Palm Inc., maker of the Treo mobile phone, said profit fell for a fourth quarter as it spent more to compete with the BlackBerry and Apple Inc.’s iPhone. The shares fell as forecasts for this period missed analysts’ predictions.

Fourth-quarter net income slid 43 percent to $15.4 million, or 15 cents a share, from $27.2 million, or 25 cents, a year earlier, Palm said today in a statement. Sales fell 0.5 percent to $401.3 million, missing the average $406 million estimate of 15 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Palm increased spending on advertising and development after losing orders to Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry and to prepare for the iPhone, scheduled to be released tomorrow. Palm this month agreed to sell a 25 percent stake to private-equity firm Elevation Partners and added two former executives of Apple as directors in a bid to come up with more attractive designs. (Bloomberg)