An anonymous reader writes: Jon Rubinstein, in an internal Palm memo that will be released in full shortly, is showing support for Android to replace the webOS on the Palm Pre Plus. Citing competition with the iPhone and exponential growth from the Android operating system (specifically mentioning the Motorola Droid), the leaked memo first came as a confidential internal email to certain members of the software development branch of the company.
The memo partially states: "While Palm is incredibly proud of our engineers who spent timeless work and effort to bring us this advanced operating system, consumers simply have not caught on. To provide a better future for ourselves and our customers, the only logical choice is to transition our hardware and software to the Android platform."
WebOS won't officially go away (the UI and notifications feature, which have been heavily praised by reviewers, are more than likely going to be integrated, a la Sense UI, into the Android platform), according to the memo.
Software engineers are to begin working on Palm's own builds of Android as soon as the device maker officially joins the Open Handset Alliance, which other executives at Palm say could be as soon as next week. An official statement from the company is expected as soon as the union is made.
Palm Inc.'s stock took a nosedive earlier this month when it was reported that its projections for revenue were down 50% than initially estimated. On Friday, the stock fell $1.65, or 29%, to $4.00. That value remained relatively unchanged during Monday's trading.
The full leaked memo will be posted on wikileaks.org around midnight Eastern.