Palm's biggest fans say they don't want Palm to be sold and hope the cell phone maker keeps plugging away at new smartphones and upgrades to its webOS.

"There are rumblings of [a WiMax-enabled smartphone] that might turn out to be wishful thinking, but I'd like to see that just because Palm needs to do something kind of drastic to get out there and get a good buzz [in the market]," said Kris Keilhack, associate editor at Palm InfoCenter, and a Palm device user for 14 years.

HTC has been widely rumored to be making the , Keilhack noted, but other analysts and observers said it's possible Palm also would build one, partly because Sprint had the exclusive carrier deal to sell the Palm Pre, the first device based on the webOS, in 2009. Sprint, the nation's third-largest wireless carrier, which is also heavily of the faster WiMax technology, has announced a special event at the CTIA trade show in March, but neither Sprint nor Palm responded to requests for comment.

One commenter on Gdgt.com named Oldmanwoerle reasoned that a WiMax phone from Palm on Sprint is a "huge opportunity for both Sprint and Palm to grab a lot of subscribers."

Getting more Palm smartphone devices on the market with more carriers is what several industry analysts believe will keep the company from disaster.