So many good points to take in and crunch. But I was thinking... they could say that it did hit Goldmans higher number of 670k units for the quarter and after some time thinking about it, I would come with the 'feeling' that it still below 'my' expectations and the Pre launch was a fail. Even though it may have helped Sprint reach new highs for smartphone sales I imagine they believe its a fail too because of what the phone was representing... a heads up alternative to the iPhone.

Now my thoughts come from the belief that this was going to be the next 'iPhone killer'... meaning I didnt expect to overtake them out of the gate, but I expected them to come out strong, and keep accelerating at a faster pace and goign strong all year and not expecting a price reduction on the product. Yes, I expected to hear sales of ONE MILLION at least at some time DURING the quarter or at the end. I don't think it's such a high number to hope for. I am not basing the number from iPhone sales and expect them to sell at their rate, I based it on the last labeled "next iPhone killer" the BB Storm... They sold 500,000 in the first month of sales and hit a million in around two. That's why I am a little harsh in saying fail because it couldnt even outsell the Storm which I think sucks.

And now if you look back and see where the Storm is and how it's perceived among it's peers... it's back in the pack of other phones and not even a consideration against iPhone or Pre. Being with Sprint is a limitation and some may say you can't expect a million people to have been added through Sprint but why not? You have the best plans and if you have the best phone then people will jump or not hard to think they would.

I am not sure how much to put blame on Sprint. I think they definitely dropped the ball on marketing the phone. I don't think Palm liked the idea of dropping the price on Pre cause it's got to hurt profit but probably a Sprint move because sales becoming "stagnant" and for me a sign that they are treating their phone like all their other phones.

I think Palm failed too a little with their marketing with those silly freak girl commercials and maybe not under their control but fail in not having the app store out which I think would have avoided sales going stagnant or have GS mention maturing product cycle after only three months. But they have sold enough to where people can safely say they have time now until they can release to other carriers.

Going forward, for Palm to increase sales, they need to get the App store rocking ASAP and get some awesome apps to generate the excitment and keep the phone fresh and give them momentum until they can release the Pre to Verizon/ATT in June of 2010 and finally get from under Sprint. Yes, they needed Sprint but I think they are seriously hurt by being stuck with them and not a good relationship. By that time the Pre will be one year old and that means other carriers will start off with Pre2 or equivalent. If they can work out all the bugs in WebOS and add in all the feature missing (no more excuses of first gen and iPhone not having features back then) and promised by then and also have the App store rocking, then it will be like a second rebirth and they can come out on the new carriers the way they should have the first time and take some significant market share.

App store must come out ASAP and both Sprint and Palm have to start advertising the heck out of it to drive up excitement.

And Palm needs to let go of iTunes... really.

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