Over 50,000 Pre's Sold During Launch Weekend

Reports from all over say this weekend's Launch of the Palm Pre was a success. Most Sprint retail stores reported selling out of the initial stock and have starting taking names for a waiting list as new units come in. Analysts are all over in guesstimating actual sales numbers. A report from Bloomberg cites one who reckons Palm sold over 150,000 units, while another in the Wall Street Journal say they exceeded 50,000.

JPMorgan said: "Sales in the first two days probably exceed 50,000, which aligns with our expectations," but probably fell short of the 146,000 reported for the first-generation Apple Inc. (AAPL, $141.35, -$3.32, -2.29%) iPhone because of "capacity constraints in manufacturing." JPMorgan said calls to different U.S. stores reveal the phone is sold out.

Palm's own spokespeople and blog are mum on the sales subject but has a new post up today states that over 150,000 apps were downloaded from the App Catalog on just the first day the Pre was available.

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Apple's 3G now $99

SeldomVisitor @ 6/8/2009 12:16:49 PM # Q
And their new device with 16GB is $199 and the 32GB one is $299.

And they're available in a week and a half.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
jca666us @ 6/8/2009 1:39:10 PM # M Q
but...but...

palm has multitasking web apps

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
rcartwright @ 6/8/2009 2:10:10 PM # Q
Leo Laporte manged to get a Ustream from someone who had the stones to risk the Apple cops tossing him out. No one is saying much about the two dems of 3.0 apps that failed on stage, but it makes me wonder. Also when your exclusive US carrier is not supporting MMS and tethering? Add that to the fact that Apple was more than a little cagy about battery life gives me a wait and see attitute. All the sweet hardware in the world is not going to make up for the stink of a bad carrier and sad battery life. Oh well you can always swap the battery...oh wait, its a iPhone you can't do that can you?
"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill
RE: Apple's 3G now $99
jca666us @ 6/8/2009 2:28:39 PM # M Q
the pre is saddled with sprint and you cal AT&T crappy????

I'd rather have more battery life than having to juggle a second battery.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
freakout @ 6/8/2009 3:47:05 PM # Q
Apple's 3G now $99.

And their new device with 16GB is $199 and the 32GB one is $299.

And they're available in a week and a half.

And they still suck. (You forgot that part!)

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
jca666us @ 6/8/2009 4:30:56 PM # M Q
why do they suck? enlighten us please.

pre can't record or edit video :)

pre has no native sdk :)

pre doesnt have 50,000 apps available :)

pre's app store is still beta :)

pre has no magnetometer :)

pre has no landscape keyboard :)

pre does have dead pixels, overheating, and a (currently) buggy os.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
freakout @ 6/8/2009 4:39:04 PM # Q
Who cares?
RE: Apple's 3G now $99
nastebu @ 6/8/2009 5:39:53 PM # M Q
Freak, even you don't believe the iPhone sucks. You know, for Palm to succeed Apple doesn't have to fail. That's even more obvious now that palm is following apple's design and marketting philosophy quite closely.

Frankly, I don't think either Apple or Palm are too worried about each other at this point. $99 iPhone, all the new goodies, blunt Palm's momentum, sure, but must have expected that and they'll get plenty of sales from people who want to stay with Sprint. And there's no way Apple' worried about future sales.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
mikecane @ 6/8/2009 6:01:27 PM # Q
Where is abosco to spread the iPhone iReligion to you unsaved pHeathen?
RE: Apple's 3G now $99
bhartman34 @ 6/9/2009 12:36:23 AM # Q
jca666us wrote:
why do they suck? enlighten us please.

pre can't record or edit video :)

It can't currently record video. There's no app for editing video, but there's no reason someone couldn't write an app to do so. In other words, there's a difference between not having an app and not having the capability. (Sort of like the iPhone and cut & paste.)

jca666us wrote:

pre has no native sdk :)

Not true. Palm hasn't publicly released the SDK, but obviously one exists. Palm's partners haven't been writing their apps with Notepad.

jca666us wrote:

pre doesnt have 50,000 apps available :)

Actually, with the release of Classic, there are 50,000+ apps for the Pre.

jca666us wrote:

pre's app store is still beta :)

Gmail is still in beta, too. So what?

jca666us wrote:

pre has no magnetometer :)

Pre has a GPS w/ built-in turn-by-turn directions. The iPhone's magnetometer (known by most people as a "compass") is a gimmick. Why would you use a compass when you've got GPS?

jca666us wrote:

pre has no landscape keyboard :)

That's true. They made a design decision to slide down, rather than to the side. The disadvantage is, as you say, the lack of a landscape keyboard. The advantage is better ergonomics for making calls with the keyboard open. It's a matter of preference, probably.

jca666us wrote:
pre does have dead pixels, overheating, and a (currently) buggy os.

