The Palm Pre is Dead On Arrival, according to financial advice website The Motley Fool. Citing a new survey, the Fool claims that Palm’s prediction of the number of users who will switch to the new phone is overambitious.
The Palm Pre was the subject of claims by Palm investor Roger McNamee that all the people who signed up for the version 1.0 iPhone would switch to the Palm Pre as soon as their contracts expired – a claim that Palm had to quickly retract.
Citing a survey of 4,292 smartphone users by ChangeWave Research, finance experts The Motley Fool say this retraction was dead on – only 4% of those surveyed said they planned to ditch their current smartphone of choice for the Palm Pre and only a piddling 1% of iPhone users said they would make the switch.
Although some respondents were enthusiastic about the Palm Pre’s features and webOS operating system, the phone may also be let down in the US by Palm’s exclusive deal with mobile carrier Sprint. “The iPhone was bigger than AT&T; the Pre is apparently smaller than Sprint,” as the Fool put it.
If this survey is representative of the entire smartphone market, 37% of people would like a BlackBerry, while 30% want an iPhone. this leaves the Palm Pre to duke it out with Nokia and the various Android peddlers for the rest of the pie. Not exactly last place, but far from where Palm wants to be.
Is the Palm Pre a dead duck? Let us know in the comments if you plan to pick one up.
TBC | £tbc | Palm, Motley Fool
