Friday, May 22, 2009
Could Sprint Palm Pre Become the Apple iPhone Killer this Summer?
Summer is the season of major blockbusters, and Sprint and Palm Inc. aim to knock the iPhone off its throne with the Palm Pre, for an upset on par with Hickory's win over South Bend Central in Hoosiers.
Sprint (NYSE:S) and Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) are pulling all the stops to challenge Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). An ad in today's Wall Street Journal links to the Meet the Palm Pre page, which is saturated with more bells and whistles than a movie preview page. It includes a countdown ticker, and a Palm Pre Tweet Tracker, Streaming videos via Youtube, a "Palm Pre mentions online" counter and a forum called: Buzz About Wireless. Moderated by Sprint, popular Buzz forum topics include a few themes that might raise a few concerns with Sprint's PR department. Those user-submitted topics include:
- Many unhappy people about Pre plans
- Palm & Sprint screwing over existing AND potential customers?!?!?
- Palm Pre Shortage! Only 4 Per Store, Including Best Buy
- Plan Confusion -- Can we get definitive answer
Here's an excerpt from the Many unhappy people about Pre plans.
There are many folks like me who pay for data, have enough minutes (3500) on a Free and Clear plan, ( which I never need to worry about going over our limit) and now will have to pay DOUBLE for a plan to get a Pre or Why double? No one likes to be afraid of going over the monthly limit and pay .40/minute. As a business owner we would have to opt for the unlimited plan ( if we want the shiney new Pre) which is actually more than double of what we pay now.Our situation is not isolated.
Only a few posts later, a disgruntled AT&T subscriber contrasted Sprint's Pre Plan with his AT&T plan. I chuckled to myself because I could relate to his frustration. He wrote:
I don't want to hear it. You guys have it good compared to AT&T's outrageous charges.To get everything Sprint offers for the Pre, I would have to pay $39 more per month on AT&T. $40 for 450 minutes, $20 for unlimited text, $30 for unlimited data, and $9 for N&W at 7pm.I wish I wasn't in contract. I would be in the line at 8AM on the 6th.
Of all the negative threads, the most problematic one could prove to be the rumors of Best Buy (NYSE:BB) shortages which won't be restocked until two weeks after the June 6 release. Conversely, preferred dealers, including Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), are expected to have decent inventory on the day of launch. As of the time I entered this post, no official spokesperson from Sprint has replied to the thread.
Perhaps this shortage speculation is a undercover ploy to increase the buzz by insinuating short supply of the Sprint 4G Network phones, therefore increasing the demand.After all, one of the main reasons people line up for these phones is for the bragging rights.
Posted By Matt O'Hern at 11:45 AM
Permanent Link: Could Sprint Palm Pre Become the Apple iPhone Killer this Summer?
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(9) Comments on Could Sprint Palm Pre Become the Apple iPhone Killer this Summer?
I don't want a Pre, can I just have an Iphone for a decent price without any contract commitments!
Comments by HS : Friday, May 22, 2009 at 12:12 PM
Bragging rights aside. The real issue is getting equal functionality from Pre; as Apple has a three year head start. I don't see apps coming up for the Pre nor a clean easy access portal/system to get to them when they do become available.
Comments by Dan Lawson : Friday, May 22, 2009 at 12:14 PM
The Pre will be very well designed from an engineering point of view. That's a given because John Rubenstein was the Sr VP in charge of hardware engineering at Apple prior to his move to Palm.
I don't think the Pre will take business away from Apple. The iPhone has too much momentum in the marketplace. The App Store offers so much functionality, much of it in the form of free downloads, The iPhone uses the GSM world standard and is being sold in 80 countries.
Palm's Pre should be successful though. The companies who need to worry about Palm are Nokia, RIMM, and all of the Microsoft Windows Mobile vendors.
I think the dominant phones are going to be those running a real computer operating system rather than one developed for cell phones and then extended. This means that I think Apple, Android, and Palm represent the future of smart phones. The others just don't have a software platform upon which to really compete.
Comments by davesmall : Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 09:48 AM
The pre doesn't hold up next to Iphone
Comments by Iphone user : Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 03:38 PM
I suspect the Pre will give a small boost to Sprint and Palm revenues. It may also make it for some of the Sprint reseller networks - but AT&T has contracts with many iPhone users who are anticipating the 3rd gen product - so it's not going to kill the iPhone. What might kill the iPhone eventually is more open, more powerful phones with lower data costs - but that time is some way off.
Comments by Angela Hey : Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 03:00 PM
Apple iphone is the the revolution in the field of mobile. Whatever we have a before never compete with iphone and the new version are more useful
Comments by zahid Rafiq : Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 12:23 AM
As a former Apple employee I can say I'm VERY impressed with the Pre. It'an amazing phone. My mom and dad got two of them and I had a chance to sit and play with it. It's awesome.
The iPhone is alright. Great phone. But face it, everyone has one. It's no longer considered "cool" to have an iPhone like it used to. It's like buying a car that everyone else already drives. Boring.
This phone is cool, sleek, and I like the slide out keyboard...an option iphone doesn't have. Very useful if you drunk text alot! I also think the screen is clearer and is alot more vibrant compared to the iPhone, which I didn't think could be done but they did it.
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