Looks like the only people who may find this Friday the 13th scary are Palm's competitors. Today, RBC analyst Mike Abramsky upgraded his rating for the handset manufacturer to outperform, raising his target from $5 to $12 (previously raised from $3.50). Abramsky said there is room for competition in the smartphone market, and the Pre has advantages in form factor, cloud integration, and available developer base.
"Palm is developed end-to-end smartphone software and hardware, providing a superior user experience, which we believe can offer a compelling alternative to iPhone...Rather than a one product Hail Mary, we see webOS as a platform, spawning a family of devices addressing a broader market opportunity".
It's clear that Abramsky sees webOS expanding to additional devices beyond smartphones (earlier, we discussed netbook possibilities), and assuming in the not-so-distant future. This is despite the fact that in the recent webcast, it was stated that there were currently no plans to license webOS to third parties. He thinks Palm could sell 2.6 million webOS devices by May 2010, up 62% to 4.1 million by the 2011 fiscal year.
Also in a note today, Abramsky said Palm was "an attractive acquisition target", possibly in the $15-16 range per share. Previously we reported on why Dell should acquire Palm; CNN also suggests HP and Microsoft, as well as other handset manufacturers such as Sony, LG, and Samsung could be considered potential buyers.
Finally, Techniclez reports on new numbers released today by research firm Gartner for Q4 smartphone sales. The iPhone took home the cake with 245.7% growth, but surprisingly Palm was in the game with 42.2% growth, with the webOS Pre still on the way.
Palm shares closed today at $8.39, up 6.74%.
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