By Victoria Ho
Wednesday, April 09 2008 05:12 PM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/communications/0,39044192,62039994,00.htm

SINGAPORE--Handheld maker Palm moved Tuesday to a new premise, which appears to occupy a smaller office space than its previous setup.

The company moved from its dedicated office unit in Millenia Tower to Wangz Business Centre, a serviced office facility located in Suntec City, a shopping mall and convention center.

In response to queries from ZDNet Asia, Palm's local spokesperson declined to comment on the new office size or current headcount figures, noting only that it has "moved to offices which have an environment more suitable to the team".

Its local technical support center facilities remain unchanged, according to Palm.

The handheld manufacturer reported losses last year, and began laying off staff in the United States.

In previous interviews with ZDNet Asia, Palm's Asia-Pacific managing director Karthik Srinivasan said these losses were "not an indication of things to come" and that the company remained focused on expansion plans for the region.

According to market figures from IDC Asia-Pacific, Palm last year held some 2 percent of the converged devices segment in the region, excluding Japan.

Aloysius Choong, IDC's senior analyst for personal systems, said Wednesday in a phone interview that while Palm ranks within the top ten converged devices manufacturers in terms of market share, it is "quite a distance from the others on top" of the list.

The company's absolute shipment volumes in 2007 increased from the year before, Choong said, noting that Palm's market share in the region has "traditionally hovered around that mark". The company's Asia-Pacific shipment of converged devices surpassed 100,000 units last year, an increase from previous years, he said.

However, the IDC analyst added that the region accounts for "only a small fraction" of Palm's overall shipments and revenues.

Palm reported the success of its Centro smartphone device, having sold 1 million units worldwide.

Choong believes the device would do well in the region, too, especially in the emerging markets where competing smartphone devices are priced relatively higher.

This makes the Centro more suitable for such markets, where Palm is "in a good position to target first-time users moving from traditional mobile phones to more powerful products," the analyst said.