So, how many Palm Pres have sold since the device first launched on June 6?
Charter Equity Research analyst Edward Snyder thinks he knows: more than 300,000. Earlier initial estimates from other analysts put total Pre sales at 150,000 units shortly after it launched.
Known as a pessimist when it comes to projections from smartphone manufacturers, Snyder apparently checked with manufacturers and retailers to arrive at his numbers. Snyder figures Palm is producing 15,000 units a day, estimating the OEM will ship 1 million units to Sprint in the first quarter.
Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis, said that while unit sales are important, they’re just one of many challenges facing Palm right now, adding that the key lies in forming a sustaining development community for Palm’s webOS.
“The bigger impediment than sales is that the Mojo SDK hasn’t been released yet…and the Palm applications catalog is almost non-existent,” Greengart said.
Greengart said that Palm saw its unique webOS as a key differentiator from other smartphones on the market. “I think they’re justified in feeling that if they created something unique and special, they’d have more of competitive advantage than if they just released another device running on Windows Mobile…but along with that is the obligation to build a developer base, because these are not just phones, they’re mobile computers.”
While 300,000 units sold would be impressive for the Palm Pre, it's still a far cry from the 1 million mark hit by the iPhone 3GS in its launch weekend. However, Greengart said moving the Pre to other carriers will inevitably increase shipments of the device, and noted that Palm has publicly said that the Pre is only the first of multiple webOS devices to be released.