Sprint Pre 3 sales in relation to the new Upgrade Program

[fanaticalman2]

I know that there hasn't even been any confirmation that Sprint will be carrying the Pre 3 at launch, but assuming that is the case, how do you think sales of the Pre 3 will be affected by the changes Sprint is making to their upgrade program?

The upgrade changes will go into affect March 31st which is only a few weeks away. At that point, anyone who was eligible for a 1-year device upgrade will have to wait until their 22 month device anniversary to upgrade. I think HP could have really benefited from releasing the Pre 3 on Sprint before March 31st. I would imagine there will be a large number of upgrades happening before March 31st as customers try to cash in their upgrade before it disappears.

I think this will kind of be a blow to HP in two ways:

1. The Palm faithful who are in a situation where they need to upgrade before March 31st will not have the option to upgrade to any type of HP/Palm device (besides the Pixi, but let's face it, nobody will waste an upgrade on the Pixi). This may force even the most HP/Palm faithful to jump to a new device.

2. HP will receive no new customers as a result of the Upgrade changes. I think there would be a major benefit to having a brand new device on Sprint shelves right before the Upgrade changes take effect. If the Pre 3 was released before this date, Sprint reps could be informing the upgrade-hungry customers, "This new HP phone is our newest and fastest device right now."


I know that HP is committed to only releasing their new devices once they believe they are high quality and ready for release. I wholeheartedly agree with this strategy. There is nothing worse than purchasing an expensive electronic and finding out it is not up to par (ahem Pre minus ahem). But, I think HP should have identified this opportunity to supercharge initial Pre 3 sales and done whatever it would take to get the device released on Sprint before March 31st.


That is my 2 cents on that topic. Let me know what you think!

[mikah912]

Nothing they can do here. Carrier agreements aint there. Apps aint there. Hardware aint there. No indication of when any of that will change.

[fanaticalman2]

Very true, and at this point, there is obviously nothing HP can do to cash in on the Upgrade change.

Another thing to note is that it is very possible that HP had no knowledge of the pending upgrade changes with enough time to do anything about it. The development cycle may have just been too far behind at that point.

Here's to hoping for some form of update on the device sooner rather than later.

[astraith]

Originally Posted by mikah912

Nothing they can do here. Carrier agreements aint there. Apps aint there. Hardware aint there. No indication of when any of that will change.

What exactly do u mean hardware is not there?

[mikah912]

Originally Posted by astraith

What exactly do u mean hardware is not there?

Not finished enough to offer a carrier. Keep in mind that carriers sign agreements for hardware-finished, software-beta devices all of the time and publicly announce them ASAP to excite customers.

So either the hardware aint there, or no carrier thinks their customers will be excited by them announcing they have it...or both.

[bluenote]

Originally Posted by mikah912

Not finished enough to offer a carrier. Keep in mind that carriers sign agreements for hardware-finished, software-beta devices all of the time and publicly announce them ASAP to excite customers.

So either the hardware aint there, or no carrier thinks their customers will be excited by them announcing they have it...or both.

Er, could be a third possibility, namely, that the carrier will announce but has instituted a waiting period after the Pre2 in early Feb. Bear in mind that PrePlus for ATT was not announced until mid-April, approx two and half months after Verizon's PrePlus. Also Sprint management has been quoted in saying that they will continue to work with HP.
Walked into a midtown Sprint store last week and the employee said that internal Sprint employees and customers were talking about Pre and wondering when Palm new devices are coming, seems like some buzz is happening.

[mikah912]

Originally Posted by bluenote

Er, could be a third possibility, namely, that the carrier will announce but has instituted a waiting period after the Pre2 in early Feb. Bear in mind that PrePlus for ATT was not announced until mid-April, approx two and half months after Verizon's PrePlus. Also Sprint management has been quoted in saying that they will continue to work with HP.
Walked into a midtown Sprint store last week and the employee said that internal Sprint employees and customers were talking about Pre and wondering when Palm new devices are coming, seems like some buzz is happening.

