The sales momentum is still strong, analyst says

Jul 25, 2009 07:15 GMT  ·  By

According to the latest news on the Internet, the Palm Pre does not register so high return rates as previously rumored. The Street suggests that a number of around 350,000 Pres were sold during the first 7 weeks of availability, and that the return rates for the device are somewhere in the 2-3 percent area, and not at the 40 percent levels that were rumored before.

The new estimations come from RBC analyst Mike Abramsky, who has reportedly monitored traffic at some two dozen Sprint stores. It seems that the Pre is still selling great, which puts it at the same level with the recently launched BlackBerry Tour 9630 from Research In Motion, and can still give hope that Palm is able to revive itself with the device.

For the time being, neither Palm not Sprint have unveiled any details on the Pre sales but, if this proves true, it means that both the Pre and its webOS are gaining popularity among users. Coupled with the constant care from the mobile phone maker to push out updates for it software so as to enhance the user experience it can provide, this might increase the traction the Pre sees on the market.

While the first weeks of availability proved great for the phone, the fast arrival of Apple's iPhone 3GS, coupled with the $99 price tag for the iPhone 3G, slowed down Pre's adoption. This marked a 15 percent drop in Palm's shares this month, though we must admit that they do not compare to the 400 percent increase they've seen this year before Pre's arrival.

It remains to be seen how well the Pre and its webOS will perform on the market from now on. In case they do well, there are great chances that Palm will either get acquired by one of the large industry players (Nokia, Hewlett-Packard or Motorola, The Street suggests) or license the webOS to other companies, as previously rumored.