will resume in March." Well, perhaps if someone had bothered to take a second and simply ask Palm, they would have gotten the real answer.
Here's the official statement sent to us by Derick Mains, director of corporate communications at Palm:
Palm regularly adjusts its product manufacturing levels to manage inventory. In anticipation of the Verizon Wireless launch and Chinese New Year, we increased production levels prior to February, and anticipate ramping production back up after the Chinese New Year ends.
As you were, people.