14 DAY TRIAL // Wireless carrier Sprint launched on its airwaves the latest mobile phone from the Sunnyvale manufacturer Palm, the Pre, about five weeks ago, and it seems that the sales of the device are finally starting to stabilize at some good levels for the company. For both parties, actually, as Palm and Sprint alike need the Palm Pre to be successful and to attract customers on its side.
After a peak during the first week of availability, when Sprint's stores reported empty inventories, the sales went down a little, though now they are reportedly coming back up again and stabilizing. According to JNK Securities analyst Mike Ehrlich, who called 50 Sprint stores, things are looking better in week 5 compared to the previous time frame.
On a per-store basis, the demand on Palm's Pre at Sprint would look as follows, according to Mike Ehrlich:
Week 5 Palm Pre Sales Per Sprint Store 10 units or less: 30% (vs. 40% the prior week) 10 to 20 units: 45% (vs. 33% the prior week) 20 to 30 units: 18% (vs. 16% the prior week) 30 to 50 units: 12% (no comparable)
“It has been clear for the last few weeks that Sprint is now meeting the current demand and that the ’sold out’ scenarios common just after launch have ended - if they do occur (as they did this week), they are a temporary scenario while the store waits that day for a new shipment. Finding a Palm Pre at a Sprint store should not be difficult at the current time. Sales also seem to have stabilized,” Ehrlich says, cited by TechCrunch.
In addition, Ehrlich’s survey also shows that 7 percent of the stores reported that the majority of sales went to new customers who came to Sprint from other carriers. In comparison, 30 percent of the stores reported that most of the Palm Pre buyers were existing customers who were upgrading. Two thirds stated that they registered a mix, which still looks good for the operator, as around half of the customers are new ones.
One the other hand, this report might not be as conclusive after all, considering the fact that Sprint has around 1,000 stores in the country, and only 50 of them have been surveyed. Even so, in case this applies to most of the stores, it would mean that 20,000 to 30,000 Palm Pre units are sold each week, which can be seen as good enough for the time being.
Both Palm and Sprint are certainly working on boosting the sales even further, and we might learn in the near future that they went up a little more. As many of you might already know, Sprint has recently signed a deal with Ericsson for network improvements, which should attract more customers on its side, while Palm has stepped on the gas pedal with the development of applications for Pre's webOS platform, which should have the same result in the end. Hopefully, some official sales numbers will also be unveiled in the near future, so stay tuned to learn more on this.