Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!

And without further ado:

If ever there was a Rodney Dangerfield “I get no respect” moment in the wireless space, it was this week when two beleaguered handset manufacturers announced devices paramount to their future success – and in my mind not bad in execution – that were derided by the investor community for picking the wrong carriers to partner with to launch those devices.

The first disrespect – or “dis” as the kids say – was had by Palm when following the unveiling of its new Pixi smartphone, investment firms downgraded their view on the company when it announced the device would launch exclusively with Sprint Nextel. Now sure, Sprint Nextel may not be the most beloved carrier at the moment, or for the past several moments for that matter, but this is a carrier that still counts nearly 50 million subscribers, has a robust 3G network and one of the most consumer-friendly data rate plans available. All good supporting plays for a device that is chock full of multimedia capabilities.

But, that wasn’t enough for those holding Palm-labeled paper tickets who — in a frenzy that can only happen on Wall Street — shed their holdings of the company, sending its stock price down. Most blamed the drop on the Sprint Nextel connection, noting the carrier lacked cache with consumers and that linking the device with the operator was tying Palm’s fortunes to a sinking ship. These people are lucky Sprint Nextel has managed to build up the skin of a rhino over the past couple of years or we could have seen a rush of tears flood downtown Overland Park, Kan. (That is if there is a downtown to Overland Park, Kan.)

Source: Zikkir World (blog)