Okay the word is that OTR Global, a research company reported that Palm halted all production of the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi handsets; however according to an article over on engadget, OTR Global may have jumped the gun and didn’t bother to confirm their info with Palm.

According to said engadget article, Palm has confirmed that orders for both the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi were temporarily halted for the Chinese New Year which is on the 14th, and will resume at the end of February.

Apparently production of the Verizon Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus were ramped up beforehand to cover this downtime and thus should not have any effect on availability.

The director of corporate communications at Palm, Derick Mains, has made an official statement on the matter which confirms that Palm regularly adjusts its product manufacturing levels to manage inventory and in anticipation of the Verizon launch along with the Chinese New Year increased production levers prior to January.