No Palm for Christmas

The world-wide shortage in components Palm needs to makes its products continues and Palm executives are already getting nervous about the Christmas buying season. "We're in backlog on literally every single product in the line," Palm chief competitive officer Michael Mace said.

However, in a recent online Q&A session, Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Handspring, pointed out that they are having much fewer problems. He said, "we don't use flash memory, which is the most affected components. Another reason is we maintain very close relationships with our vendors and have forecasted our needs accurately. " TRG also has managed to keep up with the demand for their products.

The shortage of flash memory and LCD screens was caused by companies underestimating the exploding cell phone market, which also uses these components. It has been predicted to last until next year, when more production capacity will come online.