Palm moves into mini-smartphone business

Palm (PALM) must not think that its new Pre smartphone gets it into a broad enough portion of the handset market. As of September 9, it will be offering a new and much smaller phone called the Pixi. The handset will be available exclusively from Sprint in all of its outlets before the holidays.

The struggling firm announced that the "Palm Pixi lets you express yourself in amazingly useful ways." The Pixi will be loaded with social network applications, including Facebook and LinkedIn, use the Palm webOS and have a full keyboard. The handset will be exclusively marketed by Sprint (S) and is available for $149.99 (after a $150 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate) with a two-year service agreement.