Palm-Branded Android Phones May Launch Soon, Courtesy Alcatel One Touch

But if you haven't heard of these, then you might hear it soon, as reports suggest that the Palm brand could soon make its comeback.

It's been rumoured that Wide Progress Global Limited, which recently acquired the Palm brand and trademarks from HP, was actually holding these trademarks for TCL Communication's Alcatel One Touch brand.

While there is nothing official about it, the relation has been interpreted from disparate evidence, such as Nicolas Zibell's listing as Vice President for Wide Progress Global during the trademark acquisition. Zibell is also the Senior Vice President of Alcatel's American unit.

Also, the Palm's official website is now redirecting users to a site named mynewpalm.com, which along with the orange Palm logo features a slogan underneath that reads "Coming Soon" apart from "Smart move". The latter is the same tagline employed by Alcatel One Touch.

All of this suggests that Alcatel One Touch may have purchased Palm trademarks with the intent to launch a Palm-branded phone, probably in the US market where the Palm brand is best known. Alcatel One Touch is best known for its mid-range and budget Android smartphones, and it is being speculated that if the company does launch a Palm-branded phone, it will run Android.

The Palm brand was quite popular at a point in the US. As of August 2008, company's Palm Centro was the second-ranked US smartphone, based on internet traffic responsible for 78 percent of the traffic on Palm devices.