Best Buy stores only getting 4 Palm Pres for launch day?
“Whoa, whoa, easy there killer.” That’s probably one of the phrases coming out of your mouth at the moment. One of our most-trusty of ninjas just dropped this bomb in our mailbox — it’s going to be rough out there on June 6th, folks. We’ve been told that there are only roughly 4,250 Palm Pres that Best Buy stores will be receiving for launch day on June 6th. Scott Anderson of Best Buy Mobile told us there were around 1,000 Best Buy locations that would be selling the Pre, so this leaves us with around 4 units per store. For launch. Incredible, isn’t it?
If it makes you feel any better, we’ve heard Palm executives have already started sliting their wrists.
Thanks, fishman!
UPDATE: We just got word from a RadioShack ninja that 721 RadioShack stores will carry the Pre on launch day. Our guy guessed each store would get around 2 units each and the stores themselves are limited to high coastal areas like New York, New Jersey, California, Miami, Texas, etc.
Not. Good.
@BlackBerry Bold,
I honestly think though, that BGRs source is incorrect with this one. I am pretty sure there will be more units than that. Pre will be very successful, but its limitations in software will keep it from being as successful as BlackBerry or iPhone.
kenny817 Said:
I still don’t get why people bash Sprint. Most of you have never had them as a carrier. Fuckin sheep I swear
I know, Kenny. I’ve always been a Sprint customer. Had no problems, whatsoever. Great service and coverage. I know more than a few people who parrot “Sprint sucks” just because they’ve heard others say it.
@ron,
Wow, more ignorance. Palm did NOT invent the Smartphone. The first PDA was by Psion. The first smartphone was Simon, which was shown at COMDEX in 1992. Nokia had the communicator in 1996. Handspring released the first Palm based phone in 2002 by releasing VisorPhone, a plug in unit for the Handspring visor. So no, Palm did NOT invent the smartphone.
@Christopher Cox
couldnt have said it better myself buddy (:
@Ron,
Hell, even the first Palm based PDA that could make phone calls was not made by Palm. It took Handspring to show the world that a palm based phone was possible.
And, I am here because I am a general gadget fanatic. I am very interested in the Pre, just like I love BlackBerry and my iPhone. The ONLY mobile platform I dislike is Windows Mobile.
@joshua,
Just educating the people Joshua … just educating the people. LOL
Don’t worry folks. Their doing you a favor by not stocking enough. When you hear how average this device is you are going to be elated. Really wait and see how this thing operates in the real world. Don’t rush out like the BB Storm buyers, just to get a crappy device.
Good to see ya in here today Chris! Ron is calling us fanboys. lol People like him actually make my day better by giving me a few laughs!
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: Chandler United States
@Scott,
Likewise! Yeah, I love to have a good conversation about technology, but it became obvious he knows nothing when he said Palm invented smartphones. I seriously laughed hard when I read that. LOL
I’m not here to bash Pre … it will be a great phone, just not what it is hyped to be.
looking at palms history of apps ill stick with windows. I did want the pre but reviews didn’t show me anything ill wait for the htc touch pro 2.
In my 12 year experience with Sprint, its store employees are the least knowlegable there are. They get no traiing on phones and when they do it is in sales pitches, not features.
I literally dread having to go into a store, they are rude and generally one rung below McDonalds employees in IQ.
I read one Sprint employee talking about needing to get the Pre “activated properly” in a Sprint store by trained people. WTF?
I suggest people consider that false information when considering the quality of Sprint “training.” Training alll right: Training in hard sell complete with misinformation.
The fact is if Sprint or Best Buy makes a mistake on your plan, and the chances are much higher with Sprint, Sprint will fix it.
The fact is you don’t need to do anything special for instore activation. All Sprint phones can be activated by the user. The Pre may be required by BOTH Sprint and BestBuy to be activated (which is a 100% automated proces by MSID) to reduce turnover to ebay due to what is either a Sprint monster cack up with supply issues or a monster fake shortage to hype the phone. Niether are good signs.
I have bought about 20 phones at Sprint and 15 at Best Buy. Best buy has never screwed up once and Spritn screws up half the time.
I don’t work for either Sprint, BestBuy or Radio Shack, I have a real job. So I have no dog in any fight.
I will be heading to Best Buy to get mine. From what I have read all the Sprints will be sold out from special invite events on the 5th. Sprint store people HATE existing customers and will be holding any remaining stock on wait lists for new customers — it happnes with every hot phone they every had.
lol. I love how this has gone from Sprint not having enough phones straight to a special olympics style iPhone vs Pre competition. Sorry fanatics of either side, wrap it up. I’m tired of Apple Nazis spouting their Master Race style my Apple Anything is better than everything else out there. Also Pretards shut up, you havent played with one. You have no idea if its good or not.
