Palm confirms earlier reports that the company has begun informing employees of impending job cuts. Palm is not disclosing how many employees will be affected, though rumors peg it in the hundreds.

Palm also announced earlier this month that quarterly revenue and gross margin would be below expectations. This comes as no surprise, because the company was unable to get new products qualified for release. In Singapore, I noted in recent months that Palm was literally giving away some of its Treo smartphones models with the number of freebies, such as free bluetooth headsets, additional batteries, memory cards, and software thrown in.

CNET News.com sums up my sentiments:

It’s hard to see how fewer people will make it easier for Palm to create something new, but the company doesn’t really have a choice if it wants to stay in business. It’s really sad to see a company that has played such a pivotal role in the advancement of mobile computing on the brink like this.

Palm had 1,247 employees as of May 31, 2007, according to figures sited in its annual report.