14 DAY TRIAL // Palm Pre is one smartphone that saw a lot of fuzz before launch, yet which seems to enjoy a slower adoption on the market than originally predicted. The handset, now available for purchase in the US via wireless carrier Sprint, has been expected to be a smashing hit, yet reports suggest that its sales are actually going down. According to Town Hall Investment Research analyst David Eller, things tend to look quite bad for Sprint when it comes to this quarter's sales figures.
To be more precise, while the mobile phone operator is reportedly expecting to be able to move 1 – 1.5 million Pres, David Eller says that it won't sell more than 500k. 416,000 units is the exact figure it provides, lowering even more the original 488,000-unit figure. It appears that “overly ambitious expectations in the face of a weak retail spending environment [and] competition from the iPhone 3Gs” is the reason for which Sprint will miss its sales target for the three-month period.
The fourth quarter of the year, however, seems to be a better time frame for the phone's sales. The Town Hall Investment Research analyst states that a number of 785,000 Palm Pres should be shipped during the holiday season. It seems that the carrier only sells 25,000 Palm Pres per week, greatly influenced by RIM and Apple's devices. However, we should note that Sprint hasn't unveiled official numbers on this, and it might all turn out to be only speculations.
And the same might apply to another Palm mobile phone that should come to the maker with the recently launched WebOS on board, the Palm Eos, and which is reportedly on its way to a November launch. The phone has been rumored to come this year, to have been delayed to 2010, to come to either AT&T, Sprint or Verizon, with the latest reports suggesting that it will become available via Sprint and Verizon for sure, as it surfaced on the carriers' inventories.
David Eller says that the second webOS-based Palm phone will be launched in November. That doesn't point towards a specific carrier, and might be only speculations, yet IntoMobile opines that it should be enough to mark the time frame in our calendars. Especially since it has been suggested to turn into a GSM follow-up of the Palm Pre (which is a CDMA device), while also sporting a lower price tag. Stay tuned to learn more details on this as soon as they become available.