The New York Times-20080128-Palm to Close Most of Its Retail Stores

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Palm to Close Most of Its Retail Stores

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Palm, the smartphone maker that is losing sales to BlackBerrys and iPhones, will close seven of eight of its retail stores next month.

Palm also will shut 26 Airport Wireless stores before the end of its fiscal third quarter, the company said Saturday in an e-mailed statement. The store at Palm's office in Sunnyvale, Calif., will remain open.

Palm customers have fled to Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry device. Apple also is taking buyers away with its iPhone, which was introduced in June. Palm had said a shortage of parts would hurt production of its latest Treo smartphone.

Sales this quarter will fall to $310 million to $320 million, the second consecutive decline, the company said in December. Analysts had expected $357.6 million in sales.