The recently leaked Pre launch guide has set Palm fans atwitter, ready to get their paws on one the minute the phone launches. That is, if Sprint will let them.
In what I find to be the most interesting page (11 if you’re keeping track) of the launch missive, Sprint lays down a heavy warning: “We can’t afford to sell the Pre to the wrong customers.” My knee jerk reaction sounds a lot like “no shit,” especially considering the rumors of a tiny launch stock. But Palm means more than senior citizens and paraplegics. So who is the wrong customer, and why don’t they deserve a Pre?
According to Palm, the wrong customers are the IT business users. The folks who need to run applications. The people with strict mobile device security protocols. A lot of the same people who really want the device. But when those people set foot in a Sprint Store on June 6th, Sprint reps are advised to try to sell them the Treo Pro. This makes sense. Salespeople are there to identify your needs, and then sell you a product to meet or exceed those needs (preferably at atmospheric price points). So why sell you the Pre when it falls short? You should get the phone you need, right?
Right. The Pre isn’t the phone you need. It’s right there in company literature, just mangled and twisted to make it sound like the customer’s wrong, instead of the phone. Make no mistake, though, it’s the phone, and the Pre is going to miss the mark on launch day and probably fade out of existence before long. I’m not talking to you, the individual user who might love Palm’s new features and developer-friendly OS. I’m talking about market share, which is what Palm needs to stay solvent. The Pre was the device to release before Apple sold 20 million iPhones. Before the app store sold a billion apps. Then the Pre could have been Palm’s savior, instead its dying breath.
It’s not that the Pre isn’t a great device. From the hardware to the software, the smooth OS to an overall excellent user experience the Pre is a great device, it’s just the wrong device, and it could be Palm’s last. If the Pre fails to gain significant ground and fast, there’s little hope for a financially stable Palm in the near future.
A research firm called Interpret recently did a study concerning smartphone purchase habits among consumers and found that getting phones into people’s heads makes a big difference. It’s not easy, though. In fact, Palm’s Pre and the iPhone 3GS are the only smartphones to have struck the balance between smart features, the cool factor, and increased productivity in a way that got people talking. Blackberry just didn’t make the cut.
