14 DAY TRIAL // The launch of the highly anticipated Palm Pre seems to have been a great success for the wireless carrier Sprint, as it managed to set a new sales record for the company. Tim Donahue, vice president of business marketing for Sprint, said that the sales exceeded the company's expectations, though no exact sales figures were unveiled so far.
“We experienced our best one day of sales and single weekend sales for any phone we've launched in our history,” Tim Donahue said, cited by Cnet. “We sold out of the device over the weekend in most of our store locations. And it happened at a much faster rate than we had planned on.”
As reported before, analysts also consider the launch of Pre a success for Sprint and Palm, even though the number of people who waited in line for the new phone was considerably smaller compared to those who waited for the iPhone. If the analysts’ estimations are right, Sprint managed to sell somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 units during the first weekend of availability.
According to Donahue, Sprint's stores will receive new units of Pre as soon as Palm can ship them. “I'll be honest,” he said. “There will be constrained inventory for some time. And there will be spot shortages for the foreseeable future.” Even so, it seems that there are waiting lists for those who want a Pre in the near future, and Sprint will announce those people as soon as the device comes to its locations.
Donahue also stated that both Sprint and Palm would do everything that they could to keep the sales at a high level, though the competition with the iPhone seemed to be tightening up. The fact that Pre comes to the market with a large touchscreen display, a physical keyboard and the capability to handle multiple functions at the same time would make it a great addition for business customers, Sprint seems to believe.
“When you look at our customer base, the lines are blurred today versus five or 10 years ago,” Donahue said. “Subscribers use their phones for business as well for personal use. It isn't an either/or situation. And here is a device that I think is the best crossover device for business and personal use in the marketplace today.”