By: Billy Fisher

Contributor, Stock Traders Daily

A free trading report is available for all stocks in this article.

(La Jolla, CA) On a day in which analysts were looking to Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to unveil new developments in its iPod and iTunes business, Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) elected to forge ahead with the announcement of a new smart phone that the company hopes can make some headway against the iPhone and Blackberry smart phones manufactured by Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM).

The Pixi smart phone which Palm is positioning as a thinner more economical option to its current Pre smart phone is expected to be available to consumers prior to the holiday shopping season.  In conjunction with this announcement, Palm also dropped the price of the Pre to $149 after rebates and when bundled with a two-year service agreement with Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S). No specific details have been provided on pricing for the Pixi as of yet.

Both the Pre and the Pixi have provided a great deal of buzz for a company that had seemingly lost its way. Shares of Palm were trading at just $3.07 at the outset of 2009. Fast-forward eight months and the stock has roared up the charts to $13.67 for a year-to-date return of 345.3%.

When Palm releases its fiscal Q1 results after the closing bell next Thursday, traders might be able to gain a clearer picture as to how the Pre has been selling and impacting the company’s bottom line. Analysts are expecting a loss from the company, but the Pre and the Pixi are a step in the right direction towards winning more customers and achieving profitability.

A Game Changer? 

The notion that the Pixi won’t be available to AT&T (NYSE: T) or Verizon (NYSE: VZ) customers could prove to be a significant victory for Sprint, or it could signal the device’s downfall.

The smart phone market is becoming more and more saturated by the day with new releases. For phones that do not prove to be game changers in the long-run, a customer’s satisfaction with their current service provider could be the deciding factor when it comes time to purchase a new phone.  

So how effective will the Pixi ultimately be in Palm’s battle to regain some of its previous luster? “Palm lost its grip, but it is not out of the game,” says Thomas H. Kee Jr., president and CEO of Stock Traders Daily. “I think Palm has an opportunity, now it must execute.”

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In 2008, Kee’s Stock of the Week selections returned 60.8%.