Palm will unveil its second WebOS phone this week, internally named the “Pixie,” we’ve heard from a source close to the company. The debut will occur as part of Fashion Week in New York.
As we wrote back in April, the new phone will have the same operating system as the Palm Pre but will be much lower priced ($99). The latest information we have on the hardware specs is here.
Palm has never verified the existence of the Pixie, but enough sources in Asia and the U.S. have confirmed the phone that there is little question it has been in the planning stages for some time.
As usual, Palm’s timing is odd. Apple is holding a major event tomorrow that will likely focus on new iPod Touch features. The Palm Pre launched just days before the iPhone 3Gs
It’s been a bit of a wild wide for the launch of the Pixie so far, if rumors are any indication. In May, hearsay arose pinning the launch sometime in the second half of 2009. Right as we rolled into the second half, an analyst at Barclay Capital indicated that the handset was delayed into 2010, only for China’s Commercial Times to follow up the next day with a report that said otherwise.
Beyond the launch date, the rumor mill has also failed to positively nail down which carrier(s) would be getting the handset. While AT&T is more or less confirmed, its worth noting that mystery Palm devices have also shown up in both Verizon and Sprint’s inventory system.