Some Pre devices have dead pixels. And so do some iPhones. (Google it yourself and see.)

Ditto for the overheating. As well s bugs in the OS. (If anyone, anywhere has devised a bug-free OS, I've yet to hear about it.)

None of this is to say the iPhone sucks, of course. Both phones have their strengths and weaknesses. Here's how I think those shake out:

iPhone

Strengths

1) Higher capacity
2) More native apps
3) More feature-rich camera (as of 3.0 software)

Pre

Strengths

1) Multi-tasking
2) Better PIM (where the Palm heritage really shines)
3) Tighter Web integration
4) Less intrusive notifications

If capacity or number of apps was important to me (you'd never convince me that a camera on a phone was actually important, no matter what company made it), I'd probably go with the iPhone. But I have yet to hear of or see a "killer" iPhone app, and I doubt I'd use it as a media player (which is the only way I think you could fill up 8GB), since I've got a separate media player for that, as well as a digital camera.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
freakout @ 6/9/2009 3:56:48 AM # Q
nastebu:
Freak, even you don't believe the iPhone sucks.

LOL. Blast, you've seen through my cunning smokescreen! No, I don't believe that. But it's fun to say it out loud, especially when you can count on folks like jca666us to rise to the bait. (Every. Single. Time.)

bhartman34:
(insert logical, well-written, intelligent post here)

No, no, no. Mate, you're approaching this all wrong. Well-reasoned arguments backed with facts? Won't cut it. jca666us is immune to such things. You'd get more satisfaction gnawing your own arm off.

( http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/oh_no_its_making_well_reasoned?utm_source=c-section )

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
jca666us @ 6/9/2009 5:21:57 AM # Q
Freak,

I love answering your inane comments - just shows how clueless a fanboy you are.


RE: Apple's 3G now $99
jca666us @ 6/9/2009 5:26:50 AM # Q
Hey bhartman and freak,

You obviously missed my :) throughout.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
abosco @ 6/9/2009 8:23:11 AM # M Q
I'm still here. I just have considerably less time during the day since I've graduated and found full-time employment.

I was very underwhelmed by WWDC. Every single iPhone update (hardware and software) were all "finally" instead of "whoa". Navigation package, video recording, memory increase, etc. The device looks exactly the same, too. Come on! And you're telling me I don't even get a discount for being a current iPhone owner? That doesn't sit well with me.

AT&T is offering tethering and MMS support. I just wanted to clear that one point up.

The Pre seems to be doing just fine. The launch defects appear to be no more than usual, and the initial reviews have been upbeat (unlike the BB Storm). I still see very few advantages to the Pre vs. the iPhone, but we'll see how it does on Verizon and AT&T in several months.

I'll still be getting the new iPhone 3GS because I'm a moron, but I don't think they did a great job on this unveiling. I couldn't imagine people who didn't buy a 3G would run out and buy a 3GS. It seemed more like Apple was playing catchup with the rest of the mobile software scene rather than creating their own path.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
rcartwright @ 6/9/2009 9:20:21 AM # Q
abosco,

I agree that since I posted the AT&T damage control team got a press release out saying they would support tethering and MMS...real soon now. The issue I have is that the carrier did not have it in place at the launch.
"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
nastebu @ 6/9/2009 12:20:04 PM # M Q
Freak my friend, you're a good writer and seem a solid sort of guy, but pointing fingers about jumping at the bait is very much a pot/kettle thing. If you posted "the iPhone sucks" (a statement you know isn't true and you know is going to start a boring predictable rehash of an overdone and pointless argument) out of an ironic detatched desire to laugh at Apple fanboys, forgive me for saying this, but you seem to go out of your way to start palm vs apple threads, or fan the flames when one pops up. What's the differance between liking to watch people you disagree with get upset and being a troll?
RE: Apple's 3G now $99
nastebu @ 6/9/2009 12:27:55 PM # M Q
By the way, I watched the WWDC keynote and quite loved what I saw. Most of the changes are refinements and deepening the software, but that looks good to me. It also seems like they've spent a great deal of time improving the SDK, which long term means much more than a flashy hardware upgrade or superficial case redesign. I love my iPhone and it becomes even better on June whatever for absolutely free.

