At the recent JPMorgan Technology Conference, Palm's CFO Andrew Brown was grilled by Morgan analyst Paul Coster. Cutting straight to the chase, Coster launched into a storm of questions regarding Palm's future plans and yet-to-be-announced product releases. Brown dodged all questions regarding planned product, a not-so-surprising move as companies are keeping plans closer to the cuff in an increasingly competitive smartphone world. One thing Brown made abundantly clear - Palm has a lot riding on its new Linux-based OS slated for release later this year.

"What was made clear is that Palm will have a next generation operating system based on Linux ready by the end of this year, though on what type of product it will be delivered, Brown wouldn't say. He echoed the comments of Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, saying that hardware design will not be the winning factor in mobile devices. "It will be the software," said Brown."

In what has ended up a virtual beating as of late, analysts have turned on Palm, cutting their stock rating from Neutral to Sell. Apparently The Street was not impressed with what Brown had to say.

Does Palm have an Ace up their sleeve with their new OS? Is this just postponing the inevitable? Let us know what you think in the forums.

[via Barron's]