Palms Away

Palm Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), the hand-held computer pioneer that lost its industry leadership to BlackBerrys and iPhones, will close seven of its eight retail stores in February.

The company will also shut 26 Airport Wireless stores before the end of its fiscal third quarter.

The lone remaining retail outlet will be at the company’s headquarters office.

Sales this quarter will fall 3 percent, the second consecutive quarterly decline and about 13 percent below analysts’ expectations. The company that introduced the iconic Palm Pilot in the 1990s has been trying to muscle its way into the smart phone market with its Treo line, but said a shortage of parts would hurt production of its latest Treo product.