On the downside I'm moving to Japan in July and it's not at clear I'll be able to use it there. Oh well.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
jca666us @ 6/9/2009 2:17:19 PM # M Q
nastebu - how long for apple to provide 3rd party apps to multitask?

it could be turned on today - but I say another year - by then we'll see iPhones using freescale CPUs - and power consumption won't be an issue.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
freakout @ 6/9/2009 3:44:07 PM # Q
What's the differance between liking to watch people you disagree with get upset and being a troll?

Nothing, actually. I have no defense for my horrible, thoughtless actions. It made me laugh. Sometimes it can be very hard to find one in such a doom-and-gloom community. Mea culpa!

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
nastebu @ 6/9/2009 4:00:53 PM # M Q
Jca66us, I guess a year is right. I guess it makes sense to take them at face value when Apple says they're worried about stability and battery life. Maybe multi-tasking is like copy and paste; it's taking a while for them to get that far down on the priority to-do list.

It's with saying though that this sort of delay really does point out how much Apple is in the driver's seat when it comes to the cell-phone industry. If they really felt like the lack of multi-tasking or an external keyboard or whatever were getting in the way of whatever sales figures they are shooting for, they could add the feature pretty easily.

And I guess that does make sense. You can always add a feature, but it's damn hard to add back stability and battery life after that's gone.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
nastebu @ 6/9/2009 4:01:30 PM # M Q
Oh, and all is forgiven Freak.
RE: Apple's 3G now $99
jca666us @ 6/9/2009 4:19:35 PM # M Q
freak,

I never believed you were thoughtless - mindless yes - but never thoughtless.

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
bhartman34 @ 6/9/2009 8:57:56 PM # Q
jca666us wrote:
Hey bhartman and freak,

You obviously missed my :) throughout.

Hi, jca666us.

I didn't actually miss the emoticons. I actually quoted them. ;) The problem is that, in that context, a smile can be either a jokng, good-natured chuckle (i.e., to say, "Yep, both phones have faults. :)"), or it can be a mocking, derisive laugh, (i.e., "Haw Haw!! Stupid Palm Pre!!").

I'm also hard-pressed to find a positive thing you've said about the Pre, which also figured into my assessment.

But yeah, they both have areas in which they "suck", which is what flame wars are made of. :)

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
bhartman34 @ 6/9/2009 10:52:44 PM # Q
jca666us wrote:
nastebu - how long for apple to provide 3rd party apps to multitask?

it could be turned on today - but I say another year - by then we'll see iPhones using freescale CPUs - and power consumption won't be an issue.

jca666us:

In my opinion, this is one of the difficulties inherent in the Apple philosophy. Too often, they let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Case in point: Apple is just now putting external memory card slots on their laptops. Oddly enough, that's something their desktops don't have yet. (I do give them credit for having a lot of USB ports, though.)

It just seems like Apple treats its products more like art objects and less like the tools people will use them as.


RE: Apple's 3G now $99
jca666us @ 6/10/2009 5:06:19 AM # Q
Something good to say about the Pre:

WebOS in about 6 mos. to a year - it definitely needs more work - it needs to be perfect - not just good enough. And it needs a native SDK.

the hardware is the weak point - give the pre a landscape h/w keyboard, a much better battery, and i think it would kill everything out there.

the current pre keyboard is cramped - if i had to choose between a crappy physical keyboard or a great virtual one - i'm going for the virtual one.


RE: Apple's 3G now $99
twrock @ 6/10/2009 5:18:54 AM # Q
jca666us wrote:
Something good to say about the Pre:

LOL. Try to give that kind of "compliment" to your girlfriend/wife and see how far you get.

"Honey, you'll look great after six months to a year on your current diet."

Hey Palm! Where's my PDA with Wifi and phone capabilities?

RE: Apple's 3G now $99
jca666us @ 6/10/2009 5:58:12 AM # M Q
lol - I'm having sex with my wife - not the palm pre. no one will be having sex pre except freak!
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