Palm, Inc. announced it would close all self-branded stores, except the one located in its headquarters, a few days ago—as part of its move to cut costs and focus on core competencies. Most took this to mean the shuttering of nearly all 34 retail locations to fall under the Palm banner.
Turns out this isn't true at all. As it happens, Palm is only closing the few stores it owns, leaving most Palm-branded locations, the ones located in airports, open.
You see, a company called Airport Wireless owns and operates all 26 of Palm's airport stores under a co-branding agreement, making those stores immune to Palm's closures. So in the end only seven Palm stores - the ones located in malls - will be closing.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be changes afoot. For instance, the airport stores won't continue to operate under the Palm banner. Instead, according to a report in treocentral, they'll become Airport Wireless locations exclusively, as the retailer no longer sees the need to co-brand with a third-party.
And while Palm products will remain in stock, Airport Wireless says it will greatly expand inventory to include merchandise from the likes of Nokia, RIM Blackberry and Motorola as well.
