Palm community mainstays PalmSource and palmOne both released results for their most recent financial quarters within the last 24 hours. Although both companies turned profits, palmOne's shareholders are likely to be the far happier of the two .

That's because PalmSource's reported profits included the $26.7 million dollars palmOne paid to gain exclusive rights to the Palm name and trademark. Without that windfall PalmSource posted a loss for the quarter.

The change back to the Palm moniker will take place on July 14 for PalmOne.

It earned $17.3 million in revenue compared to $18.3 million in net earnings ($1.12 per share). One year ago, PalmSource reported $17.7 million in revenue, a loss of $2.9 million from its net 23 cents per share net earnings. Licensees shipped 0.3 million less devices last quarter (1.1 million to 1.4 million units) than the same quarter in 2004.

For the fiscal year, the company posted a net profit of $19.5 million, $1.28 per share, based on revenue of $71.9 million. That's an improvement over 2004's $15.2 million or ($1.40 per share) net loss.

As for the current quarter, ending September 2nd, PalmSource expects revenue in the range of $14.3 million to $14.8 million with a GAAP loss per share in the range of $0.23 to $0.26.

PalmSource stock tumbled 6.6 percent this morning.

Developer Developments
To save money this fiscal year, PalmSource announced plans to lower its number of U.S. employees by 16 percent. The company also said it was on track to deliver the first edition of Palm OS Linux to licensees within the first six months of 2006 (see PalmSource, GSPDA Preview Linux Path).

"While we still face significant challenges over the next several quarters, we continue to move forward with our development efforts in the broader mobile phone market," said interim CEO. Patrick McVeigh, "We are committed to our transition to Linux-based platforms that deliver a great user experience."

New Liscencee
On the upside—perhaps the only one in an otherwise disappointing report—during yesterday's conference call announcing PalmSource's financial results, McVeigh announced the platform developer "signed a Tier 1 handset manufacturer to a world-wide license for Palm OS."

He wouldn't say what company that was; although the interim CEO said PalmSource would once they received the okay from this mysterious vendor to do so.

Expect smartphones rather than PDAs to ship from this licensee, since it is a mobile phone vendor.

It is not known when products will ship though. When they do, however, it could go a ways towards counteracting Sony's defection from handhelds last year.

PalmSource has yet to recover from the loss of this innovator, its number two licensee and one of the most popular PDA vendors in the world.