CES - New Palm smartphones (Palm Pre and Pixi)

I think they're fighting a big uphill battle against a few heavyweights, but Palm has some nice-looking new entries in the cellphone/smartphone market.

While the iPhone, Droid, and Google Nexus One have all the smartphone attention of the media these days, PC World reports "Palm announced upgraded versions of its Pre and Pixi smartphones, and announced that it devices would be coming to more carriers."

The two new models are revamped versions of the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. The new phones include new hardware and software changes, and Palm is looking to have the phones available with three different carries -- Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint.

A few notes about the cool things:

  • Slightly revamped form factors.
  • Video recording, editing, and publishing.
  • The ability to use the phones as mobile Wi-Fi hotspots (with a special tethering plan).
  • A development kit for game development.

From a business perspective this is very interesting to me. With Apple and Google having all the mindshare, and huge financial pockets, is there any way Palm can win -- or just survive -- in this market?

Here's a link to the PC World report on the new Palm smartphones.