Expectations for Palm’s newest smartphone proved too high to meet. In the days after the Pre went on sale on June 6, shoppers complained of shortages. Investors fretted that sales may suffer unless Palm does a better job of supplying handsets amid a fierce rivalry with Apple, which on June 8 cut the price of its iPhone.
Jen Resnick, a 44-year-old acupuncturist from Brooklyn, N.Y., embodies those concerns. By the time she stopped at a Sprint Nextel store in Manhattan on June 8, the Pre had been sold out for two days. “It makes me [want to] consider the iPhone instead,” Resnick says.
Would-be Pre owners across the U.S. faced similar disappointment as they visited stores owned by Sprint, expected to be the exclusive Pre carrier through yearend. The Pre is also being sold through Radio Shack and Best Buy stores. In Portland, Ore., one Sprint store sold its initial shipment of 30 phones in the first 20 minutes. The supply hadn’t been replenished as of June 8.
New phones may not arrive in major metropolitan areas until June 15, says UBS analyst Maynard Um. “I’d been waiting for a long time,” said Elizabeth Wisker, a 23-year-old student in New York. Like many other disappointed customers, Wisker added her name to a waiting list for the Pre. As of June 8, 10,000 to 15,000 people joined such lists nationwide, analysts estimate. Auction site eBay listed nearly 100 Palm Pre devices for sale, going for $455 to $700, often without a Sprint contract. Sprint offers the Pre for $200 after a mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract. The wireless carrier sells the device for $550 without a contract.
Analysts estimate that 45,000 to 55,000 Pre units were sold the first weekend. Sprint says the Pre beat all of its earlier records for a first…