[Pearl_Diva]

Here's another take on this, and a nice Pre pic included in the article.

Is Palm doomed if the Palm Pre bombs?

And another. What if the Palm Pre Bombs?

[kamizuno]

this may sound weird, but as a longtime Apple investor and new iPhone owner, I actually hope the Pre is as good as everybody here hopes it will be, because Apple is a company that does well at handling competition. heres what Iʻm hoping for, the Pre comes out and itʻs multitasking is wonderful, no slowdowns,crashes or battery life problems. the Apple engineers get wind of this, go up to Steve Jobs and say look at this, multitasking can actually work in a smartphone, we should be doing this, whereupon Jobs says make it so, and BOOM, next thing you know the iphone can multitask too. See, competition can actually be a good thing if itʻs done right

[cardfan]

“We don’t want to go head-to-head with Apple, and we don’t want to compete with RIM,” he said. The Pre, he suggested, could find a comfortable place between them: “If RIM is about your work life and Apple is about simply entertainment, then the Pre is about having a single phone for your entire life.”

Kupe picked out the most interesting for me too.

I've heard Palm say "fat middle", "its for people who are busy", to "we really have no idea"

That'd be good Palm. Try saying "the Palm Pre--its for those of you that are busy" Earth to palm, we're all busy. This fat middle (as defined by palm) doesn't exist. And saying its a single phone for your entire life is just goofy and could mean to many you think people should get this phone for the rest of their life.

I can accept an entertainment phone and an enterprise phone being on opposite sides. But Apple isn't strictly entertainment. And RIM isn't strictly enterprise. And who knows where Palm sees the Treo Pro because they don't even mention where Windows Mobile fits in.

But while Palm might be adept at knowing who Apple and RIM target, they need to focus instead on who they want and quit mentioning Apple and RIM. What i'd be saying is that if the Treo Pro is meant for enterprise users with a need for windows mobile, then the Pre is meant for business users or those on the go looking to manage their life but want the device to be a pleasure to use.

The palm Pre has 4 big things (so far) that make it unique. Multitasking live cards, synergy of contacts, email, calendars, messaging, Notifications, and form factor. This is IMO what they've got to feed off of in version one of the Pre and WebOS and should drive marketing and dictate what their target market is.

Bottom line is that if palm doesn't want to compete head on, then quit taking pot shots at them and quit mentioning them.

[Outrigger#WN]

I fail to see the whole point of this thread. Then again, I fail to see the point of many of these threads. How many do we need to compare against the iphone and how Palm and Sprint's success hangs in the balance of the Pre. Seriously. The only point I see in these threads is to instigate. The amount of productive threads started just keeps decreasing over time.

Unfortunately, this is how its going to be before every major phone that is to be released. Since there is no news, people who're clamoring for this phone has nothing to do but speculate, turning into flame wars until the phone comes out. Then it might actually turn into threads about the phone itself... followed by "I can't believe I waited this long for this POS" threads...

[Kupe]

I've heard Palm say "fat middle", "its for people who are busy", to "we really have no idea"

That'd be good Palm. Try saying "the Palm Pre--its for those of you that are busy" Earth to palm, we're all busy. This fat middle (as defined by palm) doesn't exist. And saying its a single phone for your entire life is just goofy and could mean to many you think people should get this phone for the rest of their life.

Palm's reticence to declare a market for Pre seems pretty silly. I see their market as something like this: Top - Palm Fiction, Bottom - Reality. It looks pretty crowded in there to me!







FWIW, the white background of my entire post might accurately reflect Nokia's relative smartphone market size.

[StatCoder]

Very nice, Kupe. I agree. I think that most people who follow this kind of technology outside see it this way. I would also draw another circle that says "Phones with keyboards" which represents people who would like a physical keyboard to send text messages. The problem with those is that they don't really use any of the PIM functions, don't install apps, and don't pay for data plans or upgrades.

I just don't believe that there a ton of people out there who are: 1) itching to buy a smartphone but just haven't found one they liked yet and 2) Will make the move this Summer and Fall without a price cut of some kind.

[patchs]

The best advertising is word of mouth.
Once people see the Pre in action, they'll want it.
Of course, once ATT and VZW get it, will help too.

[Kupe]

The best advertising is word of mouth.
Once people see the Pre in action, they'll want it.

This, of course, presumes that the Pre comes somewhere close to the performance claims attributed to it before it hits the marketplace.

[slorandy]

After being on these forums for many years and waiting for the 600, 650, 755 and Pro and seeing how well Palm performs, my gut tells me they will not have the Pre released to the public by July 1.
Time will tell. I work with the manufactures on high end laptops and I've seen the last minute glitches and challenges that delay releases (from companies that have it together) AND Palm does not have it together. They way the mis-managed such a huge lead in the smartphone market makes me think of General Motors attitude in the '80s.

[Reeves]

After being on these forums for many years and waiting for the 600, 650, 755 and Pro and seeing how well Palm performs, my gut tells me they will not have the Pre released to the public by July 1.
Time will tell. I work with the manufactures on high end laptops and I've seen the last minute glitches and challenges that delay releases (from companies that have it together) AND Palm does not have it together. They way the mis-managed such a huge lead in the smartphone market makes me think of General Motors attitude in the '80s.

