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Talk radio's "biggest mouth" Howard Stern is in the market for a phone, reports ZDNet. As a longtime Palm user, he is now embarrased to show his Treo since "it's so old school", he states. He's been publicly auditioning new phones, including a BlackBerry, but ruled out the iPhone due to lack of a keyboard.

It seems Palm has taken notice of his smartphone woes. A couple weeks ago, Lynn Fox, Palm head of PR, apparently called into the radio show to plug the device (see other Pre bits). Today they took the next step, making Howard Stern a "public test cast for the Pre". They will be bringing a Pre demo to Stern's home, giving him a hands-on tutorial, and then taking the top secret device away.

“They’re going to show me the Pre and then take it away. They’re trying to build excitement for this thing. If people don’t buy this I don’t see how Palm keeps going.”

A "Stern stamp of approval" for the Pre will go a long way for Palm, and it's important that it's easy to use; especially since he's less tech-savvy than Engadget and Jimmy Fallon. Palm continues to work the celebrity circuit to counter buzz from Apple, who are gearing up with upcoming iPhone 3.0 software (see articles).

The now (in)famous twitters of Palm Pre beta tester Jim Van have become so heated among tech enthusiasts that he "had to go private to keep the noise down", he states in another twitter. Jim Van responded to PalmWebOS.org on why he disclosed information about release date, battery life, and more (see article), and subsequently blocked his updates to outsiders.

In the e-mail, he talked about how his comments were intended for a small (<20) group of friends and "anyone else" who followed him on Twitter. His decision to go private was due to users questioning his credibility, threats, even one user "trying to pin the economic crisis" on him. The NDA was also "looser" because the product is in final beta. His account manager, a low-level employee, holds fast on an April 30 release date. Furthermore, he has decided to not discuss the Pre again until a couple weeks after release to focus on other pursuits.

So what did we gain from this sudden string of great new Pre bits? Although we can't confirm that he indeed has a Pre, we have little reason to believe he doesn't, and it's obvious a release like the Pre would require more than a few beta testers. It's also understandable he doesn't have time, nor is paid for, the huge flood of responses he was receiving.

According to a Twitter from an apparent beta tester for the Palm Pre, The new webOS handset is set to launch on April 30:

 

This could be big news, as the new smartphone was predicted to have a June release date, and only a "first half of 2009" target has been set officially. His twitter updates have since been protected, but here's what we know so far:

• The source looks legit. "Jim Van" is CEO of Logicomm, an IT services firm for small businesses.  Providence Business News previously interviewed him about the company, and his bio can be found here.
• Although we haven't seen any proof he is a beta tester (Palm almost certainly has an NDA in effect), he claims he took a couple shots of the device with firmware info on display.
• Palm is under pressure to release the new handset sooner than later; especially with Apple's WWDC on June 8th and upcoming iPhone 3.0 software (see articles).
• He clarified and restated the date in a follow-up twitter, in response to an inquiry into how sure he was of the release date.

For all you other amateur investors out there. Palm stock has gone up 275% since the announcement of the Pre and webOS and has a target price of $12 now - up from $10. Seems like many influential people are very convinced that the Pre and webOS will be a hit!  From money.cnn.com:

Such was evident on Wednesday, when RIM (RIMM) got chopped to the equivalent of a sell rating by one broker and was initiated with a lukewarm view by another -- both of which questioned the company's ability to maintain profit levels for its mega-popular BlackBerry family in the hyper-competitive wireless market that has also been crimped by the slowing economy.

Palm (PALM), on the other hand, has been riding strong buzz as the company prepares the launch of its Pre smart phone later this year. The stock has been upgraded to buy ratings three times in the past month.

Check out the full article here.

Several studies were reported on today, helping to give smartphone maker Palm a boost before the Pre is released. TMC reported in a February study that smartphone market share worldwide increased from 26 to 33 percent. In total, an estimated 171 million smartphones were sold worldwide in 2008.

