I believe the Pre launch will be the most successful in either Sprint or Palm’s history. With the increasingly large public awareness of these new devices and smartphones, they’re selling in higher volumes than ever before. When the first smartphones came out, there were 6 or 7 “dumb phone” available for every one of these hand-held computers. Now the ratio is probably around 1 smartphone for ever 2 dumb phones, if not an even 1:1 on some carriers. Normal consumers are relying on these devices every day, not just the wealthy CEO’s and traveling businessmen.
It’s about public awareness, and the commonality of smartphones has raised the public knowledge of smartphones to new levels. People know what the Palm Pre is because in this world, technology is becoming the news, as well as a way to communicate it. More people turned out for the last presidential election because of public awareness; people became involved because of easy access to information through a revolutionary online campaign from both parties. More people turn up for the launches of these smartphones because more people are aware of what the devices can do.
Whether or not the Pre sales reaches iPhone levels, it will still be the best selling device Sprint or Palm has ever made simply because former users of dumb phones, like me, now have the accessibility and knowledge to these powerful devices. This trend may even see the endangerment of dumb phones, but that’s another issue for another day.
Some critics are going to compare the Pre’s launch to the iPhone, and everything Palm did or didn’t do right to hype up the launch. Palm has a strong fan base, but nothing near the Cult of Mac, so to anyone expecting the Pre to beat iPhone: don’t. It isn’t going to, especially considering these numbers. Instead, simply judge the success or failure of the Palm Pre on two factors:
1) Does the device work well?
2) Does it sell better than every similar Palm or Sprint device before it?
It’s too much to ask of any company to come up with a magical device that can beat out Apple’s iPhone right now, especially since Apple had years of planning their conquest of a market that lacked any exciting innovation. Palm and others are trying to get back in the game, but no one will overtake Apple until the next big thing. However, Palm has set themselves up with an innovative platform that they have promised to implement on future devices. There will be future webOS devices (unlike the mysteriously absent Android devices we were all promised would be flooding the market by now).
Palm will meet success by most standards on the Pre launch day, and I know I’ll be in line waiting to buy my Palm Pre and help them meet it.
Palm Pre: 26-minutes live demo!
Palm Pre demoed on Sprint Webcast 03/12/09
Due to technical difficulties, the audio portion of the video did not get captured.
Palm Pre Calendar Synergy Live Demo at MWC09
Palm Pre gestures demo in slow motion
Vic Gundotra Demo HTML Google Map Palm Pre at MWC09
