Palm the handheld computer giant have announced that their income for the year is going to be far below their expectations according to an article over on news.bbc.co.uk

The main reason for this disappointment is the sales of its smartphones. Figures for the third quarter show that they actually shipped almost one million but only 400,000 or just over actually ended up with customers.

Palm as we know have recently struggled to generate the interest that they required in their Palm Pre and Palm Pixi smartphones and even more has been affected by the new Google Nexus One.

There has been some speculation over recent months that the company may actually end up being taken over by one of eight major companies this will include both Microsoft and also Dell. Jon Rubenstein Palm’s Chief Executive has said that although the underperformance has been disappointing the potential for Palm does remain strong.