My feeling is that the great bottleneck was and is Sprint. The unlocked Treo Pro was released in a quiet and timely fashion (from announcement to being commercially available). While surely the Pre requires a LOT more effort being a brand new custom platform (WebOS), it's also been in development for quite some time. The base functionality is there and has been there from CES onward. Sure, they can optimize some parts (the cover flow on the media player lagged a bit), but the software and hardware appears to be in a functional state (It was also quite snappy on late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and the web browser seemed to work like a charm).

So I think it's all up to Sprint developers slathering their black and yellow theme and custom apps all over the Pre. I wish it was as simple as changing a few colors and clocks like the Sprint Touch Diamond, but reportedly Sprint is really customizing these apps (e.g. Sprint Music Store) to the WebOS interface and functionality.

That's the big X factor, as far as I can tell.

[mobileman]

My feeling is that the great bottleneck was and is Sprint.

Sprint needs to hurry, because they need the Pre to be a huge success just as much as Palm does. In fact you can argue that the future of two companies ride on the Pre.


I wonder how many units Palm expects to sell before the end of the year.

[cardfan]

I think its more along the lines..how many units can palm pump out?

[Reeves]

Sprint needs to hurry, because they need the Pre to be a huge success just as much as Palm does.

I wonder how many units Palm expects to sell before the end of the year.

That's a good question, actually. And one suspects that they'd like to keep the answer as hidden as the release date until they are within spitting distance of either target so as to avoid embarrassment. That's just sound thinking for a company in their precarious financial position.

But Sprint definitely isn't dallying for the exact same reason you mention: They NEED this baby, and soon. The Hesse commercials did an ok job of company branding, but they've pushed the "We're the most affordable and value-packed 3G carrier" message to death. Now, they've gotta push the hardware that will make people want to use these services, and the Pre is the only unique response they have to that. But it's gotta be a bear getting their mediocre software offerings up to speed on such a new platform and working right. Sprint TV MUST perform rings around the Instinct version, which was a travesty. Sprint navigation has to be right, and whatever they call the music app, it's gotta be far superior to past iterations on the Instinct or the Rant.

We'll see what the end product looks like, but I honestly expect unlocked GSM or hacked aftermarket CDMA Pre phones with a clean suite of apps to perform better than the initial Sprint Pre.

[mobileman]

I think its more along the lines..how many units can palm pump out?

So if Palm can pump out a million units, you think they will sell them all in lets say a years time?

[cardfan]

Yep

[gbp]

So if Palm can pump out a million units, you think they will sell them all in lets say a years time?

I hope they can sell a million in a month.

That would be 33 thousand per day for all of the country.

666 per day per each of the 50 states.

Which will leave us 26 per SPRINT STORE assuming that we have about 25 stores in each state.

Yeah 26 sales per store !!!!

Note , some states have only 4 stores ( Rhode Island) , but others like CA have about 60 stores in two cities (San Jose and LA).

[morningstar1844#IM]

Here's another take on this, and a nice Pre pic included in the article.

Is Palm doomed if the Palm Pre bombs?

And another. What if the Palm Pre Bombs?

I will look at the Android if th Pre is not a success!

Left a posting for the folks at Mobimate in regards to their support of the "Pre" This was one of the higher ups. It was formerly known as "Worldmate" they started out small and were in the US; I believe that they are now based in Israel. I had gotten an email so I replied and ask about the "Pre"

Hi Jerry,

If the Pre is a smash hit, we'd be glad to support it. That said, it's much to soon to tell. It's not out yet, and Sprint is not the greatest partner to be had these days. It's a significant investment, so we'd only do it if there's a meaningful market.


All the best,


Powerful Words!!

[mobileman]

I'm not sure even Palm thinks they will sell that many. I guess we will see sales estimates soon.

[cardfan]

This guy below was being conservative and US only.

Palm Pre sales guesstimate: 1.5 million | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Analyst Jim Suva at Citigroup estimates that Palm will sell 1.5 million units 12 months after the Palm Pre launches sometime in the first half of 2009.

We do not believe the Pre will be targeting the entry level market nor targeting a $99 price point; we expect an ASP of $350 - $450 with the consumer paying $199 - $249 after subsidies from Palm's launch partner Sprint and mail-in rebates from Palm. We note that there is a risk that Palm may have to respond to aggressive subsidies/pricing by other carriers and vendors, which would clearly have a negative impact on margins; however, we don't think Palm management is eager to repeat the Centro experience of profitless prosperity.

[gbp]

No Of SPRINT Stores
SFO 45 + 26 (Non Sprint Stores)
Sacramento 17 + 12 (Non Sprint Stores)
LA 45 + 54 (Non Sprint Stores)
NY 43 + 56 (Non Sprint Stores)
DC 29 + 9 (Non Sprint Stores)
Chicago 61 + 38 (Non Sprint Stores)
Dallas 43 + 43 (Non Sprint Stores)
Baltimore 42 + 57 (Non Sprint Stores)
Philly 67 + 29 (Non Sprint Stores)
Richmond 14 + 4 (Non Sprint Stores)
Raleigh 26 + 27 (Non Sprint Stores)
Pittsburg 15
Houston 63 + 24 (Non Sprint Stores)
Vegas 21 + 9 (Non Sprint Stores)
Oklahoma 5 + 8 (Non Sprint Stores)
Atlanta 42 + 40 (Non Sprint Stores)