All you guys calm down here. Palm is pretty confidant that the reviews will be good on the PRE, so, they just don’t mass produce it the first day. They releasing it little by little. If demand keeps up, they’ll release more. They don’t lose either way, if its a flop, then they “lose” if they produce a lot, and ppl returning it anyway. If its good (-reviews) and gets hyped then they just producing more. Look @ the storm, (be4 the OS problems) they also had 10-15 per store. And that’s because RIM’s market share is quite bigger then Palm’s.
BTW david is MIA, where are ya? We need you to throw in your wisdom here
Sprint/Palm are being very smart. I don’t believe the hype of shortages. most of you are getting sucked into this. Assholes.
Bigot asshole!! U have balls on a webpage, would you have the balls to walk into one of these locations and make that statement?? Of course not… fake ass tough guy..
I work for a sprint store and we are getting plenty of shipment to go around. This is another rumor being spread by sprint haters.
I can’t speak for any other retailer, but I have it on good faith that the RS rumor is at least partially true; it won’t be sent to all of the stores – not even close. Unless you live on a coast of some sort I wouldn’t even bother setting foot into or calling a RS for a Pre.
This phone is a joke. Palm stock plummeted the moment the price tag came out. Palm dipped about $5, god I haven’t even seen the phone but who cares. This phone would look better set on fire and being jizzed on. Spring and Palm are a butt of jokes. 4G, LTE, Sprint aint got shit on nothing, not even decent 3G coverage. Total waste of material, these companies will not survive 2009.
@Pt,
I don’t believe the shortage one bit.
@JoeTour,
Yeah. Manufacturing quantities are largely set by market research prior to the actual release. Manufacture too much, and you lost money not only because you produced too many units, but the company has to ultimately pay to not only store them all, but advertise to get rid of them. Manufacture too little, and you have supply problems which end up two ways. One, it drums up demand hype which in itself, is a very effective at marketing a product. Or two, nobody is interested and it costs the corporation millions in wasted production dollars. And in the case of a haemorrhaging company like Palm, possible bankruptcy?
Based on what I have read about the Pre, I think this will be a wildly successful phone, like I have said. I just don’t think it will live up to the iphone killer hype people are touting. All of that hype though will most likely drum up mass demand for the product because of a possible shortage. Is this what Palm is banking on?
It sounds worse then the WII gaming system..
It took years for that to finally be in our stores in good quantity, that only happened recently and how long has that gaming system been out? Like 2 years?
I would take the Blackberry for only $39 with a new contract over it anyway.
Hype is a dual-edge sword… if met it will cut a swath to success, if not, it’ll cut it to failure.
Apple is THE hype machine, but even they have had hype failures over the years. Palm needs to knock this one out of the park, but they can only do that if all the elements are in place.
I fear that Palm is missing a key element, and thats developer support. With a launch just days away, they’ve yet to formally release their SDK or info on any appstore. You’d think they’d of learned from Apple’s initial release of the iPhone that excluded developer support. It was only when Apple released their native SDK that their market share really took off, and allowed them to come up with their great campaign “there’s an app for that”.
If Palm doesn’t provide the same/better level of developer support, they’ll quickly lose any launch day momentum once Apple’s 3.0 SDK gets delivered a few days latter at Apple’s WWDC.
I haven’t read all of the posts on this entry and I don’t intend to…..I also wish I were more tenured on this site as a poster because I want people to listen…….either way, I am not employeed by best Buy nor Sprint, in fact Sprint in my area is actually affiliate iPCS and I have my fair share of problems with both sets of employees……..my big message is no one localy except for maybe some Sprint places in Ney York or big ass cities is gonna have enough Pre’s to go around, just like Apple stores and at&t stores every year when iPhone comes out again……..either way from my experience (and please don’t doubt that about me if you doubt anything at all) neither Sprint nor Best Buy will have a big advantage on the launge…..they both have generally knowlagable and polite employees and should both have a comparable amount of Pre’s in stock (ie a local Sprint store won’t have more than Best Buy and God forbid you live in and iPCS market do not go to a dealer, they may not know what Pre is) Again this is all based on my opinion that I have formed over many years in many different markets having worked for many different involved companies in many different positions.
_*** WHY ***_ MOFO’s!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!!?!?! *** WHY ***!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
@mike Said:
“I work for a sprint store and we are getting plenty of shipment to go around. This is another rumor being spread by sprint haters.”
So Dan Hesse talking about availability problems, Sprint leaking to Bloomberg news that they have availability problems, and the Palm VP of Sales for Europe talking about severe limits due to parts problems, make the people who run Sprint and Palm: “Sprint haters”?
And you know more because you (claim to) work in a store. The people proven time and time again to know the least about Sprint, its phones, its plans, and inventory are Sprint store employees. I wouldn’t brag that your work in a store, it tags you as the least credible source.
Cedric, I remember the Hesse spot saying he expected shotages because of demand but can you post a link for the Blomberg spot and the VP of Sales for Europe ( as we know, not CDMA) spot. One more thing, there are reps who take time to learn about products to try keep these blog a little phones so don’t generalize