Sprint CEO expects Palm Pre shortages, sleeping bag sales skyrocket

by Thomas Ricker posted May 20th 2009 at 7:26AM

Know the best way to guarantee long lines outside of Sprint stores on June 6th? Have your CEO announce that he expects a shortage of Palm Pre handsets at launch. According to a Reuters transcript of Dan Hesse speaking to investors,

"We don't intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while. We won't be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time."

If true, if troubled Palm can't meet demand then this is certainly bad news for investors in a white-hot smartphone market with plenty to entice rejected Palm hopefuls this summer. Then again, Nintendo drove gamers nuts (and some would argue, artificially inflate demand) for almost two years with its chronic Wii shortages. Problem is, Palm isn't as fiscally solvent as Nintendo was in 2006... by a long shot.

[Via everythingpre]

Filed under: Handsets, Palm, Sprint, webOS

Tags: dan hesse, DanHesse, delay, palm, pre, shortage, sprint

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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plh2034 @ May 20th 2009 8:27AM

Jeez those glasses are thick.
What are you trying to imply?

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Achilles @ May 20th 2009 9:06AM

I just noticed them!! LOL

Time to get yo geek on!!! I'm getting a Pre! Line or no line, I'm getting one on June 6th.

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CJ @ May 20th 2009 9:17AM

I like this strategy. A shortage may cause lines and all kinds of media attention as people fight for the phones. They proabably have enough, they're just saying that to create a bunch of buzz...

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aoi tsuki @ May 20th 2009 9:10AM

Shortages on early runs of a highly-anticipated device? You don't say...

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sweet greggo @ May 20th 2009 9:33AM

I just found out I'm a Sprint Preferred Customer, and therefore am eligible to get the Pre with all the discounts (even with a year left on my current contract).

That said, I still have no intention on getting the Pre on launch day, or any other phone with an unproven OS for that matter. I've learned my lesson with the Instinct.

Plus, the Touch Pro 2 is rumored to be released in mid-June, and that's the phone I've been eyeing for a while.

It's a mad crazy time in the cell phone world, fo sho.

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Achilles @ May 20th 2009 11:20AM

You prefer a WinMo phone?? Yikes! :)

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aoi tsuki @ May 20th 2009 12:01PM

@Achilles
What a lot of non-Windows Mobile users don't realize is that the platform is not only well-supported, but very flexible in terms of customization, at least compared to other popular mobile OSes out there. Yes, it takes some time to tweak and customize Windows Mobile to that point and that's definitely not for everyone.

i don't mean to knock the Pre or Web OS, but as sweet greggo said, it's unproven. (i would say using the Instinct as a reason not to jump on the unproven Pre is a pretty big stretch.) i'm still excited about the Pre, both as a device and what it means for Palm and the industry as a whole, but if the Pre and Touch Pro 2 were to launch on AT&T (my carrier) on the same day, i'd pick the Touch Pro 2 every time. i know what i'm getting with Windows Mobile, i know what works, and i don't have to play the waiting game waiting for developers to develop the apps i need for the Pre.

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sweet greggo @ May 20th 2009 12:27PM

I used the Instinct as an example because of my personal experience with it. I could have just as easily substituted "iPhone" or "BB Storm" and it still would have been relevent. None of these OSs had a smooth launch, so it's safe to assume that the Pre will have it's growing pains as well. Expanding on what aio tsuki said, it doesn't appear the Pre wil have near the issues the Instinct had. Then again you never know.

Of course that's not to say the TP2 won't have it's own issues. I'll be holding out for a couple of months no matter what and see how it plays out.

Neutral