Palm may sell 550,000 Pre units this spring
updated 09:30 am EDT, Wed June 24, 2009
RBC on Palm
Sprint's continued shortages of the Palm Pre could lead to a massive spike in Palm's sales for its current quarter, RBC analyst Mark Abramsky reports in a new investment note today. The researcher esimates that 150,000 Pre smartphones have shipped so far and that as many as 550,000 could ship by the end of Palm's current quarter. Both are up significantly from earlier predictions and could offset a drop in Centro and Treo phone numbers to 258,000.
Abramsky is optimistic enough about Palm's future that he has also boosted his expectations for Palm in its fiscal 2010 and 2011 years from just 3.2 million and 4.6 million phones respectively to 4.1 million and 6.5 million. He attributes the growth to likely extra carriers for the Pre, including Bell Canada and O2 UK, as well as extra models. The Eos is also expected to be a major trigger this fall as it would reach the crucial $99 price point as well as carriers locked out by national exclusives, like AT&T.
In the long term, RBC supports notions of a Verizon webOS phone, likely the Pre, and sees more phones in 2010.
If supported in practice, these numbers would mark a near-immediate turnaround for Palm, which is basing the future of its company exclusively on webOS and has been rapidly deemphasizing the Windows Mobile-based Treo Pro and the aging, PalmOS-run Centro. Palm has been running low on funds and has had to offer shares multiple times to raise cash as well as receive further investments from Elevation Partners.
Much of Palm's return to health is attributed to former Apple executive Jon Rubinstein, who significantly overhauled the engineering team upon becoming a board executive and just this month became CEO, replacing founder Ed Colligan.
But seriously...
06/24, 09:52am (3 replies) reply
Who the h*** is still buying a Centro? Or a Treo, for that matter? I know Palm isn't selling very many of them, but COME ON! How much would you have to hate life to look at all of the varieties of smart phones out there -- Blackberries, iPhones, various LG and Nokia and Samsung models, even the Pre -- and say, "mmm... I gotta have that that plasticy, fumbly little thing with an OS out of the late 80's!"
Then I suppose you go home, lay down in your bathtub with a bottle of gin and your not-so-smart Smart Phone, and wait for death.
andrewbw
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2001
Spring?
06/24, 10:09am reply
It's summer already.
dagamer34
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2007
Memories
06/24, 10:57am reply
It's kinda funny to see Palm coming out of this as it is. Palm is not out of the woods yet, but they've definitely got something here. It's still delicate - I'm curious as to why Palm initially offered this only through Sprint - did Sprint invest some money to keep Palm going while it brought the Pre and Web OS to market or did Verizon demand unrealistic conditions.
Assume a serious third contender with hardware and killer OS doesn't come along between now and Palms Web OS phones being offered on Verizon, I think they are going to make it.
This in so many ways reminds be of another comeback that started in the late nineties. You know, a company chasing an OS that was eventually scrapped, almost no market share left besides loyal fans, and finally saved by a visionary.
If Palm can get on Verizon, I think we the consumer wins.
Sent from my iPhone.
slider
Mac Elite
Joined: Oct 1999
Limited launch
06/24, 11:11am reply
Palm couldn't afford to do what Apple did three times in a row -- sold hundreds of thousands (indeed, a million) phones in three days and suffered activation delays and significant increase in support calls. All that with some help from the biggest (or second biggest, as the time may be) carrier in the US. Sprint has nowhere near the infrastructure (nor support) of AT&T; nor does the Palm, compared to Apple. So, they simply HAD to go slow and hope for the best.
Also, spring quarter ends on 30 June. So, Palm expects to sell half a million in four weeks? curious to see if it pans out.
As for Treos or Centros, there are many people out there who prefer the sound of "free". Why pay $300 (and wait for that $100 cheque in the mail) if you can get perfectly adequate smartphone for free? In addition, with those free smartphones, you aren't required to sign up for unlimited data; you can get a cheaper plan. These are the same people that buy cheap $500 Acer laptops, or $280 netbooks, as their primary home computer...
vasic
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
The real news
06/24, 11:47am reply
The real news is that it will be news if Palm sells 1/10th as many Pres as Apple sells iPhones. That's really something to think about.
njfuzzy
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Joined: Apr 2001
May sell
06/24, 02:43pm reply
Thats the key word. May rhymes with Pray.
slapppy
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Joined: Mar 2008