Comments on: Sprint CEO: Expect Palm Pre shortages

Sprint CEO says that Palm Pre shortages are likely during the initial sales of the smartphone.

[dangolden]

Yes! althought I don't want to line up. I posted a request on craigslist to pay someone to camp out at a sprint store for me for $20 and a six pack of old style beer and had a bunch of takers....

[stevedice]

For the love of God Bonnie. Some of us have a life! Now if it were rolling stone tickets, i would camp out in line!!! LOL

[Meechyy]

Lol

[kentuckywildcats]

I will be lining up bright and early at best buy waiting for the stores to ope at 10am.

[Meechyy]

I will too! We are in the same city. We might both be there. But if it comes down to 2 the last 2 and its between you and me, your going down buddy! lol

[StennG]

They are all going to get sold on the fifth according to my Sprint buddy. Mountains of disappointments for people trying on the 6th.

[dashingemt]

I just pre (no pun intended) ordered mine from our corprate hub. 199 with no rebate yay! I cant wait to get my hands on this thing. But I will still keep my 8830 around until the 30 days are up on my return window...I have learned from the touch pro...cool looking doesnt always cool working!!!

[themrwhite]

CEO is trying to pump sales to make it sound like the Wii, "so much demand, we can't keep up" when in reality its done on purpose. That = Lame to me and I will stick with my iPhone, since the Pre is trying to copy the iPhone and will fail. The main reason is because no other phone has iTunes and its mobile app store. Sorry, but it's the truth and the turth hurts sometimes. Until another phone maker comes up with an "easy" way to get content from either the phone directly or a marketplace on the computer, they will fail. Some are trying but they just can't seem to get it right. Just like the Zune failed to capture any thing and they have a marketplace, it sucks, but they have one.

[bigsnorkel]

Really is that lamer than charging $600 for the Iphone then reducing the price one month later. Or how about the fact that there are always shortages whenever apple releases something what a pain.

The only difference is Steve Jobs is much smarter in that he doesn't announce that there will be shortages.

[Perry_Clease]

He is doing what he is supposed to do, make money for the company.

[shaunjohnson99]

How do you buy stuff from iTunes with the iPod? Because I can do it from my Zune as long as I have wifi. And the Zune marketplace is actually quite nice. The only thing that iTunes has they Zune doesn't is movies. But I really don't want to watch movies on a tiny screen.

[hustledetector]

Boy, you really drank the Apple Kool-Aid. There are so many more applications and places to get them (most are FREE) for the Palm devices than from the Apple "you have to buy from us" stores. I like the iPhone, but that's the biggest issue I have with Apple...once they have you they want to own you. The Palm devices allow to have choices, in applications (3RD PARTY APPLICATIONS!) and vendor from whom to obtain those applications. I don't need to BUY a ringtone from palm...with a FREE 3RD PARTY APPLICATION, I can take ANY mp3 and edit the length and portion of the song as a ringtone. I love Apple's creativity, but hate the way they try to control you.

Errr... hustler, who is drinking the kool-aid here? The app store has 40,000 applications, most of them free, most from 3rd parties.

You can create your own ringtones from anything in your iTunes (read:mp3) library, or with a free 3rd party ringtone editor from the App store. Keep up dude.

[Meechyy]

I agree with you. I don't even thank they did that with the iphone because the product sold itself and people would always want one no matter how many they had in stock

[DrtyDogg]

@Meechyy: They did do it with the 3G, one of my good friends works at ATT and told me they where getting daily shipments of a dozen iPhones, Now there where no shortages in this area, according to him it took a week to get through the initial shipment they received, but they still got more every day. Some stores around the country where seeing shortages, selling out in an hour from opening etc, for at least a week but the stores where it was selling well still only got the dozen or so iPhones every day, while many stores had 50 or so just hanging out in storage.

