The former Apple executive Jon Rubinstein - who joined Palm 2007 when Elevation Partners bought a 25 percent stake in the company, and literally the front-man for the new Pre phone - has been named the new Chairman and CEO of Palm Inc, and will take over the reins of the company with effect from June 12.

Rubinstein, who replaces the 16-year Palm veteran Ed Colligan, has been playing a lead role with regard to the launch of Palm's Pre smartphone, addressing industry conferences and touring retail outlets. In fact, it was Rubinstein, along with venture capitalist and Palm backer Roger McNamee, who unveiled the Pre at the D: All Things Digital event last month!

Saying that the announced change at the helm of Palm was somewhat expected by investors, analyst Matthew Thornton, of Avian Securities, said: "Rubinstein has been a product guy, a consumer guy who gets what the product has to be." As such, Thornton added that Rubinstein is the person the company sees spearheading its growth hereafter.

Retired from Apple as the head of the company's iPod division in 2005, Rubinstein joins Palm at a time when the company is marking its comeback in the smartphone arena, with the newly-released Pre pitted against the popular Apple iPhone. First introduced in January, the Pre actually hit the markets last Saturday!