Palm

Longtime PDA and phone manufacturer Palm had a rough day Friday. Although the stock exchange rose sharply in the wake of news that the U.S. government was stepping in to stabilize the financial markets, Palm's stock fell nearly eight percent, to $7.83.

The drop was driven by the release of Palm's fiscal first quarter results. The company said its revenue rose less than two percent, to $366.9 million, while its quarterly loss rose to $41.9 million, or 39 cents a share.

Last year, when Apple unveiled its iPhone and made it available in the U.S. exclusively from AT&T, the debut sent ripples throughout the cell-phone industry. Handset maker Palm suffered as consumers swooned for Apple's phone, according to surveys by consultancy NPD. AT&T benefited by pulling subscribers from rival carriers Alltel and T-Mobile USA.

Typhoon Touch Technologies added Apple, Toshiba, Palm, and several other companies to a lawsuit on Monday that alleges the companies are infringing on touch screen technology patents it owns. The case was originally filed in December 2007 against Dell and could, according to Typhoon, extend to "millions of devices" already on the market.

Verizon Wireless and handset maker Palm are raining on Apple's iPhone 3G parade this week. The companies announced the Palm Centro smartphone will go on sale through Verizon on Friday -- for $99.

Dressed in a crisp cobalt blue, the Centro provides customers with a wireless tool to manage busy lives with voice, text messaging, e-mail and the Web.

Microsoft expects its Windows Mobile software to grow by at least 50 percent worldwide in this and the next fiscal years. According to a report by Reuters news service, Eddie Wu, Microsoft's managing director of OEM embedded devices in Asia, projected the software giant will sell 20 million units with Windows Mobile in the fiscal year ending in June. In the last fiscal year, it sold more than 11 million units.

'Not Out of the Question'