Ever since the acquisition of Palm by HP a couple of months ago, the discussions at sites like PreCentral and webOSRoundup have been buzzing about new Palm hardware.  Take the two articles below as examples of speculation and rumor.

1. •Palm Pre Plus out of stock on Verizon and AT&T online
   

2. •Rumor: Palm Pre successor to hit Verizon in October?
   

So, not to be left out, we have our own bit of speculation.  Though to be honest, we’re not exactly sure about how to interpret the news.  Our Pre needed to be taken in for service to address a problem that was preventing it from booting.  After examination by the Verizon rep, it was determined that the unit needed to be replaced, but there were no replacements in stock.  Given that we’re expecting the replacement to be a refurbished unit, there’s no assumption that Verizon is sold, or is selling, out of new devices.

Still, a lack of refurbished units did lead us to these three quick assumptions.  A shortage like this could be due to a limited number of items being returned, which means there are a limited number of units being put back into service as refurbished.  Given the reception webOS has gotten, this may be a reasonable conclusion.  The shortage may be due to a limited number of items being replaced, but based on the amount of whining all over the Web about build quality, this assumption is easy to pass on.  Perhaps the most promising to those longing for new hardware though, is that the total supply of Pres may, in fact, be dwindling.  In which case, we may be very near to a new Palm rollout.