Palm Pre- Is this a new beginning or the end of Palm? FROM BARRONS

Interesting Article from Barrons-

Palm: Waiting For Opening Day
from BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily - Barron's Online by Eric Savitz

For investors in Palm (PALM), the company is now in a sort of spring training period - what matters is getting ready for opening day. No one really cares if the Yankees have the best record in in the Grapefruit League; and likewise, the Street has decided to simply ignore the absolutely nightmarish numbers Palm posted for the February quarter. Palm has one more free pass ahead; May’s report will be even nastier still, and investor won’t care unless there is an acceleration in cash burn. Palm is a company that, by design, is going down in flames, with every hope of rising Phoenix-like from the ashes.

Whether or not you believe in the stock here simply boils down to how you feel about the upcoming launch of the Palm Pre. If you think the Pre is a winner, and that the company has enough cash to see it through, you buy the stock. If you think the new handset might be late or disappoint, they you want to short it. There’s basically no intermediate position. It’s a two-outcome stocks: agony and ecstasy.

I will dispense with the usual post-earnings analyst rundown I might normally do, and instead sum up the current key debate points:

* The Palm Pre is expected to ship before the end of June; some analysts think it happen before the end of the May quarter, but most figure it will be later than that.
* The company insists that it now has enough cash to carry it through the launch; but if the Pre is at all late, it could be an issue. The company is burning close to $100 million a quarter, and now has a little over $300 million in the bank including the proceeds of a recent stock offering.
* The bulls think the Pre is a revolutionary device that will lure away iPhone and BlackBery users…
* …But the bears contends that there is so much competition in the smartphone space that the company will have trouble getting traction.
* The bulls also think there is a chance the company could end up getting acquired.

Price targets on the stock range from the low double-digits down to zero. It’s all or nothing.

PALM today is up 23 cents, or 3%, to $7.94.