[RandomPsychology]

I want a Pre, but I am no lover of Sprint--so I'll be waiting till the phone comes to Verizon. That'll be the *real* launch!

[gigs727]

Why does everyone hate Sprint? I save $600/year on my Sprint family plan over AT&T. The coverage area is better than all the competitors, the 3G network is better and faster. Everyone says they hate Sprint but never give a good reason.

I returned my iPhone I received for Christmas when I heard about the pre so that I could stay with Sprint. I felt like I was being ripped off by AT&T, not to mention all the dropped calls I encountered during the two weeks with my iPhone. Gimme Sprint, and gimme the Pre.

[watchurbak21]

This is really in response to gigs727's comment
I live next to the Sprint World HQ in Kansas City, and i had sprint for 3 months. I , and others with sprint including employees and family of employees, have gotten so tired of the poor service even in the shadow of the HQ, that many(including me) have switched to AT&T and Verizon. And not to mention that by the end of the year Sprint will be behind Verizon and AT&T as they both boost their speeds and even release REAL 4g. I can't wait. Sorry to rain on ur Sprint Parade.

[JustNotEverybody]

People who think Verizon is better than Sprint are just bought and paid for by advertising. Verizon practically rapes you anyway they can and get away with it because (just like Apple) they have marketed that they are the dominant brand and instead of thinking for themselves, everyone just hops on board. Sprint had 3g five years ago, they are fully fiber optic, their pay structure for their employees pays most for customer service, they're pushing out 4g while Verizon is trying to catch up and install fiber optic cables all the while marketing that they're doing so and trying to convince you it's remarkable.

You're going to wait a long while to buy a phone with more expensive costs for less impressive speeds and features. If you still think Verizon is better, remember they are both CDMA networks and have a sharing agreement for towers. Why pay $160 a month when $99 is obviously the way to go?

[drmatt87]

Verizon $160 a month you have got to be Nuts... I have a Blackberry Storm with Unlimited Data, Txt, and 450min a month with Navigation for $85 a month but seriously Verizon rated #1 in customer service and are by a long shot the best provider in the US... Phone selection is lacking I'll Admit, but Sprint getting the Pre first is like scrubbing the deck chairs on the Titanic.... I bet Verizon has the Pre by the end of Summer and the Iphone when 4g rolls out... the I phone always belonged on Verizon... Heck even Apple would of rather had it there!

[sfoTechie]

@gigs727:
You want to know why people hate Sprint? If you have lousy phones coupled with horrible phone coverage and top it off with the worst customer service in the industry, you have the makings of a horrible cell phone provider. Their 3G network is absolutely pathetic and the performance is spotty at best. From what I see from your post you are either totally lucky or you work for Sprint and are trying to appear impartial.

Now Sprint's CEO is saying that they will expect shortages on Palm phones? Well normally that would be a shrewd marketing move, but Palm lost its recipe for good smartphone design years ago - I even told their executive staff that which fell on deaf ears. For as far as I am concerned, Sprint can have Palm - they both deserve each other.

Now don't get me wrong, I hate AT&T as well (Pacific Bell was a horrible wireless provider and I was ready to throw my phone out the window when I heard that they acquired AT&T wireless, a VASTLY superior provider in every way), but at least you can unlock their phones and use them abroad which you can't say for Sprint's lousy ones.

@watchurbak21:
I couldn't agree with you more. I used to work at Sprint and I dumped my phone and bought an AT&T Wireless one (pre-Pac Bell merger) which was infinitely better even out there. It stuns me that they can actually stay in business with such lousy QoS. Why can't they get their act together?

[sfoTechie]

@gigs727:
You want to know why people hate Sprint? If you have lousy phones coupled with horrible phone coverage and top it off with the worst customer service in the industry, you have the makings of a horrible cell phone provider. Their 3G network is absolutely pathetic and the performance is spotty at best. From what I see from your post you are either totally lucky or you work for Sprint and are trying to appear impartial.

