No Smooth Sailing Ahead For Palm Pre
Before getting behind the Palm Eos, which has been widely reported as the follow-up to the Pre, and the second Palm device that will feature its new webOS mobile operating system, analysts said Palm should focus on the Pre's launch. Analysts fear the Palm Pre may not make the splash that Palm is hoping.
According to Pre-focused blog MyPre.com, Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar said the Pre is plagued with production issues and consumer apathy toward Sprint, the Pre's exclusive carrier. Those forces will result in a less-than-stellar launch for the Pre, which Palm has promised to release in the first half of this year.
Kumar claims that Palm has "drastically reduced its production orders" for the Pre and that the company is battling "multiple hardware and software issues," MyPre reported. Kumar noted that it's "highly unrealistic" that Palm would meet its self-set goal of shipping 1 million Pres by the end of 2009.
Another factor that could thwart the Palm Pre's dominance is its Sprint exclusivity. Kumar said it is unlikely that AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers will switch to Sprint strictly for the device.
Palm unveiled the Pre, a Sprint-exclusive smartphone and the first to feature webOS as its operating system, at CES in January as the struggling smartphone maker's answer to the Apple iPhone 3G and other hot touch-screen devices like the BlackBerry Storm.
Palm is putting a lot of weight on the Pre, hoping the new smartphone will help it reverse its slumping revenue and dramatic quarterly losses.
The 3G Pre offers a large 3.1-inch touch screen with a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It also uses a new technology dubbed Palm Synergy, which converges contacts into a single address book from various sources such as Gmail, Outlook and Facebook. In addition, the Pre can run several applications at once without requiring users to log out of one to work in another.
Other features of the Palm Pre include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, 8 GB of memory and a 3.0-megapixel camera with an LED flash. While the price of the Palm Pre has yet to be revealed, Palm and Sprint did highlight the cost of voice and data plans for the device.
Kumar's analysis of the Pre comes as the smartphone market eagerly awaits its release, and rumors swirl that Palm is already preparing its successor with the Palm Eos, a scaled down, or "mini" Pre.
According to several popular gadget blogs, the Palm Eos is a candy bar form-factor successor to the Pre, which will run 10.6mm thick and feature a 2.63-inch display. The device is expected to offer quad band GSM/HSDPA with 4 GB of memory and a 2-megapixel camera. The Palm Eos, which will run the webOS operating system, is not expected to feature a slide-out keyboard, one of the key features of the Pre.
The Eos is expected to come to AT&T in the fall and hit a $99 price point after rebates and with a service contract.