Shares in Palm jumped by about 7 per cent in afterhours trading on Thursday after the struggling US-based smartphone maker reported better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter sales and a smaller-than-expected loss.

Palm, which is betting its future on its new Palm Pre smartphone and WebOS operating system both launched last month, reported a net loss of $105m, or 78 cents a share for the three months to May 31 compared with $43.4m, or 40 cents, a year earlier.