Now Sprint's CEO is saying that they will expect shortages on Palm phones? Well normally that would be a shrewd marketing move, but Palm lost its recipe for good smartphone design years ago - I even told their executive staff that which fell on deaf ears. For as far as I am concerned, Sprint can have Palm - they both deserve each other.

Now don't get me wrong, I hate AT&T as well (Pacific Bell was a horrible wireless provider and I was ready to throw my phone out the window when I heard that they acquired AT&T wireless, a VASTLY superior provider in every way), but at least you can unlock their phones and use them abroad which you can't say for Sprint's lousy ones.

@watchurbak21:
I couldn't agree with you more. I used to work at Sprint and I dumped my phone and bought an AT&T Wireless one (pre-Pac Bell merger) which was infinitely better even out there. It stuns me that they can actually stay in business with such lousy QoS. Why can't they get their act together?

@JustNotEverybody:
People that bought Verizon know exactly what they are paying for - high quality service at a higher price point. While you are right that Sprint does sell its excess bandwidth to other providers like Verizon, it's like saying that a Toyota Echo is as good as a Lexus because they come from the same parent company. But hey, if you want to spend less money for a clearly lower end (and in my opinion, inferior) product go for it. I'll spend my money on a phone and a provider that actually works everywhere I have tried.

[djstewpac]

hahahha, sprint is winning the 4g race.

[StennG]

Sprint is not winning the $G race. They have been saying they will have nationwide deployment of 4G "within the year" since 2006. It is 2009 and they have two cities. Three years or broken promises. They have no money and 1/3 the contract customers that ATT or Verizon have. It is totally stalled. Why do you think the Pre has no 4G? Becasue it makes Sprint look bad to even mention it due to broken promises.

[A_ride_4_ever]

I did the same as the rior post just pre- ordered and paid for expadited shipping. I should have the phone day after launch and was told possible day of launch but not to depend on it. Thats all good beacuse I just re upded on my contract and got this HTC touch. what a piece of junk. I get to keep the junk for all the trouble I have had with it and get the Pre for the spec price.

[edtechlab]

It kind of looks homely as a machine next to the iPhone.

[VaPhil]

The delay in offering supply could be a strategy to observe the influence of the device on the network and get resources ahead of the curve, remembering the iPhone network problems at introduction and afterwards.

I will not purchase until offered on Verizon.

[johnqh]

No, it is NOT done on purpose.

Pre is not ready. They are fixing bugs until the last minute, so they don't have time to produce more.

Apple announced iPhone 1.0 six months before the release, loaned the prototypes to journalists during that period for reviews. Still, iPhone 1.0 had a lot of problems when released.

So far, the best hand-on reviews for Pre are from bloggers, and they had the phone for no more than a couple of hours.

I expect Pre to have a lot of bugs, and I wouldn't be surprised that if Palm only froze the design last week. The supply will be extremely limited. It is a release which is not decided by engineering readiness, but by marketing's desire to beat iPhone 3.0.

[darkpoet25]

The same can be said for any new device. The first few batches of a phone are sometimes still filled with bugs, not all, but a lot are. I hope that those who are first to get their Pre, new iPhone or whatever they want don't have to deal with that BS. I remember going through that when the Helio Ocean first came out. I waited about a month, and the one I got had to be reset several times.

[sellsw1711]

Do me a favor, please tell what if any source you have that you can tell us that they are fixing bugs. If you are in the IT industry please let us know. Please only comment on what you actually know about. If you have something concrete then comment. If not keep your posting to that of commenting on twenty year old nintendo games you probably own.

[doublebullout]

"Pre is not ready. They are fixing bugs until the last minute, so they don't have time to produce more."

Source? It is irresponsible to make this kind of comment without a source. If you're just speculating, that's fine -- but if this is just your opinion then clearly state so.

[massalo]

For the First month or two for sure while all the early adopters pick one or maybe two up but after that I think it will be word of mouth that makes it or breaks it for the Pre.

