iPhone Competitor Debuts — Palm Pre
June 6, 2009 by Mark Ellis
Filed under Business
The Palm Pre has been touted by many as the biggest competitor to the amazingly popular Apple iPhone. The Pre debuted on Saturday and though the launch was preceded with much hype, crowds were smaller than some expected.
Image: Palm.com
With the iPhone launch, people formed lines and camp outside of Apple and AT&T stores for days. However with the Palm Pre, most customers arrived just before Sprint stores opened on Saturday. The Pre was also being sold at Best Buy stores, where it received a bit more attention.
The device is priced at $299, plus customers can get $100 back with a mail-in rebate from Sprint. Best Buy offered the Palm Pre for $199 without the mail-in rebate, causing many Best Buy locations to sell out of the Pre almost immediately. But that’s not a shock — Best Buy’s inventory of the Pre was much smaller than the inventory at Sprint retailers.
To compete with the iPhone may be almost impossible for Palm. AT&T activated almost two and half million iPhone 3Gs in the first quarter the device was available. To reach those kind of numbers, the Palm Pre needs to meet and exceed the hype.
