Sprint’s CEO thinks there will be a Pre shortage, decides not to take advantage
And so it begins. Not even 24 hours after the Palm Pre announcement, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse assumed the roll of Buzz Killington when he explained Sprint’s lack of high-visibility Pre advertising to investors. According to Hesse, Sprint “didn’t intend to advertise [the Pre] heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while” and that it “won’t be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.” Okay, so let’s get this straight. Sprint didn’t heavily advertise the Palm Pre — the handset that is supposed to turn things around for the company — because Hesse & Co. are afraid of pissing people off if they might have to wait a few weeks for their phones to arrive? Hesse, buddy, shortages can often be an amazing way to pique the general public’s interest. It worked with the first iPhone, it worked with the Storm and it sure as hell worked with the Wii. It won’t work for the Pre however, if no one knows the handset exists. Ugh.
Epic fail. And you’re surprised?
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: North Olmsted United States
@mikemick – Great point. Coincidentally, I just noticed a Pre ad on this very (budget-busting BGR) blog!
The “how” is pretty obvious in the ad. Sprint is apparently causing buzz by talking about all the buzz it’s caused.
Why are you guys so tough on the Pre, at least it has Copy paste.
BTW @ richie GM. How you doin’?
Hey Joe, wats going on bro
Hey Joe, seems like everyone here is bashing Sprint & Hesse for a insane decision.
Yet another reason Sprint is circling the drain.
@ Joe
I really dont understand what the big deal is about copy/paste on a smartphone. Do people really use it that much for it to be a big deal. If people are typing that much on their smartphone than I think they need a laptop instead. There is no excuse why the Pre wasnt released earlier than this to take advantage of the initial buzz.
Also, now Sprint left themselves open to people running out and getting a Pre on the 6th, then when/if new iphones are announced at WWDC, those Pres that were purchased at launch will be returned withing the 14 day evalution period in order to get the iphone. Thats what I would do.
Sprint has been on the downhill slide since they took over Nextel. I would not have spring service on a bet! But here I am forced to deal with them. My cell bill is no less than 200.00 a month and thats with the everything plan for $99.00. Upgrade a new phone and voila’ you are billed for 2 months plus the cost of the phone that was supposed to be discounted! Sprint is a joke…. please give me back my Nextel! ….anyone help me pay this 545.00 cell bill before my account is closed????
Copy and paste is a vital feature on any smart phone in today’s environment. There are countless uses for it but just to name a few that I use regularly on my Blackberry. A friend of mine gets a new telephone number and sends out a mass message with their new number. I copy that number out of the message in paste it under their name in the address book. Or I find out that a friend of mine has gotten a blackberry so I copy and paste my pin into an sms message that I send to them. Or I want to quote part of an email so I copy and paste only the portion I want into the new email. Another advantage is that I am able to copy and paste events into my calendar as well as people’s contact info that they list at the bottom of their email message. There is actually now an application that will automatically grab that info to create an event or address book entry but if a person just updates specific pieces of info, copy and paste works perfectly. Copy and paste just makes life easier and those who say you don’t need it 9/10 times own an iPhone and are just trying to defend it. I personally had an iPhone 3G that I though was great but I am looking forward to the Pre because I think that it combines the best of what Blackberry and Apple offer from their products. Only time will tell if it is truly an upgrade from my current Blackberry though.
@ Levell
I too think copy-paste is crucial in any smartphone, I use it on a daily basis. For your one example though, you don’t need to copy and paste your pin . . . just type “mypin” and the BlackBerry will replace it with your pin. This also works for “mynumber” and some others that I can’t remember right now. Just thought I would let you know for future reference . . .
Why is it that any objective discussion about a company or product which is critical gets slammed as hate? Is that the best and only response some can come up with?
There are just as many trolls pumping up a company or product here as there are purposely negative trolls. They cancel each other out. But there are some facts that remain that go beyond trolling and deserve to be discussed with respect.
