“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone,” Elevation Partners (which owns a huge portion of Palm) co-founder Roger McNamee told Bloomberg in March. “Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”
Yes, that would be today.
So how did McNamee’s claim turn out? Well, let’s put it this way: If there was a foot-in-the-mouth award given every year, no one else would need to apply this year. Hell, it might take the prize for the whole decade. It’s a quote of Ballmer-level proportions. → Read More
BBG points us to this Palm Pre commercial remix that forces us to ask the question: Was Tim Robbins dead or dying in the Jacob’s Ladder. Was it like in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge? Why haven’t I watched that movie lately? It was really good. Even crazier REAL commercial after the jump. → Read More
Verizon confirmed in an analyst conference call that the Palm Pre, the little smartphone the could, will be available on Verizon’s network between Q1 and the end of Q2 next year. This should come as a relief to people who are waiting to ditch their Blackberry Storms for Palm’s new offering. There’s not much more info than that: they just said it would happen. This confirms rumors that the Pre would break out of its pen at Sprint sooner than later and could mean new Sprint models coming running Palm’s WebOS. → Read More
The internet is all aflutter with stories rolling in concerning the Palm Pre being sold for $99 with a two-year contract at neighborhood Best Buy locations. Although the Pre is nowhere to be found on Best Buy’s website, here’s an in-store photo from PreCentral.net for your enjoyment. Not a bad deal at all, considering the $99 price is out the door — no rebates or anything like that. Looks like you’ll have to actually get in the car and go to the store if you want to get in on this deal, though, but maybe grab the wife and kids and make a day of it! [Pre Central via FatWallet] Update – False alarm, everyone. John Bernier is saying via Best Buy’s Twitter help line – Twelp Force – that the price is still $199. Now, you still might be able to get the deal if your local Best Buy hasn’t had the price changed or is feeling rather gracious. YMMV. → Read More
“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone,” Elevation Partners (which owns a huge portion of Palm) co-founder Roger McNamee told Bloomberg in March. “Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”
A week from tomorrow is the big day for McNamee’s prediction. How’s it looking? Not so hot. Okay, awful.
Yes, it’s still early in the Palm Pre’s life. And yes, there is plenty of room in the rapidly expanding mobile universe for more than one device. But it was McNamee who specifically threw down this gauntlet against the iPhone. And that makes charts like the one below, that much more amusing. → Read More
Whip out the bong, kids, and start in on that Afghani Kush because Palm has a new commercial. Put it on repeat if you’re on LSD. → Read More
One of the common downsides when using any sort of handset case or skin is that you often lose compatibility with accessories. Case in point is the Palm Pre and the Touchstone which requires a special phone back to work with the inductive charger. Good news, Pre owners. Seideo has the answer and it’s called the Innocase Surface. → Read More
Despite the early fanfare and limited inventory at launch, Sprint doesn’t seem to be hitting it out of the park with the new Palm Pre. Earlier this month we reported on some channel checks by JNK Securities analyst Mike Ehrlich, who called 50 Sprint stores and found out that sales were lackluster.
Yesterday, he issued a new report based on channel checks from last Thursday and Friday, Week 5 after the Pre’s launch. Of the stores willing to discuss sales volumes, here is the breakdown of demand on a per-store basis:
EXT. Sunset Beach. Mother and Daughter walking. Daughter: Mom, did you ever have that not so fresh feeling? Down there? Mom: Sure, honey. We all do. Daughter: What do you do about it? Mom: Well, I keep a Pre handy. Daughter: A Pre? Mom: It’s the latest feminine hygiene product from Palm. It fits where other phones won’t. → Read More
Oh this is just stupid. A Strategy Analytics study has found that some Palm Pre users are complaining about the lack of an on-screen keyboard. Unbelievable. → Read More
We’re all quite excited here to find out that O2 and Movistar will get the Palm Pre in GSM form, opening the phone up to unlocking, hacking, and all sorts of molestation. UK, Ireland and Germany will get the phone on O2 and Spain will get it from Movistar. When, you ask?
Christmas.
