Palm (NSDQ: PALM) lost $41.9 million or 39 cents a share during its fiscal first quarter 2009, which widened significantly compared to the year-ago period when it recorded a loss of $841,000 or 1 cent a share. Revenues still managed a 1.7 percent gain, increasing to $366.9 million in Q1 2008 from $360.8 million in the year-ago period. Palm’s CEO Ed Colligan: “While we’re still in the midst of our transformation and have challenges ahead, we are bringing outstanding new products to market, hiring world-class talent and preparing to launch a new platform that will usher in a new era at Palm.” The company’s stock fell 56 cents today, or almost 7 percent, to close at $7.93 a share. Release. Conference call.

Highlights from yesterday’s call (via the transcript on SeekingAlpha):

—Treo Pro Unlocked: In Europe, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and O2 will be carrying Palm’s new Treo Pro, which is a Windows-based device with 3G, GPS and WiFi. In the U.S., the company said it plans to launch an unlocked version, targeting business users who travel internationally, before releasing one through the carriers.

—Timing of the New Platform: The new platform will stress tight integration of software and hardware. Colligan: “We think Palm excels in this field and we’ll be pressing this advantage in a big way with the release of Palm’s next generation devices on our new Palm platform.” The development is on track to be completed by the end of the year, and handsets are expected in the first half of 2009.

—Challenges and Outlook: Challenges include the maturing of the Centro lifecycle and the time it will take to ramp our Windows Mobile-based product sales worldwide. Revenues will still be under pressure and profits elusive, the cash burn is being kept low. The company is currently expecting Q2 revenues to be down compared to the first quarter.

—New Platform vs. HTC, RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) and Apple: During the Q&A, Colligan was asked about how the new platform will stack up:  “Obviously I don’t want to go into great detail about what areas of application focus and so forth but Palm has millions of customers in the marketplace that love how we have helped them manage their lives. This is a key area that we think with this platform being designed from the ground up as really integrating well into the web that we can extend that position to social networks and other services and continue to build differentiation around that…”