It seems like nowadays almost anybody could just come up with a figure of how many Palm Pre phones have been sold. And that’s precisely what some people are doing. Like “analyst” Ashok Kumar, who either has a bone to pick with Palm, or he just hates the Pre and wants it dead at all cost.

Kumar says that despite being positioned as a flagship product at Sprint, Palm shipped under 300,000 units in May and June. He says that the “momentum appears to have already peaked.” Then, he goes on to say that “due to weakening demand,” Pre production levels for the rest of the year have been chopped by 500,000 units. And he concludes in his note that “the long-term prognosis for Palm is unclear.” I ask; How in hell does he know? Kumar is not responding.

There are more optimistic people like Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette who writes that his checks find that monthly sell-through of the Pre in August is “trending up slightly sequentially”. According to him; better advertising, improved supply and a strong word-of-mouth are the big improvements. However, Faucette still thinks Palm’s WebOS and software development team could be more to a potential acquirer (he mentions Nokia and Motorola) than as a stand-alone company.

Amir Rozwadowski, Barclays Capital analyst seems cautious, writing that “Pre demand has not re-accelerated following what we believe was a noted downshift in the beginning of July.” He believes Palm could sell from 500,000 to 550,000 units in the quarter. Amir also says he does not expect a new device from Palm this year, since the company will focus more on adding new carriers for the Pre.

[Via Barron's]