Palm is expected to make a massive product launch during the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, and among them, a new OS dubbed Nova. The announcement is in accordance with the company’s previously announced plans, which include the launch of its next-gen operating system in early 2009.

Even though the company has made no comments on the upcoming announcement, this is certainly intended to help Palm better respond to the increasing pressure put out by BlackBerry, the iPhone, and the latest sensation, the G1.

Lawrence Harris, analyst for Wall Street brokerage firm CL King & Associates, told Wired that the upcoming announcement is not just a rumor, and that it’s actually closer to a certainty. This, he said, is Palm’s chance to prove that it can survive on such a competitive market.

Nova is a Linux-based operating system that will make its official debut on a Palm device, which will also be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show press conference.

We still need to wait a bit longer before getting our hands on more details about Nova, but the good news is that Palm is not willing to give up its place in the smartphone market, despite the fact that the competition got tougher than ever this year.

First, there was Apple’s launch of a second-generation 3G iPhone, which was undoubtedly a success not only in the United States. Then, there was Google and HTC’s announcement of an Android phone, which no one expected to see earlier than next year. And last, but not least, even RIM acknowledged that the competition is hard to come by these days, but giving up its famous QWERTY keyboard and launching a touch-screen BlackBerry.