Palm: We're going to lose a bundle next quarter too

Palm delivered its poor investors another zinger Tuesday. The company said it will lose about 14 cents a share to 16 cents a share excluding charges in its fiscal third quarter. Wall Street was expecting a loss of 4 cents a share.

Revenue for the third quarter--projected to be $310 million to $320 million--will also miss expectations by $30 million to $40 million or so.

Welcome to the pain of being a Palm shareholder (statement).

Palm, which already disclosed its second quarter stunk, said it will lose 31 cents to 33 cents a share including charges for the third quarter. That equates to about $30 million to $33 million.

Nevertheless, Palm CEO Ed Colligan said in a statement he is "transforming Palm to exploit the market opportunity and instilling operational rigor throughout the organization."

If you say so Ed.

And. “We are pleased with the early success of the Palm Centro and intend to deliver more Windows Mobile and Palm-based products throughout the next year," said Colligan.

I bet he's real pleased Palm's biggest hit is a $99 phone with slim profit margins.

On the bright side, Palm is suspending guidance in future quarters. Good call guys. We're tired of being disappointed.

As for the second quarter--also known as the stinky results we knew about already--Palm reported a net loss of $9.6 million, or 9 cents a share. Excluding items, Palm lost $7.8 million, or 7 cents a share. Sales for the second quarter were $349.6 million. Smartphone sell through was 686,000 units, up 11 percent from a year ago. Then again if that surge was due to the Centro the bottom line is still a disaster.

Shares were down only a little afterhours--no one cares anymore.

I'll leave you with a poll.

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