Palm Pre Launches In US, Sells Out Amid Stock Shortages
What many believe to be the first legitimate competition for the iPhone launched in the US over the weekend, yet the response outside of the tech geek community for the new Palm Pre was somewhat muted.
Network spokesman Mark Elliott told The New York Times that neither Sprint nor Palm not only didn’t expect long lines for the Pre at its 1,100 stores, neither did they want them. Well, mission accomplished.
With reports that some stores had stocks in the single figures and even less of the impressive inductive ‘Touchstone’ wireless charger, Palm’s new smartphone was bound to be a sell-out, despite low turn-outs. The flagship New York store for Sprint – the exclusive provider of the device upon launch – was reported to have 100, whilst stock numbers varied wildly in shops across the country.
After a quick and painless 40 minutes sign-up process, the lucky few – many of whom had begun queueing as early as 5am – walked out of the store with the smartphone, seen as somewhat of a saviour for the beleaguered manufacturer.
The Palm Pre is a touchscreen device complete with a slide out keyboard and a nice line in applications as well as slick functionality. The below video gives a nice idea of why Apple will be paying very close attention to the US manufacturer in the coming weeks…
Many of those who queued up went away empty-handed, as the demand for the handset far outstripped the limited supplies. Short-stocking is pretty common practise for gadget launches, in order to create that early adopter buzz and get people looking forward to the re-up, which Sprint claims will be next Monday.
Analysts claim that anything between 50,000 and 150,000 Palm Pres were sold over the weekend, with the response of early converts to the device seeming largely positive. Check out this cool Palm Pre review matrix to see what the major tech reviewers are saying…
Misha Vladimirskiy, a 30-year-old photographer from San Francisco, was unlucky enough to miss out on the initial shipment of handset, but was still very optimistic about his Pre. “I don’t mind waiting,” said Vladimirskiy, a Palm loyalist for his past three phones. “This is 1,000-times better than the Treo.”
The Pre’s debut could be overshadowed, however, with the latest iPhone, which is all-but-confirmed for announcement at Apple’s annual developers’ conference. With the promise of a new operating system upgrade for the multi-million selling device, as well as the fact that the previous versions have been revealed at this conference twice before, Palm will not have to wait long for the opening salvo in retaliation to the Pre’s release.
At least they had a good weekend, hopefully gaining the initial traction so desperately needed in a fiercely competitive market. Over to you, Apple…
Sources: Gizmodo, Engadget, New York Times
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