SlashGear Japan
The stock market experts and radio show hosts of the Motley Fool published an article today claiming that the Palm Pre, though fully featured and well designed, may be dead on arrival. This information is based off of a survey of 4,292 adult smartphone buyers by ChangeWave Research. The survey found that only 4% of smartphone buyers plan on purchasing the Pre, in contrast to 37% of them planning on purchasing a BlackBerry or iPhone. There are a few problems with this.
First off, the survey is of smartphone buyers, whom I’m going to assume, are business-type individuals that aren’t necessarily up on the technology of emerging cell phones. The survey completely ignores the consumer market, of which the Palm Pre is also targeting. I am going to buy the Pre, and I have only ever owned “feature phones” up until I get my hands on some webOS goodness. My friends are all dumb phone buyers and have never owned a BlackBerry. Keep in mind, the majority of iPhone users were not smartphone users before converting to the iPhone.
The Palm Pre is not a smartphone buyer device; it is a Pro-sumer device that is going to be sold to everyone, not just the crackberry owning, iPhone toting individuals who are more than likely already very please with their devices. The Palm Pre is not targeting current smartphone users; it’s targeting feature phone users who want to step up to something better such as Synergy and a fully functioning cloud feature. I am willing to bet every single Sprint subscribe will be more than willing to switch to the Palm Pre; and at the same time, I can’t name one person who I know that isn’t happy with their iPhone or BlackBerry.
The survey is flawed because they asked people who already own smartphones. They should have asked the pro-sumers and internet savy folks like myself and my friends. Also, how can you ask if users will switch to a device they’ve never even held and has no known release date? The survey is flawed, and if the Motley Fools put a lot of stock into it, they are indeed fools.
[Via The Motley Fool]
4 Responses to “The Motley Fools call Palm Pre DOA, I call them fools”
ksharra April 15, 2009
The problem is, iPhone users (fanbois) and BlackBerry users (CrackBerry addicts) are known to be intensely loyal.
WinMo users, on the other hand… I notice no one talked about Windows Mobile at all. I use WinMo and I’m dying to see this phone come out. So far I’ve used WinMo because I can’t stand the thought of being a trendy Apple-head and I don’t like the strictly-business BlackBerry. I want a phone that does what I want it to do, puts what I want right up where I can see it (on the main page), I can get free apps without going through some proprietary nonsense, and I can easily get a WinMo phone with a touch screen AND a physical keyboard.
If the Pre lives up to its hype, it will meet all my needs and more. Nothing Apple or BB have been able to do yet (though the mysterious Touch/QWERTY upcoming BB is piquing my interest a smidge).
+1Gryphon01 April 15, 2009
I own an iphone 3G. I cannot wait for the Pre. I purchased the iphone not really being familiar with apple and my hope was that they were going to be the white knight that was gaining ground against the Microsoft juggernaut with a solid product offering, decent service and real attention to consumer needs with a great business ethic.
+4Instead, the iphone has provided a looking glass through which I came to realize apple as a company that has developed a fancy interface to access fewer abilities than what I traded up from in my Dumb phone. They warranty everything but what is most breakable on the phone and carry an un-apologetic attitude in the face of not providing some very cheap basic things but because they are necessary for life integration see fit to charge you about $100 per piece. This includes things like an FM player and A2DP Bluetooth. The aforementioned are basics that others are throwing into their design for free. Don’t get me started on the musical black hole that is iTunes. I know people who have gravitated towards other players and phones over the ipod/iphone, but because it won’t sync with iTunes they feel they have to keep it in the apple family. If a company has developed a program and product strategy that forces consumers to stay with them, do I really want to stay with that company? This is just a brief of my feelings towards apple and I can’t be alone. Enter the Palm Pre. Like the new Blond German exchange student in your geography class that looks to be levels better than your current pushy nag like girlfriend from beyond 8mile, she’s got you thinking you might like to date around again. Apple, I think it’s time we see other people, and you can keep all the CD’s I left at your house… Sorry for the length.
COBRASVT April 16, 2009
Well, I’m a past WinMo user (which I will NEVER use again) and have since moved over to the Crackberry Storm. I’m happy w/most of the storm, but by no means loyal and do have a few major complaints with the device.
I always said that if the iPhone received the updates to it’s capabilities that it’s about to get in June, I’d buy one.
But I’m really liking the smooth integration and functionality of the Palm Pre. Just not sure I want to go with Sprint one and waiting on developers to adopt to coding for the new webOS two.
But wow, what a nice OS it is. I’ll give it a few months after it hits the market, but I’m def thinking of switching. Or maybe getting one when the GSM version comes out.
+1Silenus81 April 18, 2009
I just re-upped my contract and bought a BlackBerry Curve 8330 about 45 days ago. I love it and it’s a great phone, however I just recently learned about the Palm Pre and I think it would better suit me, so I plan on switching phones even without the upgrade discount through Sprint as soon as it’s available to purchase.
I’m really hopeful the Pre is extremely successful and I think if Palm delivers on their promises, it will be exactly that.
Neutral