Palm Pre News Bits
The Palm Pre is still sitting in my pocket right now, waiting to serve my every communications need. Less than a month since the launch, the Pre is in the news daily with interest in the WebOS-based smartphone still high. Here is a little roundup of Pre news floating around the web:
GSM Palm Pre spotted in Vietnam. Palm has always said it will produce a GSM version of the Pre to address non-CDMA markets. A Pre with a SIM card appeared on the web proving that what we knew all along is true.
UK Pre Announcement to come next week. That would be the GSM version we knew was coming, and Palm has confirmed the announcement. We’ll have to wait and see what it says for an actual date for the UK launch (sound familiar?).
Palm has sold 370,000 devices so far. Barron’s is reporting that Palm sold 70,000 Pres in May and over 300,000 units in June. The analyst reports that Palm is producing 15,000 units a day and will deliver over 1 million to Sprint in the first quarter.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
I thought the Pre went on sale in June? Wonder what this means. Are they just totally confused and wrong, or is this sales to someone like Best Buy.
@DaveZatz… Pre-sales (pun intended).
That’s to retailers I’m sure.
I guess you forgot to mention all the articles about them falling apart on people.
Nope, we’ve never mentioned this: http://jkontherun.com/2009/06/29/palm-pre-build-quality-issues-continue-to-slide-out/ ;)
We already covered that ourselves. My Pre is still fine.
I own a pre and I have no problems so far its been 3weeks
thats because Kevin, James, Miquel are not Apple zealots charging the PreCentral forums making up bogus claims. i swear if i have to see 1 more “3 post” “member” claiming to have problems i’ll puke.
so tell me, with these alarming failure rates, where are all of the HIGH profile people talking about returning their Pre’s?
believe what you read on the internet from unverified individuals with a grain of salt.
Is it just me or was there not someone in your roundup podcast who had a defective screen/slider mechanism?
@Reter
I think its great that many do not have any problems with their Pres.but that is not to say that the problem doesn’t exist and that we shouldn’t listen to anyone who is talking about this problem.
Alan, you are correct. Matt Miller felt that the screen had too much wiggle room on his particular unit.
Hopefully together with the UK version they are also going to offer developers an unlocked (=pricey, of course) GSM version. Certainly would get this iPhone owner’s attention. And maybe also many “homebrew” iPhone developers who don’t want a second plan, but would love to develop for the Pre.
The build quality issue is getting ugly. Word needs to get out to Palm. Wobbly screens……Just got my Pre and sure enough, wobbly screen.
This is a news story to watch. I think we will hear more of this …
Take a run to PreCentral and read the forums. Some are on their 3rd replacement.What a shame
Folks are opening the units up themselves and performing self hacks to rectify. Here is the link
http://forums.precentral.net/hardware-use-trouble-shooting/187635-real-final-fix-pre-wobble.html
I have a pre, all ok so far.
I came from a candybar phone (Motorola Q9c) so the slider concept is new to me. There is a small amount of wiggle in my Pre, but I’m ok with that as I imagined no phone with 2 moving parts would really have the solid structural integrity of a one-piece phone.
Can anyone would any experience with other sliders comment on this? Part of me assumes that some of the complainers have unjustified expectations but I have no first hand knowledge of comparable options.