Initial Palm Pre Plus Sales at Verizon

[jmr157]

Take it for what is worth, but I personally have witnessed 7 high level managers in Verizon using the Palm Pre Plus. I asked a couple of them if they liked the phone and they said it is a great phone.

[jmr157]

Originally Posted by UntidyGuy

4th generation iPhone coming this Summer
Windows Mobile 7 coming this Fall
New android devices showing up every other week
RIM continuing dominant market share

I'm not sure there is any point in being #5. How much attention can one expect for major developers in this position?

$1 million dollars might help.

[jonathan likes the pre]

Well it doesn't help that they're targeting mothers in their marketing.

Overall, though, the Pre is aging. It needs a bigger screen, it should be thinner, it should have a longer lasting battery...it could use some improvement. The 16gbs is nice but this phone is sitting on the shelf next to phones like the Droid. It's a gorgeous phone, it's screen is great and so is the OS, but it needs to be bigger and better to gain traction.

[tripsbacks]

I have to admit even though I liked some of the Pre commercials, both Sprint and Verizon dropped the ball when it came to marketing the Pre. Of course phone buffs like ourselves already new about the Pre, but the casual phone user has no idea what is out there except whatever they see or hear on TV. Droid had a totally badass add campaign that almost made me want to buy one even though the form factor is butt ugly! Marketing sells more than a product ever will, no matter how good it is.

[xome1983]

Originally Posted by tripsbacks

Marketing sells more than a product ever will, no matter how good it is.

Sad but true. Palm needs a "Pre Does" commercial like Verizon did with the Droid to show off exactly what this little bad boy is capable of.

[bruba]

Originally Posted by UntidyGuy

4th generation iPhone coming this Summer
Windows Mobile 7 coming this Fall
New android devices showing up every other week
RIM continuing dominant market share

I'm not sure there is any point in being #5.

You make it sound like all 4 'products' will be better than Pre 2. The fact is, merely 7 months after launching a brand new OS, Palm is keeping up (and surpassing in some ways) companies that have 10x or even 100x as many employees. They can always grow, but of course there's a point in being no.4 or no.5 when you can sell millions of phones with just over 900 employees.

If there wasn't a point in being no.5, Apple would've stopped selling laptops a long time ago..

[Tiddlekins]

Originally Posted by jonathan likes the pre

Well it doesn't help that they're targeting mothers in their marketing.

Overall, though, the Pre is aging. It needs a bigger screen, it should be thinner, it should have a longer lasting battery...it could use some improvement. The 16gbs is nice but this phone is sitting on the shelf next to phones like the Droid. It's a gorgeous phone, it's screen is great and so is the OS, but it needs to be bigger and better to gain traction.

See, and I honestly believe that if a new customer were to walk into a Verizon store right now and compare the Pre Plus and Droid side by side they would walk away more impressed by the Pre. Show them multitasking, the UI overall, 3D games, etc. Done deal.

There is a lot of hand wringing and unwarranted sadness in this thread. Palm has done an amazing job adopting new hardware and they currently have the best operating system on the market.

Everything is going to be fine.

[mikah912]

Originally Posted by Tiddlekins

There is a lot of hand wringing and unwarranted sadness in this thread. Palm has done an amazing job adopting new hardware and they currently have the best operating system on the market.

Everything is going to be fine.

Palm has yet to release sales figures to support this. Maybe things will be different 30 days from now or so when Palm releases their first earnings including Verizon sales.

But as of right now, not nearly enough people believe WebOS is "the best", and even fewer believe Palm has done an "amazing job" with the hardware. The Pre is still the slowest of all of the Cortex Arm 8 phones on the market.

[cowgirlupkelly]

My husband has gotten 3 other people on Verizon to purchase the Palm Pre + and I've gotten 10 on Sprint. I don't think Verizon has done a very good job advertising they even have it. I've seen maybe 10 commericals since it was released and there are no ads in the windows at any of our local stores.

Sprint in my area is still very much advertising both Pre and Pixi. Large displays, window ads and still a few commericals on local TV.

[Tiddlekins]

Originally Posted by mikah912

Palm has yet to release sales figures to support this. Maybe things will be different 30 days from now or so when Palm releases their first earnings including Verizon sales.

But as of right now, not nearly enough people believe WebOS is "the best", and even fewer believe Palm has done an "amazing job" with the hardware. The Pre is still the slowest of all of the Cortex Arm 8 phones on the market.

It was also the first Cortex A8 phone on the market. The Pixi is the first phone to use its chipset as well which is now in the Motorola Devour--four months later.

When I say that Palm has done an amazing job with the hardware I mean that they were the first manufacturer to integrate two cutting-edge chipsets into their products and the first to ship them into the market in working handsets.

They have demonstrated how nimble they are with the hardware already. I think people are wrong when they assume that Palm will not be able to do this with a third device.

[Complex Pants]

Originally Posted by freeridstylee

Srsly Plam, Slab + OMAP 4 or GTFO.

Fixed

[mikah912]

Originally Posted by Tiddlekins

It was also the first Cortex A8 phone on the market. The Pixi is the first phone to use its chipset as well which is now in the Motorola Devour--four months later.

When I say that Palm has done an amazing job with the hardware I mean that they were the first manufacturer to integrate two cutting-edge chipsets into their products and the first to ship them into the market in working handsets.

That's your idea of achievement? Beating the iPhone 3GS to market by ELEVEN days? Really?

Even then, HTC has brought many more hardware "firsts" to market than Palm. We're talking a pretty low bar here...

