If you want a Palm Pre, you may want to go get it this Saturday. Sprint's president of business market groups, Paget Alves, said today that "there will not be shortages immediately, but eventually this product will end up being constrained" - that's sales-speak for stores running out before they're resupplied.
"This is like the [Nintendo] Wii for us," Alves said.
We've been hearing contradictory things about Palm Pre shortages for the past few weeks; a few weeks ago, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse gave a dire prediction of shortages of units.
Alves' assessment was more nuanced. He said that any shortages will clear up "sooner" than "months," and that Sprint is distributing devices to stores based on sales volume. He declined to predict exactly when the shortages would ease up, or how many Pres Sprint would sell.
"You can't predict when the constraints will lift. It's just a function of finding that intersection point between supply and demand," he said.
Customers who aren't able to pick up a Pre will be able to sign up on a waiting list online to be informed when it's available at their nearest store, Alves said.
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June 5, 2009 1:30 PM
Ok. So lets see if I read this correctly. Palm thought that it could get 'Wii-worthy' demand if it said it would have a shortage of units available. Palm addicts bemoan in distress, many of whom really want the Pre, but can still do with their current Treos and Centros. So they decide, 'fine, I'll wait a month when they get more in-stock and buy it then'. Palm realizes what is about to happen because they know that they won't exactly have the demand that the iPhone had when it launched, so it quickly comes out with a post that 'you need to buy it now or you won't get it, even in a few months!', because now they realize that people, like me, who really do want to buy this phone, would rather not camp out in front of a store if they don't have too, and would rather wait to buy one when the hoopla wears down and the kinks work themselves out. How sad is this?! I really do want this phone. I saved $300 bucks to get it. I heard that I wouldn't get it on the first day. I spent the $300 on something else cause I wasn't gonna be a retard and stand outside a store in a long line all day to get a freakin phone. Palm screwed up and realized that they probably won't get that first day sell out they were banking on because of misstepped marketing, and they suddenly 'have enough units for release day'. Whatever. Look, Palm... If I hate the iPhone because I happen to be a Palm-addict, then I already proved that I can wait a very long time for you to get your act straight and come out with a suitable competitor against the iPhone. Why would you think that the smartminded people who buy Palm phones would camp out like mindless retards (iPhone fanboys) to buy a phone that we already know won't have all the bells and whistles of the iPhone (gaming, better battery life, etc...). And for you Apple fanboys who are offended by this post, sorry that I generalized you all as retards, but the shear number of iPhone sales suggests that there are more mindless hoards of people that buy the iPhone because it is gimmicky, rather than because it is a great phone, whereas Palm fans know that Apple is just another proprietary monopolizing money hungary giant that preys on the simple minded. Let alone that for all the talk about Sprint being soooo baaaad, AT&T is owned by almost every other friend I have and they all seem to need to constantly use their work's landline to call me because they keep having bad connections or not enough minutes because they don't want to give blood just to use the phone. Never had a problem with Sprint. Customer service does suck, as all outsourced customer service does, but the call quality and internet has always been great. Too bad I won't be able to use the Pre on it for most likely the next 3 or 4 months. Maybe Verizon doesn't look so bad now....
June 5, 2009 7:09 PM
Wall of Text crits you for 9999 (critical). You die.
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