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Hesse: Three months to tell if Pre is a success
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Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said it will take around three months for the carrier to know how well the Palm Pre is doing in the market.
"It will probably take about three months before we know," Hesse said in a recent interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Early on, it will sell like crazy. The real issue is what kind of legs it will have after the initial euphoria." Hesse reiterated what he said when Sprint first announced the June 6 launch date of the Pre: it is a smartphone that blends the consumer aspects of Apple's iPhone with the enterprise powers of Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices.
Pressure remains intense for Sprint and Palm to deliver a hit. "They really do need something to establish themselves in the market," Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen told the Associated Press. "If you want to continue playing with the big boys, you need a big product."
Kevin Dulaney, another Gartner analyst, told the AP that he expects Palm to sell around 1 million Pre units in 2009 and 4 to 5 million in 2010. Sprint will have exclusive U.S. rights to the Pre through 2009. By comparison, Apple sold 6 million units of the original iPhone in its first 11 months on the market before upgrading to the iPhone 3G.
For more:
- see this article
- see this AP article
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Comments
Posted by Rob Oakes | June 3, 2009 - 12:02pm
I think Gartner is underestimating the number of Pre units that will be sold in 2009. I wouldn't be surprised to see 2 million units sold this year and twice that many when it debuts on AT&T/Verizon early next year.
Posted by Anonymous | June 3, 2009 - 1:38pm
I agree... I think Sprint will sell more because of the up front subsidy being applied. The iPhone was not subsidies initial and pulled 1 million, so the Pre with subsidies will garner a lot more, also, Sprint has less credit score requirements for customers.
Posted by SPRINT RANT | June 3, 2009 - 2:37pm
DAN HESSE NEEDS FOCUS ON WHY THE OKLAHOMA CALL CENTER ARE FUDGING THEIR STATS AND FIRING EMPLOYEES!!!DAN HESSE NEEDS TO FOCUS ON HOW OKLAHOMA CITY CALL VIOLATING PEOPLE CIVIL RIGHTS & THE DIRECTOR,MANAGERS, & TEAM LEADS & H.R. ARE BULLYING PEOPLE OUT OF JOBS AND FALSIFYING STATS AND CHEATING THE SYSTEM!!!PEOPLE HAVE BEEN WRONGFULLY TERMINATED AND LIVES HAVE BEEN AFFECTED DUE TO SPRINT/NEXTEL EVIL WAYS!!!DAN HESSE NEEDS TO WORRY ABOUT ALL THE CROOKED PEOPLE HE HAS WORKING UNDER HIM!!!DAN HESSE AND SPRINT SHOULD NOT MOVE FORWARD UNTIL THEY FIGURE OUT WHATS GOING ON AT SPRINT IN OKLAHOMA CITY!!! WE HAVE NO ONE TO HELP US AND SPRINT FIRING EMPLOYEES LEFT AND RIGHT AND HIRING A LOT OF NEW HIRES!!!THE STRESS LEVEL IS OFF THE CHARTS, PEOPLE HAVING HEART ATTACKS STROKES, PANIC ATTACK, FEAR ETC...THE AMBULANCE PICKING UP PEOPLE ALL THE TIME FROM THE CALL CENTER!!!PEOPLE ARE SCARED TO SPEAK UP, BECAUSE THEY HAVE FAMILIES AND NEED THE MONEY!!!BUT I WAS 1 OF MAN THAT IS SPEAKING UP AND ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO DO THE SAME!!!DAN HESSE HAS BIGGER FISH TO FRY IN THE OKLAHOMA CITY CALL CENTER!!!IT'S A NIGHTMARE AND ALL MANAGERS, DIRECTOR, H.R. & MISSION CONTROL SHOULD BE FIRED OR REPLACED!!!WHAT HAPPEN SPRINT GIVING A DAMN ABOUT THEIR EMPLOYEES, DAN HESSE??? YOU DON'T CARE AND DON'T WRITE A POLITICAL SPEECH SAYING YOU DO!!! CAUSE THERE ARE MANY THAT HAS LOST THEIR JOBS BEHIND THE FOOLISHNESS YOUR COMPANY IS PULLING.OKLAHOMA CAL CENTER IS THE DEVILS WORKSHOP!!!I LOVED MY JOB IT WAS THE MANAGEMENT & THEIR BULLYING TACTICS & UNREASONABLE TIME LIMITS TO RESOLVE THE CUSTOMERS ISSUE!!!HEY DAN EVEN PEOPLE THAT VISITED THE OKLAHOMA CITY CALL CENTER EVEN SAID "THESE PEOPLE ARE RUNNING THEIR OWN AGENDAS AND WE DON'T HAVE THIS KIND OF STRESS AT OUR CALL CENTER!!!DAN HESSE WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO??? DAN HESSE FIND OUT AND CORRECT THE PROBLEM OR ARE YOU GOING SIT BACK AND KEEP ALLOWING ABUSE??? ALL OF ARE STICKING TOGETHER AND ANY LAWYER THAT WANT TO TAKE OUR CASE LEAVE A NUMBER!!!
Posted by Anonymous | June 3, 2009 - 4:14pm
It may be fine to speculate on the initial sales pf the Pre based on what has been seen so far. But it's impossible to speculate any farther than the beginning of 2010. While I can't wait to get a Palm Pre and play with it's new OS, the success will only come if there are really cool applications developed for it.
Apple and AT&T's iPhone success is 90% based on the applications available. Without those apps, the iPhone would just be another smartphone.
Let's all hope developers find the Palm Pre OS easy to work with!
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