....which is completely irrelevant to the premise of this thread. Now and in the near future, nothing is ready. Sprint is announcing the Evo successor in less than three weeks, and just like last year, that will be their priority.

Maybe they'll do a Twitter tease and press release like they did with the HTC Arrive. Nothing builds excitement like that.

[Sukiyaki]

I'll only be silver for a couple of months under the new sprint upgrade policy. I'll have had my pre two years June 19th, and my 10 years is up in June as well. Most likely this won't affect me, but I would be highly PO'd if it did and the pre came out right after April 1st. I think it will have some effect on their sales, but it's hard to say how much. Even if I had to wait longer, I wouldn't give up my pre. I'd just use it until it fell apart. I'm sure I'm not the only one that doesn't want to give up the WebOS platform.

[GodShapedHole]

Originally Posted by mikah912

Nothing they can do here. Carrier agreements aint there. Apps aint there. Hardware aint there. No indication of when any of that will change.

May I ask you a silly question?

What exactly is your interest in this platform without carrier agreements, without apps, without hardware, and without any indication of when any of that will change? You must have some sort of interest in the platform considering your four-thousand-and-change posts here.

Just really, really bored? Like, how many posts do you have on the Gallic Warriors' General Roman Issues Discussion Forum? Or the DeLorean Owners' Forum?

I'm genuinely curious because your posts indicate that you believe webOS is just as dead as those guys while your incessant posting would seem belie that belief.

[mikah912]

Not dead. Dormant. Frustrated as everyone else at the lack of signs of life.

[jjsdfs]

Prior post seems confident 3/22 wil bring no Pre, but EVO announcement. With a downgrade impending 4/1 for me, I'll jump on the EVO 2 unless, as i fear, Sprint charges me over $550 for two new EVOs...even with the "discount"!

If so, I'll look closely again at VZW Bionic and accept a higher monthly with better/broader 4G service ( NA Sprint San Diego). Thoughts?

[fanaticalman2]

I am pretty much in the same boat. I have my original launch day Pre that I purchased June 6th 2009. Luckily, I don't think I will be affected too much by the upgrade change. The upgrade policy will be changing to 22 months, and I will be at 22 months on April 6th. I guess it will just be the waiting game for me (which I have gotten very good at). I will hold on to this crumbling Pre until I find something worthy of upgrading to. That currently is the Pre 3 IMO.

[bluenote]

Originally Posted by mikah912

....which is completely irrelevant to the premise of this thread. Now and in the near future, nothing is ready. Sprint is announcing the Evo successor in less than three weeks, and just like last year, that will be their priority.

Maybe they'll do a Twitter tease and press release like they did with the HTC Arrive. Nothing builds excitement like that.

I was responding to your post which gave only 2 possibilities---hardware is not ready or customers not excited. I was giving a 3rd possibility, namely that the public does not have all the information yet on a possible nearterm debut from Sprint. Especially, as we saw at least one report citing Digitimes that the TouchPad might debut in the UK as early as end of June, I am comfortable in waiting another month or two for a possible Sprint announcement.

[hrminer92]

Has the Pre3 been spotted on the FCC website yet? If not, don't expect it to show up on any carrier in the next few weeks.

[mikah912]

Originally Posted by bluenote

I was responding to your post which gave only 2 possibilities---hardware is not ready or customers not excited. I was giving a 3rd possibility, namely that the public does not have all the information yet on a possible nearterm debut from Sprint. Especially, as we saw at least one report citing Digitimes that the TouchPad might debut in the UK as early as end of June, I am comfortable in waiting another month or two for a possible Sprint announcement.

I...guess that when it's March 3, I don't consider "maybe the end of June" to be near-term, nor would it be germane to the OP struggling with changes that will affect him on 3/31.

Clearly, waiting another month or two is not what this thread is about.

But for you or anyone else who wants to wait...good for you guys. Hope what you desire comes soon. Seriously.

