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Palm, Inc. took its products directly to the people a few weeks ago with the opening of a series of stores, also known as Cafés. At these locations, you can't buy coffee or lattés, but you'll find handhelds, accessories and software. And, according to the PDA pioneer, a sales staff that is sure to know what they're talking about when it comes to mobile technology.

The company opened its five newest retail establishments today.

All these stores are located in California—one in the heart of Los Angeles (in The Grove shopping destination), two in San Francisco International Airport, one in San Jose (in the Valley Fair mall), and one at Palm's headquarters in Sunnyvale.

The new locations features the company's newest store design elements, including an accessories wall—to make products more accessible to customers—and a computer area where sales experts can demonstrate applications and HotSync capabilities.

These stores represent close to 30 percent growth in Palm Retail Store locations, bringing the total to 22. The first Palm Café opened three years ago in San Jose's Valley Fair mall.

Palm's senior VP of worldwide sales & customer service John Hartnett says, "Our retail stores offer a casual shopping environment where Palm solutions experts put the Palm experience directly into the hands of new and upgrading customers, which benefits current and future sales across all our retail and carrier partners."

The handheld vendor also asserts its retail stores attract customers new to mobile computing as well as tech-savvy mobile professionals. More than 43 percent of customers are purchasing their first mobile-computing device, and close to 50 percent are purchasing Palm's premium products, the Treo smartphones and LifeDrive mobile manager.

Palm says surveys have also shown that more than 31 percent of shoppers who stop at the Palm Retail Stores purchase from other retail partners, giving the company confidence that the stores are a strategic as well as commercial success.