The slow rise of Palm's smartphone business appears to be gathering pace, with more speculation suggesting that the manufacturer could well be purchased by one of its rivals.

That's according to Deutsche Bank analyst Jonathan Goldberg, who believes Palm will shift 7.3 million handsets in 2010, rising to a further 11.3 million the following year.

Goldberg's statements resulted in Palm's stock jumping by 7.1 percent to $11.29 yesterday, the man himself claiming his faith in the firm's future has been fuelled by the success of its webOS operating system.

Platform for sale?

Goldberg believes webOS is a "scarce resource" for Palm, and one that could prove even more fundamental if the company can court a wider array of studios into developing for it.

"We think Palm has created a valuable asset in its webOS," Goldberg commented. "If they can grow their installed base of users and keep the carrier momentum going, this value should become more apparent."

Goldberg already considers the webOS store a major player in the market, placing it ahead of Nokia's Ovi store and Windows Mobile. He also believes the store could ease past BlackBerry's 5,000 apps and Android 20,000 apps by the end of the year.

As a result, Goldberg repeated his buy rating on Palm stock, raising his price target from $19 to $20, but it's the suggestion that Palm is now a prime target for other mobile manufacturers that seems to have caught most attention.

Previous chatter has thrown up Nokia, HP and Dell as likely buyers, but Goldberg himself remained non committal regarding any possible partnerships, commenting only that any such deal would open up Palm's range of handsets to vital new carriers and distributors.

[source: mocoNews]