Pre-Emptive?
by John Paczkowski
Posted on May 18, 2009 at 3:25 PM PT
Palm’s too-long-in-coming smartphone, the Pre, seems on track for an early June launch. People briefed on the company’s plans tell the New York Times (NYT) that Sprint (S) will begin peddling the device the first week of June. That gibes with what I’ve been hearing as well, so it’s perhaps reasonable to assume that the June 5 street date batted around these past few weeks is a solid one. And that means Palm (PALM) is bringing the device to market just three days before Apple’s (AAPL) Worldwide Developers Conference, the event at which the company is expected to announce its next-generation iPhone. That gives Palm very little time in the limelight that Apple will inevitably steal from it. But perhaps that’s the point. By debuting so close to the presumed announcement of the iPhone, Palm would be ensuring that its new device is fresh in the minds of anyone mulling the purchase of Apple’s latest offering–or writing about it. It would be parasitically riding on the back on the Apple media juggernaut. Question is, can it hang on without getting trampled?
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Comments
I think this is a decent marketing strategy. As you stated, they could be included in a large percentage of Apple coverage as a “Pre was also announced this week” mention. The AT&T network has been completely panned during the past several months(dropped calls, calls stright to VM, slow data), so if the Pre and WebOS actually work than the gamble will be a huge success. As Ive said before, Im just excited there is a phone that can fully take advantage of Sprint’s superior network.
I feel this last statement will be slammed, but is it possible the over hype “media juggernaut” that has been Apple will come up flat at WWDC this year (no Steve Jobs). Possible Pre will trample Apple-probably not but wanted to throw it out there.
Posted by Dominic Pannone at May 18th, 2009 at 4:00 pm