The forthcoming Palm Pre and Web OS might just bring Palm some kind of a turnaround of fortunes, especially after the struggling company reported a 72 percent plunge in the smartphone revenue in the most recent quarter!

The Sunnyvale, California-based company reportedly generated $77.5 million in revenue, after a 42 plunge in the total sales of its smartphone devices to 482,000 units. The company's total revenue figures of $90.6 million also fell short of analysts' expectations of $105 million.

The fall in sales of Palm's devices coincides with the overall slowing demand for smartphones in the recession-hit economy. However, the company is pinning all its hopes on the much-awaited Palm Pre smartphone.

Palm president and CEO Ed Colligan said: "We're proceeding through a challenging transitional period; however, our current results shouldn't overshadow the tremendous progress we've made against our strategic goals. We're poised to usher in a new era at Palm."

The Palm Pre, whose release date and cost remain undisclosed, will be exclusive to Sprint. The first Palm smartphone to run the new Web OS operating system; Pre would facilitate the simultaneous running of several applications. So far as the specs of 3G device are concerned, they include Wi-Fi; GPS; 3.1" touch screen; slide-out QWERTY keyboard; and a 3.1-megapixel camera with an LED flash!