[myles taylor]

If there is any shortage, it will be intentional, since there is no good reason for there to be a shortage at this time. Does that mean they will run out and then have more a week later? It's several weeks away. They shouldn't do that; especially since there will be new iPhone announcements a few days later. People might get excited about that and not wait for the Pre.

[christovich79]

Bonnie, why didn't you mention the fact that Sprint Premium customers got invitations to VIP Parties the night before the launch, and that they get first dibs on purchasing the Palm Pre?

There are no rules in love or war or marketing.

[AndrewRich]

*Some* Sprint Premium customers. Plenty (including this one) did not.

[bimmin]

I better get my hands on the Pre the day it comes out. This will be my third Palm through Sprint.

[racqueteer]

"Some analysts say"... That's some hard-hitting reporting. I guarantee you they're not trying to artificially create demand via shortages. You'll find an analyst who will say just about anything, but that doesn't make them credible.

[myles taylor]

Well while that is true, it's also true that companies have been suspected of doing that and when you announce that there will be shortages of a product you have been planning for months three weeks before it even launches, it becomes suspicious.

[DrtyDogg]

It does look a little suspicious, or it looks like they are anticipating a demand higher than they supply they have already. Personally I don't think there is any excuse for a shortage other than unforseen success. But with the way they are promoting this phone they have to expect an large initial surge of interest and they should be prepared to deal with it.

[PoolMan126]

Of course I will be camping out for the Pre. We have waited a long time to get this new "Gadget of the Year". I can't wait.

Bonnie,

When are you getting one to review? I want to hear your feedback on the hot device!

[gerrrg]

There may NOT be as much of a demand as everyone thinks.

You still have to sign up for Sprint, so it's more likely that existing Sprint customers are going to buy this, than anyone else. Given how many subscribers left Sprint over the years, I'm just dumbfounded that people would flock to Sprint for a phone.

[bimmin]

You mean like how they did to ATT with their terrible data network for the iPhone ?

[NervClaX]

If they are expecting iPhone-like hype and free media coverage, they will be sadly disappointed. The reaction will be more like, "They still make Palmpilots?"

Seeing as how Palm hasn't been brave enough to allow anyone to review the Pre before launch, I fully expect the phone to be a buggy, unpleasant experience out of the box. Anyone who buys one of these before they can tell if it's any good or not, deserves to be ripped off. The term "early adopter" should be replaced with "Pre-mature buyer". I don't pre-order video games for the same reason. That's a lot of money and a long commitment for most people to spend on an untested piece of tech.

[mfenix]

yea, booooo for making money!

[neen001]

Bonnie-

Will Sprint be giving you and other media Editors the Pre before the release date to review?

[Blake1530a]

If I detect even a wiff that Sprint or Palm are holding down phones, Apple here I come

[Meechyy]

I here ya

[sevort]

Sprint sucks, Pre or not. I don't see anybody switching to Sprint just to get Pre. Oh, and the name Pre sucks too.

[seven7dust]

yup I've been thinking the same wats with the name it's lame as hell !

[Meechyy]

The name Pre, yea it may sound silly. But the whole saying that Sprint sucks is just an opinion. I don't have any complaints with Sprint. I pay 70 bucks a month and I get fast internet, unlimted text and night and weekend start at 7pm. Name another carrier that can beat that? Not ATT charges 40 bucks just for internet alone, text is 20, o and lets not forget minutes, Thanks another 60, 70 or more bucks. Consider that when you say sprint sucks. You suck

[sharmajunior]

Exactly my point as well. Sprint sucks! Why would anyone want to go to a crappy network to get a decent phone.
I say decent phone because I haven't seen nor tested the Pre in person. In my opinion Palm made a bad choice. perhaps they could have launched it on a different network. Now if it is locked in to the carrier like AT&T and Apple...then Palm is screwed.