This Year’s Pre? Or Last Year’s iPhone?
by John Paczkowski
Posted on June 9, 2009 at 4:30 AM PT
Palm (PALM) picked a hell of a day to launch the Pre. Two days before Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference. Two days before the unveiling of the iPhone 3G S, a new version of Apple’s (AAPL) iconic handset that runs twice as fast as its predecessor, shoots video with an improved three megapixel camera and boasts longer battery life and greater storage.
And worst of all, two days prior to the announcement of a new $99 price point for the iPhone 3G, a disruptive move that puts the device in reach of far more consumers and allows Apple to position last year’s iPhone as a competitor to this year’s Pre (and BlackBerry Storm too). And unlike this year’s Pre, last year’s iPhone comes with iTunes, a robust developer ecosystem, access to 50,000+ apps and soon iPhone OS 3.0.
And that may bode ill for a hard-to-come-by upstart handset that’ll set you back $199 after a $100 rebate.
Certainly, a $99 iPhone 3G is a very compelling proposition. Said CL King & Associates analyst Lawrence Harris, “Apple’s strategy appears to be designed to take advantage of the current limited availability of the Palm Pre. It is clear that Apple intends to maintain its leadership position in the smartphone market, given its decision to cut prices.”
Clear too that Palm’s decision to roll out the Pre this past Saturday was folly and has not only left the company’s most important product release in years washed away in a deluge of Apple coverage, but allowed a powerful rival with a lot of market buzz to undercut the price of its bet-the-company handset within just days of its launch.
Sadly for Palm, it may be that the Pre’s best days are already behind it.
Comments
Don’t forget the fact that they’re dropping the Macbook Air’s price, too. Though I guess when you consider that that laptop has no DVD drive it’s kind of like an oversized iPhone anyway.
http://www.marketnewsvideo.com.....9&mv=1
Posted by Michael Wilson at June 9th, 2009 at 9:14 amHm, lowering the price on a one year old device by 100 bucks is not really anything “aggressive”… Most Nokia high end phones (retail versions without locks or branding) come down several hundred bucks in a few months and have almost no resale value. I bought a 8800 when it was launched in 2005, the simlock-free price was 980.- USD then. The retail price went down to around 500.- USD within 6 months, when I sold it after 12 months its resale value was 120.- USD on eBay. The Apple difference? I just sold my first generation (backup) iPhone (almost two years old) for 380.- USD and will sell the 3G 16GB (unlocked) for around 500.- USD next week. Means I can get the 3GS with 32 GB for free and still have money left. Try that with any non-Apple device… I also buy one new top-end 17″ PowerBook/MacBook Pro every year. Considering resale value, I have never paid more than 700 bucks per annum… this is what “laptop hunters” does not tell you.
Great that Apple keeps pushing the industry though. Neither the Storm nor the Pre can match the iPhone’s price point and even the old 3G is still outperforming these devices in some areas, especially usability, browsing and applications.
Posted by Uwe Rueckeshaeuser at June 9th, 2009 at 10:11 amI have a feeling there was no “good” time for release of the Pre (except maybe 3 years ago) and no price point that would make it truly competitive with the iPhone (short of paying people to use it).
Nice company, but they milked their old product for far far too long and are going to pay the inevitable price.
They should have been looking for merger opportunities a long time ago. Since the founders left though this has not been a forward looking company.
Posted by Mac Beach at June 9th, 2009 at 11:51 amPreempted — after the fact.
Posted by Neil Anderson at June 9th, 2009 at 8:36 pm