Palm Steps Up Smartphone Fight With a Pixi Punch

Not for nothing, but most smartphone names are killers. Seriously, besides the iPhone, can you name any other engaging, creative handset monikers? G1 pretty much says it all. At least until today.

Now there's the Pixi from Palm. And darn, if that's not the cutest, easiest to remember and most adorable smartphone name to hit the shelves, then color me purple in embarrassment.

The Pixi, featuring Palm's newest platform Palm webOS (again, platform names aren't winning awards lately either) just sounds like it will fit perfectly in your palm and just do everything you need in the cutest, fuzziest manner possible.

And it's very, very friendly. Just consider all the built-in integration into social networking applications, including Facebook and now Yahoo! and even LinkedIn. Even the handset design comes with pizazz. The Palm Pixi Artist Series is a numbered, limited-edition series that lets users alter the design to match their mood.

A lot of people have jumped on the bandwagon that says Palm is going down in flames, albeit slowly, in the smartphone wars. But between its new platform (despite the name), and now its marketing smarts and design teams, I wouldn't count out Palm to still give the BlackBerry and, yes, even the iPhone, a run for big consumer market share down the road. While pricing has yet to be announced, as the product won't hit shelves until the holiday season, Palm's already lowered the prices on its Pre handset, which was its first iPhone competitor handset.

Photos courtesy of Palm