Handspring sells just enough PDAs

But 40 staff still get the chop...

US handheld computer maker Handspring offered a little light through the gloom in the PDA market, meeting sales targets and earnings estimates, but staff will go. Handspring posted a loss of $32.4m for the fourth quarter ended 30 June, up from last year's $5.8m loss in the same quarter last year, but marginally better than analysts had expected. Sales were in line with last year's lowered estimates of $61m, up around 18 per cent on Q4 last year. Despite these results, the company has announced that it will be axing around 40 workers, about 10 per cent of its staff. Excess inventory in the market and a resulting price war with Palm has affected both companies' sales. However, Handspring has fared better than UK's Psion, which last week announced its decision to pull out of the handheld computer market.