Palm Pre's economic slow down - by Abinyah Walker

The Palm Pre which enjoyed some hype before its launch on Sprint has not enjoyed slower than expected adoption rates. "To be more precise, while the mobile phone operator is reportedly expecting to be able to move 1 – 1.5 million Pres, David Eller says that it won't sell more than 500k. 416,000 units is the exact figure it provides, lowering even more the original 488,000-unit figure." says Softpedia's. Town Hall Investment Research analyst expects Palm to sell 785K units up to the holiday season.

What is more interesting is that Palm also launched a second phone, the Palm Pixi, which may be cutting into its sales of the Palm Pre as reported by ChannelWeb - Is the Palm Pixi Premature?

From DARC Corporate Consortium

What is more realistic is that Apple stole Palm thunder by launching the iPhone 3Gs with an incredible price point. To fight back, Palm released the Pixi too soon. Palm should have worked on updating the Pre instead of releasing the PIxi. Those who purchased the Pre are going to be disappointed at being left behind. Unlike the iPhone 3Gs, the 3G received a significant OS update which increased it usability before the 3Gs was launched.

From DARC Corporate Consortium

The final sign that Palm is having trouble with the Pre is when Sprint dropped the price to $100. When it went on sale in June it was twice the price. Customers who bought the Pre at $200 will not receive a discount. New customers would received a $100 credit on Sprint's network. Unfortunately neither Palm or Sprint are commenting on how many phones have been sold. But many think that it can't be good if Sprint is lowering prices already. A new Palm Pre costs about $750, Sprint must be reeling from this setback.