But others outside the company aren’t so sure. And at least one of them — Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette — is predicting disappointing sales for the quarter.

“We believe that shipments of Nokia’s new Windows Phone 7 products have been lower than we had previously anticipated,” Faucette wrote in a note to clients. “We had expected that the company could ship as many as 2 million units into the six targeted markets for the holidays; however, we now believe that those shipments are likely to be less than 1 million for the quarter.”

Less than 1 million? How much less?

Less by half. According to Faucette, December-quarter sales could come in under 500,000 units.

Which could be viewed as a disappointment. That said, these phones are newly launched, and we’re still early in Nokia’s reinvigoration. One could argue that it’s unrealistic to expect blowout sales from the company’s first Windows Phone smartphones, particularly given the market power of their competition — the iPhone and a growing legion of Android handsets. Nokia was never going to just stroll into the market with a few slick smartphones and abruptly reclaim its lost glory.

Nokia declined comment on Faucette’s report.

[Image credit: Someecards]

Deutsche Bank estimates Motorola Mobility has sold just 100,000 Xoom tablets to date. And while that’s in line with its estimates of 50,000 units in the company’s first quarter and 150,000 in its second, it’s a hell of a long way off from what the iPad’s doing these days, and nowhere close to the sales numbers it posted when it first launched. Apple is believed to have sold 300,000 iPads on its first day at market.

Over at RBC Capital Markets, analyst Mark Sue describes Xoom sales as “slow”–so slow, in fact, that he lopped 25 percent off his current quarter forecast, dropping it to 300,000 units.

And at Pacific Crest, James Faucette says sales of the Xoom are “well below forecast.” Seems the debut of the iPad 2 immediately after the Xoom’s official launch knocked the legs out from under the device. Said Faucette, “Based on our checks, we believe overall sell-through trends for the Xoom…have been disappointing.”

These new reports underscore earlier concerns that Xoom was having trouble gaining traction in the market. Back in March, Jeffries cut its price target on Motorola Mobility largely because of the Xoom. “Xoom sales have been underwhelming,” it said. “While marketing has just started, we believe MMI will likely have to cut production if it already has not done so.”

Looks like Xoom may end up being the new Zune. That said, as Charles Arthur notes over at The Guardian, at least the Xoom is actually selling.

[Image Credit: David Lyle/Wooster Collective]

Today brings another Palm-related research note, this one from Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette. He claims that Pre sales are “robust.” According to Faucette’s channel checks, Palm is selling about 40,000 Pres per week, a “normalized” sell-through rate that he says will continue through August.

So who’s right? Piecyk or Faucette? Who knows? Until Palm (PALM) and Sprint (S) go on record with real sales metrics, we’ll have to use our imaginations. Which is pretty much what all these analysts appear to be doing right now, anyway. Honestly, they might as well be issuing research notes on jelly bean jar guessing games.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, Palm and Sprint are not willing to release sales numbers right now. Reached for comment, Sprint told me, “We’re excited by the response to Palm Pre. Demand continues to be strong, and we are working closely with our partners at Palm to meet the needs of every customer as quickly as possible.” And Palm told me me to call Sprint…

Sounding off in a barrage of research notes today, analysts suggested Palm investors view the transition in leadership as a positive. “The timing was certainly awkward, coming just four days after the launch of the Pre,” Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Matthew Sheerin said in a note to investors. “Our take is that Rubinstein was being groomed for the last two years to run the company, and is ready for the next challenge, having put together a solid engineering team.”

James Faucette of Pacific Crest agreed. “Our turnaround thesis on Palm has always been rooted in the development team that Palm had recently put together, particularly the addition of Jon Rubinstein as head of development,” he said. “Today’s announcement effectively ensures that one of Silicon Valley’s best talents not only remains with Palm, but is fully engaged with the company’s future.”

And Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry said the streamlining of senior management roles at Palm was an absolute necessity. “I think this is the right move, a smart move,” he told the Mercury News. “[Rubinstein’s] involvement in the company has to be more mainstream. He has to be responsible for the success, and accountable for the failure, if there is any.”

Palm shares were up nearly eight percent, to $12.94 at the time of this writing. That’s up more than 500 percent since last December.

Research In Motion (RIMM) is seeing “disappointing” sell through trends, according to Pacific Crest’s James Faucette.

“Our checks with carrier retail outlets across North America and with third-party retailers in Western Europe indicate that BlackBerry handset sell-through through the middle of October has been slightly disappointing,” he wrote in a research note this morning.

He asserts that early sales of the Pearl Flip are “tepid at best,” with “particularly disappointing” demand at T-Mobile. “We believe that some of the stores had only sold one or two, despite the product having been on sale for a couple of days,” he writes.

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Faucette says says handset sell-through is up sequentially from July, but below expectations for the beginning of the back-to-school season. He adds that “price pressures on handsets continue to mount.” He notes that the mix of Apple (AAPL) iPhone 3G sales during August has shifted “decidedly” toward the $199, 8GB model. He says that will increase the difficulty of selling other smartphones “in the usual $250 to $300 range.”

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