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Jul. 2, 2009

According to wireless industry analyst Edward Snyder, Palm has already sold over 300,000 of its new Pre handset.

Snyder is with mobile survey firm Charter Equity Research and says that earlier initial estimates from other analysts placed total Pre sales at 150,000 units shortly after it launched on June 6.

Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis, says that while unit sales are important, they’re just one of the many hurdles facing Palm right today, adding that the goal lies in forming a sustaining development community for Palm’s proprietary Web operating system (WebOS).

Snyder says he also checked with other handset makers and retailers to arrive at his sales figures. He thinks Palm is producing approximately 15,000 units a day, estimating that Palm will ship about one million units to Sprint in the first quarter.

While 300,000 Pres sold would be impressive for the company, we're still far away from the 1 million mark hit by the iPhone 3G S in its launch weekend. But moving the Pre to other wireless carriers will inevitably boost shipments of the device.

Also, Palm has publicly stated that the Pre is only the first of multiple webOS devices to be released in the next 12 to 18 months.

Additionally, Palm saw its unique webOS as a key differentiator from other smartphones on the market. The handset maker is justified in feeling that if it creates something unique and special, it will benefit of a competitive advantage than if they just released another device running on Windows Mobile.

Also, Snyder noted that the Palm "applications store" is very limited in scope, especially as the Pre is concerned, and that is something that the company will have to work hard if it wants to get a bigger slice of the iPhone market.

However, while Apple may have redefined smartphone pricing, will such a drastic reduction in the price of the 3G hurt sales of the 3GS? Only time will tell, and unlike Palm and Sprint, Apple has plenty of that. Does Apple really care if 3GSs aren’t immediately flying off the shelves?

It would certainly be nice of course, but it’s not going to hurt them if early sales are not breaking any records yet.

With a successful App Store that has already recorded 1 billion downloads and a new rush of mobile development apps that makes use of over 1,000 new APIs included with the iPhone OS 3.0, it is almost unthinkable that any device will rival Apple’s current smartphone supremacy in the near future.

Of course, only time will tell, and meanwhile, the race between Palm's Pre and the new iPhone 3G S rages on, and we will keep you posted as always.

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Source: Palm.