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Palm Sells 150,000 Pres

In the three weeks since its release, Palm is estimated to have sold 150,000 Pres. There is still a bit of a backlog and strong demand, but it seems there is a steady supply of new devices keeping the waiting lists relatively short.

CNNMoney reports on RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky's analysis of the Palm Pre and its sales figures. Each week Palm has sold about 50,000 of the Pres, which indicates to me that people are generally pleased with the units and positive reviews are encouraging a steady stream of new buyers. Sprint stores are getting daily replenishments in, but it isn't enough to satisfy demand.

In the report Abramsky predicts that Palm will introduce a $99 model before the end of this year. That makes sense given the 8GB Apple 3G can now be had from AT&T for $99, half the price of the $199 Pre. Actually, the Pre is $299 and there is a $100 mail in rebate.

Despite the good numbers for Palm, it is still being trounced by the iPhone, which has sold one million 3GS devices in its first three days. That directly contradicts Elevation Partner Roger McNamee's prediction that the iPhone would essentially die when the Pre was released. Elevation Partner is a major shareholder of Palm's stock.

June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later. Think about it -- if you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market. Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they're going to buy.

Well Roger, looks like they are going to by the iPhone. Still, for a new device with a new OS from a company that many had just about given up for dead, the Pre had had a very respectable showing thus far.

There is a chart at the bottom of the report that compares demand for the Apple iPhone, Blackberry devices and Palm devices going back to 2006. Palm has risen from an all time low of 1% of respondents wanting a Palm device in December of 2008 to 8% last week. I think the chart speaks volumes in what platform isn't even shown. I'll give you a hint. It starts with a "W" and ends with a "indows Mobile."

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