Palm beats expectations

Looks like Palm (PALM) is roaring back to credibility. After the markets closed today, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based smart phone maker reported a net loss of $105 million, or 78 cents per share, for its fourth quarter ending May 29.

While it was far worse than its loss of $43.4 million, or 40 cents per share in the same period one year ago, it did beat analysts expectations for the quarter. "The launch of Palm webOS and Palm Pre was a major milestone in Palm's transformation; we have now officially reentered the race," Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said in a statement. "We have more to accomplish, but the groundwork is laid for a very promising future here at Palm." Palm now offers consumers a very real alternative to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone. Analysts are forecasting revenue growth of 144 percent in 2010. It is a real achievement since the market for smart phones is more competitive than ever with big players such as Research In Motion (RIMM), Nokia (NOK), Google (GOOG) and Samsung going head-to-head with each other. Palm says it will also go after the enterprise market, an area which Research In Motion dominates and Apple is competing. Expect to see customer relationship management (CRM) software apps from Oracle (ORCL) and Salesforce.com (CRM) among the new apps. Palm is also talking about a few other corporate-friendly features, such as the ability to remotely erase data, encrypt confidential information and even find a lost Palm Pre using GPS technology.