[hparsons]

Originally Posted by iamsedated

As much as I hate to say it, if the rumors are true, Palm is toast. Verizon is planning on releasing several competing phones in Spring. The campaign will likely either be during February or never.

All these "goals" they keep talking about are delusional. It's as if they think meeting their numbers in the vacuum of the world of make believe will be a sign of greater adoption since nobody else is in the picture. A total lack of sense of urgency by a company that has 1 year of cash left. Perhaps they aren't tightening their belts yet and feeling it...

I think the folks that keep making predictions about Palm being "toast" are the delusional ones. I've been hearing it for years. Heard it last year. Heard it shortly after the Pre was released, after the Pixi was released, and now.

And yet they remain...

[THAANSA3]

This is a bit discouraging to me. I was hoping that opening up on Verizon would yield big results, although I see that the marketing effort is pretty much non-existent.

[Tiddlekins]

Originally Posted by mikah912

That's your idea of achievement? Beating the iPhone 3GS to market by ELEVEN days? Really?

Even then, HTC has brought many more hardware "firsts" to market than Palm. We're talking a pretty low bar here...

If the question is "Can Palm keep up with new hardware?" then the answer is a resounding yes. My two examples back up this claim.

How exactly is it a low bar?

[mikah912]

Originally Posted by Tiddlekins

If the question is "Can Palm keep up with new hardware?" then the answer is a resounding yes. My two examples back up this claim.

How exactly is it a low bar?

Because very few people shopping for a smartphone are concerned with that processor architecture drives the phone.

They tend to lean more toward "How big is the screen?" and "Does it seem fast or slow when I am playing with it
in the store?" Maybe even "How much music can I put on it?"

In these areas, it is falling behind. Rapidly.

[gbp]

Originally Posted by cardfan

Obviously you don't have to be a genius to figure this out. Palm knows what they're doing. They've chosen this route they're on for a reason. Maybe they're trying to get by on the Pre and Pixi with modest sales. We could speculate all day on why Palm is choosing the conservative approach. Lack of cash? Trying to be bought up? Lack of confidence in Pre and Pixi? 3rd product on the way?

Palm has never been a strong marketer.

+1
Bulls eye. We can speculate all day long , but something doesn't add up. PALM though lacking in cash could have afforded a 30 second superbowl commercial. But they didn't. I am not sure what their game plan is , but your comment on closing the window is true. I can see Google and APPLE eating everybody's market share in couple of years.
I suspect PALM is offering another handset ( based on Jon Rubinstein 's comments), but I could be wrong.

Pre , for all its elegance is yet to penetrate the mainstream customer segment. Most mainstream customers buy phones on "the looks" or "peer pressure" or "status symbol" or "distinct". Pre can be distinct , but they have to get the "looks".

[gbp]

Originally Posted by playboy

Are you guys serious right now? Think about it. A analyst making a call about a phone that has only been out on V for two weeks and didn't see any marketing until a week after its release. And then the analyst says a aggressive advertising campaign should help to bolster sales. Really??? No crap genius. If you think about it, modest sales for a phone that was not advertised at all before it was released is what people with realistic expectations would have expected.

Let's see what things look like when the quarter is over. It's too early to speculate on anything at this point. You need to have realistic expectations people. Right now the marketing isn't aggressive and I don't think that it will be but Palm will continue to push modest sales and I would venture to guess that the folks in Sunnyvale understood that. There still ATT remaining so a more accurate picture isn't likely to come into full view until later this year.

The smartphone game is a marathon not a sprint. So all of this 'whoa is Palm, whoa is Palm for they turned their back on new hardware' is a bit premature. Calm down and read everything that doesn't come directly from Palm or any of its partners with a very keen eye.

Agree totally. The analysts probably want to put pressure on PALM. The smartphone game is a marathon and its forever. All the companies have to stay on top after APPLE and Google joined the race.

[iamsedated]

Originally Posted by hparsons

I think the folks that keep making predictions about Palm being "toast" are the delusional ones. I've been hearing it for years. Heard it last year. Heard it shortly after the Pre was released, after the Pixi was released, and now. And yet they remain...

And those predictions have been dead on accurate. Palm went from being a market leader with big double digit market share to the "are they still making phones?" position in just a few short years. They've lost over 50% of the shrinking market share they had less than 2 years ago. They got some other suckers to put in a bunch of extra cash for the promise of Web OS and they've been burning it faster that Charlie Sheen in the Bunny Ranch.

Many other analysts have called Palm's meeting their own goals delusional. They pat themselves on the back inside the ivory tower, congratulating themselves on getting bonuses and reaching "targets" and looking forward to believing the street will be so excited and that will justify their big bonuses for the next quarter. Meanwhile the company's burn rate says that if they just stay even they'll be gone in 2011.

[Tiddlekins]

Originally Posted by mikah912

Because very few people shopping for a smartphone are concerned with that processor architecture drives the phone.

They tend to lean more toward "How big is the screen?" and "Does it seem fast or slow when I am playing with it
in the store?" Maybe even "How much music can I put on it?"

In these areas, it is falling behind. Rapidly.

I remain unconvinced. I think that there are many people who care about the form factor just as much (if not more) than the screen size. The Droid is like having a mid-size car in your pocket when compared to the Pre Plus.

I also do not think that the Pre feels slow while you are playing with it, and the multitasking remains unmatched.

It also comes with the same amount of storage as the Droid. I know that the Droid's storage is expandable, but if you're talking about the average consumer how many of them are really going to be routinely popping out the battery and swapping MicroSD cards?

We'll probably just have to agree to disagree because you are fixated on the fact that the hardware is wildly behind the times when that clearly isn't the case at all.