[Cantaffordit]

Assuming that Sprint picks up the Pre3 (and they would be crazy not to...) they have already painted most of their Pre Minus users into a corner by forcing the platinum upgrades and changes before they could possibly get the Pre3 launched.

If I were Palm (and I wish I was) I'd be doing whatever I had to for Sprint to wave the deadlines for Pre Minus owners, and announcing that NOW.

They are crazy to leave the remaining Pre Minus users hanging. And even crazier to force them to upgrade to something else if they are going to bring a webOS phone out within a few months of that. I'm not on Sprint, but if I was forced to burn my upgrade for and Android phone and 3 months later they launched the Pre3 I would be furious.

Sprint needs to contact every active webOS phone user they have left, and thell them they can have an extention on the forced upgrade until the end of 2011, or that they will at least be able to buy the next webOS device at the upgrade price if/when they offer one... Otherwise the anger from the news that legacy devices wont get 2.x will be minor compared to how original owners will explode if they burn an upgrade right before a Pre3 launch.

It would be a major customer satisfaction win fot Sprint to do that. And HP should really want them to do it, even if they have to write a check to Dan Hesse to convince him.

[hparsons]

Originally Posted by fanaticalman2

I know that there hasn't even been any confirmation that Sprint will be carrying the Pre 3 at launch, but assuming that is the case, how do you think sales of the Pre 3 will be affected by the changes Sprint is making to their upgrade program?...

I suspect that Sprint is going to change the policy again, probably soon. But, even if they don't, those that bought the original Pre from Sprint on the opening launch date will be beyond the 22 month time frame, so they would be elgiible.

I suspect a call to retentions would take care of a lot of the others.

[mikah912]

Originally Posted by Cantaffordit

Assuming that Sprint picks up the Pre3 (and they would be crazy not to...) they have already painted most of their Pre Minus users into a corner by forcing the platinum upgrades and changes before they could possibly get the Pre3 launched.

If I were Palm (and I wish I was) I'd be doing whatever I had to for Sprint to wave the deadlines for Pre Minus owners, and announcing that NOW.

They are crazy to leave the remaining Pre Minus users hanging. And even crazier to force them to upgrade to something else if they are going to bring a webOS phone out within a few months of that. I'm not on Sprint, but if I was forced to burn my upgrade for and Android phone and 3 months later they launched the Pre3 I would be furious.

Sprint needs to contact every active webOS phone user they have left, and thell them they can have an extention on the forced upgrade until the end of 2011, or that they will at least be able to buy the next webOS device at the upgrade price if/when they offer one... Otherwise the anger from the news that legacy devices wont get 2.x will be minor compared to how original owners will explode if they burn an upgrade right before a Pre3 launch.

It would be a major customer satisfaction win fot Sprint to do that. And HP should really want them to do it, even if they have to write a check to Dan Hesse to convince him.

Interesting post, but being that Sprint announced these changes long after HP scheduled the Feb. 9, don't you think HP made them fully aware of what their roadmap for the year looked like before Sprint made the announcement and set this date in stone?

In other words, whatever plans they have or don't have for the Pre 3, they seem immaterial to this initiative. Clearly, if the Facebook begging and threatening over the Pre 2 wasn't enough to move Sprint, catering to Pre Minus users isn't a big priority. They already said Android will comprise 70 percent of their business for this year, with RIM, Windows Phone 7, and possibly either WebOS or Apple making up the rest of the 30 percent.

[mikeisnowonfire]

I think that you are right to a point. I do think it will affect sales somewhat. How much is hard to say. I haven't upgraded since I before the Pre (minus) came out, so I have a full 2 year upgrade that I get in less than a month. I would be curious to know how many people havetheir platinum upgrades expiring soon.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums

[mikah912]

Originally Posted by hparsons

I suspect that Sprint is going to change the policy again, probably soon. But, even if they don't, those that bought the original Pre from Sprint on the opening launch date will be beyond the 22 month time frame, so they would be elgiible.

I suspect a call to retentions would take care of a lot of the others.

This too. Thanks, Herb.