That’s right: by the time Palm pinches off the GSM Pre Apple will have probably released iPod Touches with cameras and the HTC Hero, an Android phone that I wouldn’t kick out of bed for eating crackers, will be dancing on the Sprint Pre’s grave. It’s like Palm wants to fail. → Read More
My, how time flies in the tech world. It was only one month ago today that the Palm Pre launched to the public, giving users their first chance to try out WebOS first hand. Critical response to the device was generally positive, though much of this stemmed from the phone’s impressive operating system rather than the hardware itself. Still, it was exciting to see a genuinely compelling product come out of Palm for the first time in years, and many of us viewed it as one of the first worthwhile competitors to the iPhone. And then the iPhone 3GS came out, selling 1 million devices in a single weekend.
Since then, the Pre has largely fallen under Apple’s shadow. But there have been murmurs that Palm has still managed to sell far more devices than most analysts were expecting — a recent report from Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder suggests that Palm is still unable to meet demand, and that the company will ship one million phones to Sprint during the device’s first quarter in production. Today we’ve gotten a report that indicates that this may be pretty far from reality. → Read More
My, how time flies in the tech world. It was only one month ago today that the Palm Pre launched to the public, giving users their first chance to try out WebOS first hand. Critical response to the device was generally positive, though much of this stemmed from the phone’s impressive operating system rather than the hardware itself. Still, it was exciting to see a genuinely compelling product come out of Palm for the first time in years, and many of us viewed it as one of the first worthwhile competitors to the iPhone. And then the iPhone 3GS came out, selling 1 million devices in a single weekend.
Since then, the Pre has largely fallen under Apple’s shadow. But there have been murmurs that Palm has still managed to sell far more devices than most analysts were expecting — a recent report from Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder suggests that Palm is still unable to meet demand, and that the company will ship one million phones to Sprint during the device’s first quarter in production. Today we’ve gotten a report that indicates that this may be pretty far from reality. → Read More
eBay has some red hot Palm Pres for about $320 – this one is ending in 28 minutes but I bet you could find more. I’m curious to know where these are coming from. Refurbs? Stolen? Found on the road after their owners abandoned them in frustration? → Read More
Ed Snyder of Charter Equity Research estimates that there were 300,000 Palm Pres sold in June and there should be sales of about 1 million this quarter, on track with expectations. He estimates Palm is able to make 15,000 phones a day and that all is right with the world. via Inquirer → Read More
Waves of exultation and joy must be coming out of Saigon as the first secret G.S.M. Palm Pres begin wending their way out of the secret Pre factories in the jungles to the south. A crack team of commandoes have wrested one of these super secretive models out of the hands of an unsuspecting courier and taken video and photos of it.
Remember that the Palm Pre originally came in G.S.M. flavor back at MWC 2008 and that O2 and Movistar probably have Pre exclusivity which allows us to assume the G.S.M. model will drop sooner than later. → Read More
If you were reading a major paper this weekend, you’d notice a striking ad. There’s the Palm Pre resting against an apple core with the words:
The Palm Pre does things the iPhone can’t. Run multiple applications at the same time with real-time updates and even save $1200 over two years. It’s the perfect time to join the Now Network, America’s most trusted 3G network, bringing you the first and only 4G network from a national carrier.
The real call to action was to iPhone users with lapsed contracts – presumably iPhone users who bought the original iPhone two years ago and never upgraded to the 3G – a cohort that I suspect consists of perhaps five Palm engineers and maybe our tech-savvy grandparents. It’s a small number, friends. A small number. → Read More
Get some sweet, sweet Palm Mojo early. It’s basically the SDK for WebOS and it just showed up on the interwebs. Most interesting, however, is the lengths folks will go not to anger the Palm Gods:
Currently, no word on whether or not Palm is okay with this, and we can’t imagine that they are thrilled, so download at your own risk. Depending on how this one goes, we may have to pull all the links if Palm requests (we’re all for the sharing of information, but we want to help Palm, not destroy them). If they feel leaking the SDK early is only detrimental to them as a company, then we will remove the URLs.
“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone,” Elevation Partners (which owns a huge portion of Palm) co-founder Roger McNamee told Bloomberg in March. “Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”
We’re 5 days away from that milestone. Anyone want to take that bet still?
It’s been 18 days since the launch of the Palm Pre, and the device has already passed an important milestone: 1 million app downloads, according to mobile analytics firm Medialets. That’s impressive for a store with only 30 or so applications. While Apple surpassed 10 million downloads in its first weekend following the App Store launch in 2007, it had over 500 applications at launch, and already had a few million devices (the original iPhone) with which people could download from. → Read More
