Palm Pre Sales Beating Expectations
According to a recent report by Charter Equity Research, the Palm Pre sold more devices than expected this month, with sales into the channel hitting more than 300,000.
The Inquirer reported that Charter Equity Research determined that number by surveying the channel. Charter's Ed Snyder said Palm pre-sold roughly 70,000 Palm Pre smartphones in May and is having trouble catching up with demand.
Palm was looking to the Pre for salvation, hoping the new smartphone would help it overcome slumping revenue and poor device sales while recapturing some of the mobile device pioneer glory it had with the Palm Pilot in the 1990s.
The Palm Pre's launch was plagued with hiccups, however. The smartphone ran into manufacturing problems and the threat of a global shortage of available Pres, which turned out to be a mere 120,000 available on the June 6 launch date.
Also working against the Pre was the launch of the Apple iPhone 3G S, which was unveiled just two days after the Palm Pre hit the streets. The Apple iPhone 3G S went on to sell more than 1 million units in its first available weekend, while the Pre unloaded an estimated 50,000 to 100,000. The release of two eagerly anticipated devices in such a short time span sparked a new clash of the touch-screen titans.
The heated competition prompted Palm to say it won't kowtow to its rivals.
But according to industry analysts, Palm has worked out the initial kink and now it is smooth sailing for the Palm Pre.
Charter's Snyder told The Inquirer that Palm is now on track to produce about 15,000 Palm Pres daily and that it is highly likely that Palm will ship one million phones to Sprint, the Pre's exclusive U.S. carrier, in its first quarter of production.