The Pre Is Palm’s Last Chance

Marguerite Reardon, reporting for CNet:

Palm announced big losses for its fiscal fourth quarter, the last quarter before its hot new smartphone hit the market, but executives see the Pre as the key to its turnaround.

CEO Jon Rubinstein said Thursday during the company’s earnings conference call that sales of the Palm Pre, which hit the market on June 6, have been “strong and growing.” He didn’t give exact sales figures for the device, which has a touch screen and uses a new operating system call WebOS, but he added that he “couldn’t be happier with our launch.” Analysts estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 Pres were sold in the first few days that the device was available.

The reason it’s important that the Pre succeeds is so the mobile market doesn’t wind up like the desktop market — with just one single great experience, alone in a sea of crap.

★ Friday, 26 June 2009