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Tuesday May 19, 2009
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 Is Sprint already screwing up the Palm Pre launch? Or is this some sort of
attempt to manage high expectations? Sprint CEO Dan Hesse threw a big bucket of water over everyone's expectations for June 6th at an investor conference today, when he said that Sprint won't embark on a major advertising campaign for the Pre, and expects to run out of units.
"We don't intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while," Hesse said according to Reuters. "We won't be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time."
Sprint spokesman Mark Elliott added, "We expect this to be a popular device, high in demand and we're very excited about the launch. There has been a lot of buzz built around this unique device from Palm and Sprint."
Hesse's downplaying goes against the signals I've been seeing from Sprint and Palm, but Hesse's the CEO, so he probably knows best.
Sprint has been featuring the Pre in every ad they've run for weeks, they have a big Pre banner up on their Web site, and they're introducing the phone at a wide range of retailers, which I would think would mean they have plenty of units to spread around. Also, this launch is the biggest thing either Sprint or Palm have seen in a while, so you'd think they'd want to have enough Pres for everyone.
We'll see on June 6th, when the Pre hits the market for $199.99 after rebates.
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May 21, 2009 1:04 PM
Ummm, so you expect shortages, then advertise the heck out of it.
Worked for the Wii and the iPhone, people see the ads and go to look at them, but there are none there, so they think "this thing MUST be great, I have to get one!"
Unless Palm does it the way Apple does where most commercials from the iPhone are from Apple, not the cell companies, could be another nail in the Palm coffin if it does not advertise.