Actually the reason hesse won’t have a Pre is because he uses AT&T in order to get coverage.
@ doug
@ level
@ bb
you right, until you actually use the feature, you wont understand it.
to just add to the fine examples written above, there is another one.
you find a good article in the web, you need a small portion of it, good paragraph, sentence, what have you, 123 copy, paste, fire off an IM, Email, SMS.
its so much more productive, to this day i cant figure out why the i_phone is not having it
The Pre is a new device with a revolutionary new and excellent OS. It comes from a company, Palm, known to have buggy devices in the past. I suspect there will be growing pains for early adopters, but it looks to be one helluva good device.
I think Sprint’s decision to hold off and ramp up advertising will be fine. They will sell out, then advertise as production catches up to demand–which will be substantial.
Copy/pate is vital. I use it every day and the iPhone was automatically disqualified for me because of that. The inclusion of copy/cut/paste and push email for the iPhone 3.0 finally brings it into the realm of possibilities for me. But, I may hold off of both the tempting Pre (Sprint is not good for me) and the improved iPhone and take a look at the BlackBerry Magnum on AT&T and Storm 2 (traditional touchscreen) on Verizon. But the Palm Pre is definitely the phone of the year imho.
I think in the beginning the phone will sell based on the hype. Over time, sales will slow. Palm has a tarnished name, Sprint has a tarnished name and I don’t think they will win any Blackberry or iPhone users away from their current devices or carriers. Advertising is expensive; does either Sprint or Palm have the extra cash for it? Both their credit ratings have been downgraded to basically junk by Standard & Poor so I don’t see the investors lining up with checks in hand… Just my opinion.
With that stooge at the helm, it’s no wonder those fools are being sucked into bankruptcy. Good luck Sprint users!
@bb
The problem with using the shortcuts to get your pin is that that feature only works in PIN messages, email messages, blackberry messenger, gchat, and other messaging services but not in sms messages, so I would have to copy and paste the pin anway. But another shortcut is to type “myver” and that will give you your Blackberry model number and the OS you are running.
After horrible traffic on the I-10 coming into work cuz some dumbass drove down the freeway the wrong way, this has made me laugh so hard this morning. Thank you Sprint for making it possible to set yourself up for failure even after getting what should be a great device! lol
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Tempe United States
The pre isn’t sprint savior its palms. Sprint did better this last quarter without a savior phone. Sprints savior phone will be a andriod phone with 4g. Google is just not gonna put money in wimax and not have sprints andriod phone not be 4g.
I think this is all an act by Sprint to generate more hype. Someone woke up this morning and thought how can we generate even more free advertising?…Lets release a statement saying we are not going advertise the Pre becasue there will be a shortage and we don’t want people to be mad. All this knowing damn well that they have plenty ready to go and more on the way. Also if the 300,000 number is real I would bet that it is only one sales channel with the sales channel being the indirect side. I will know for sure next week since we (Brightpoint) will start receiving them in next week from Sprint.
I think this is all an act by Sprint to generate more hype. Someone woke up this morning and thought how can we generate even more free advertising?…Lets release a statement saying we are not going advertise the Pre becasue there will be a shortage and we don’t want people to be mad. All this knowing damn well that they have plenty ready to go and more on the way. Also if the 300,000 number is real I would bet that it is only one sales channel with the sales channel being the indirect side. I will know for sure next week since we (Brightpoint) will start receiving them in next week from Sprint.
@ Scott – HaHaHa.. I was stuck in the same traffic mess… Say, you were not the guy in the late model Silver Honda Accord vigorously shaking what appeared to be an iPhone were you? That guy looked pissed, must have dropped a call…
you all are taking this way too seriously, if the phone is a hit it will sell. all these fail comments have very little merit at this point because it’s not out
@Davie1999
Nah, that wasn’t me. I got off that pos as soon as I could and then all the side streets were back up anyway. I went from a 15min drive to work to a 90min drive to work. I did get a call though… But I didn’t drop it
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Tempe United States
last!