OS Attack broke the findings down with the latest US reports, with the iPhone capturing 50 percent of the major mobile OS share, and Palm OS in forth place with 7 percent. RIM, Windows Mobile, and Android were second, third, and fifth place, respectively. "Palm webOS is for sure going to capture a large part of the mobile OS market", they state on the upcomiing Pre. Palm investor Roger Mcnamee also discussed the smartphone market in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this month.

webOS will definitely shake up the rankings when it arrives, but how does the hype for the Pre compare with the iPhone back in 2007? Tinycomb reported on the latest charts comparing current web traffic for Sprint and Palm with previous traffic for AT&T and Apple leading up to the iPhone:

Looks like we are barking up the right tree! From an article on BusinessWeek titled Palm's Secret Weapon for the Pre, it sounds like we can look forward to some very cool webOS apps as soon as, or shortly after the Pre launches.

Pandora, Intuit, Fandago...

So I can listen to my custom radio stations while paying the bills and ordering movie tickets...at the same time.

Against the odds, Palm courted a formidable community of developers whose apps may prove vital to the fortunes of the make-or-break Pre smartphone.

Here's a few snippets from industry sources to help keep you on top of all the Pre news.

Will Dell produce an iPhone killer...or buy it? - Dell has been notably lacking in the smartphone department, especially with the recent battle between the Pre and iPhone. Some editors suggest Dell should acquire Palm (also stressed in a Barron's article). ComputerWorld reports Michael Dell stating, "buying other companies remains an option for expansion into the smartphone market but...acquisitions focus is elsewhere at present."

Recently, Dell has taken it into their own hands to churn out a viable smartphone, reports eWeek, but their prototypes got rejected due to "lack of differentiation versus current and upcoming products". They were running Windows Mobile and Google Android OS. To stand out, "it will likely involve vertical integration of services", said Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu.  AppleInsider adds, "Dell's new prototypes simply didn't interest the carriers. Dell's phone...is too dull to stand out in a competitive environment". Is webOS the answer for them?

The shrinking global market for PCs has already sent other PC makers scrambling to enter the phone business, including Acer, Asustek and Lenovo, but relationships with carriers can't be gained overnight. Longtime phone makers Motorola and Sony are also in big trouble, with little to excite buyers and compete with Apple. So while Dell goes back to the drawing board, Palm may not have to worry about any more competitors before the launch of the Pre.

Read on for the rest of the news.

 

Investment Corner:

Bloomberg reports that Palm faced a net Q3 loss of $95M, or 89 cents a share, compared to $54.7M a year earlier. Revenue came in 71% down, at $90.6M, making it the seventh consecutive quarter of losses for Palm. The revenue drop "underscores in no uncertain terms the need for an immensely successful launch of the Pre", Jim Suava stated, an analyst for Citigroup. The forth quarter, ending in May, will be challenging and gross margins will again drop, Chief Financial Officer Douglas Jeffries said on a conference call.

Palm is coping with dwindling sales of its older models in anticipation of the new webOS Pre. "It appears the Pre launch will not be in the May quarter," predicts Tavis McCourt, analyst with Morgan Keegan & Co. ITExaminer reports that Palm has lost $640.7M since the beginning of the 2009 fiscal year. Regardless, the latest financial move by Palm that brought in almost $84M gave the company "enough headroom" to launch the Pre.

UPDATE: Palm CEO Ed Colligan responded to the financial reports, stating the Pre was still on target for the "second quarter."

Palm webOS:

CEO Ed Colligan envisions an entire product line built on webOS, ZDNET reports him stating yesterday. During a conference call, he promised a "roadmap of smartphones and an application ecosystem built on the company's new webOS. In short, webOS is bigger than just the Pre base, even though they stated in a recent webinar that there were no plans to license webOS to third parties. In addition, the software on the Palm Pre was being "polished up and certified from Sprint", with manufacturing already being ramped up.

Responding with optimism, Colligan said his company was well positioned to launch the new device on time, despite the Treo Pro being delayed several times before finally launched on March 15. Palm is working hard with developers to get applications ready at launch, and recently released Chapter 2 of the webOS developer's guide, part of a continuing effort to energize developers for the new platform.