The stream of news around the Palm Pre and its webOS just keeps on flowing. Since Palm’s survival more or less depends on the success of the Pre and any possible future webOS phones, it’s very interesting to know just how well the Pre is selling. According to an analyst, Palm has already sold 370000 Pre phones in May and June; he also stated that the company will ship 1 million phones to Sprint in the first quarter of production. Not bad. We’ve also got news on the GSM version of the Pre.
Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder established the figures via a channel check. Basically, Palm Pre sales “into the channel” amounted to 300000 units in June, with an additional 70000 units in May. Into the channel means the sales from Palm, to Sprint, which of course also explains the 70000 figure in May (the Pre went on sale in June). In addition, Snyder says that Palm is now producing about 15000 Pre units a day, and that they will ship 1 million phones to Sprint in the first quarter of production.
Let’s put these figures into perspective. During the original iPhone’s first full quarter, Apple sold 1.1 million iPhones, so if Palm were really to hit the 1 million mark, they’re really doing a good job, especially compared to the marketing machine Apple put behind the iPhone. Also interesting: the total amount of smarpthones shipped by Palm last quarter (pre-Pre)? A meagre 351000.
And while we’re talking analyst figures here, the webOS App Catalog did pass the 1 million downloads mark a while ago, despite there just being like 30 applications in it.
There’s also news on the GSM version of the Pre and a possible international launch. Several GSM variants of the Pre have already been spotted; indications are it may already arrive in fall. There’s really no way to say which carrier will get the Pre in European countries, though.
In additional news, the Pre has also been turned into a webserver. Now it’s a real smartphone!
Isn’t the same as phones sold to end users, so this isn’t yet a viable number to assume anything by, unless every one of those phones sold into the channel has a customer that has already reserved it: don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched, or phones before they’ve been taken out of a store by an end user to go with a mobile phone plan!
Yeah, obviously. I made sure the article mentioned that this is about sales from Palm to Sprint – not to customers. We’ll have to wait a few months for that (Palm’s quarterly results).
Oh, and these are just analyst estimates. So, the true number could be half that, or it could be double that. We still don’t really know how many phones were sold, and we won’t know until Palm decides to release the numbers.
Let’s put these figures into perspective. During the original iPhone’s first full quarter, Apple sold 1.1 million iPhones, so if Palm were really to hit the 1 million mark, they’re really doing a good job, especially compared to the marketing machine Apple put behind the iPhone.
Back in the real world… In the first quarter Apple was selling the iPhone it cost more than twice what the Palm Pre costs (later the iPhone’s price was dropped so that it was merely twice the price of the Pre). The iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS both sold around 500,000 units in the U.S. in their first weekend on sale (the 3G and the 3GS being the first iPhones comparatively priced to the Palm Pre).
Palm definitely isn’t doing bad with the Pre, but it isn’t even getting close to the bar the iPhone has set.
In New Zealand one can purchase an iPhone 3GS 32GB outright without a contract for NZ$1,379.00 incl GST (US$887) – I wonder how that would compare to the Palm Pre if it is eventually sold outright; does the Palm Pre include expansion slots or is it deliberately crippled like the iPhone? If it is crippled then I have a feeling that those unwilling to shell out for the iPhone but don’t wan to be crippled with a Palm Pre might go for a LG KM900 ARENA and throw on another 32gb card for $50 or so (expanding it to 40gb in total).
Using the word “crippled” is really funny. There are more disadvantages to having small amounts of onboard memory and expansion slots than having enough memory in the first place.
But the Pre, for $199 only has 8 GB. That may not be enough to compete with the now $99 3G with 8GB, or the 16 GB 3GS also for $199, or the 32 GB 3GS for $299.
Those are priced based on a contract, I am talking about buying the device outright – so I can take it and use it on another carrier; in my case, instead of Vodafone I can use it on the XT Network.
Over 370,000 emergency calls to 911 were placed — because of a silly button placement.
Edited 2009-07-01 17:46 UTC
And what has that got to do with the story? more mindless spam by repeating the same thing over and over and over again with each post?
Palm needed a winner. As far as I know, Sprint is selling 5 of Palm’s phones now, including the Pré, 755p, and Centro. They seemed to run out that first weekend selling the Pré.
Obviously, the GSM version will help immensely but there are still niches in the world where CDMA phones are being used, correct? If they have the production, they should be getting them to those other areas also.
To me, it’s an imperative that Palm survive, if only to push Apple and RIM.