Palm Sells 300,000 Palm Pres In June Alone

We’ll see plenty of "Pre sells X units in Y amount of time; not as many as iPhone" stories in the next year—in fact, we already have. That may be the wrong way to look at it.

Charter Equity Research is now saying that Palm has pushed over 300k Pres into sales channels in June alone, setting them on a pace to sell a million units in the first quarter. Set in the context of the iPhone 3G and 3GS’s million-in-a-weekend sales pace, this doesn’t sound like a ton. Set in the more meaningful context of Palm’s sales last quarter, it’s huge. As John Paczkowski points out, the company sold just 351,000 phones total in the quarter preceding the launch of the Pre.

Palm may be waiting to release official numbers until supply issues are sorted out and they can claim a more flattering number, but this right here? Pretty impressive. If there was any lingering doubt that a single phone could salvage this ailing company (and assuming these numbers are right), it’s gone now.

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Palm App Catalog - One million Downloads To 150,000 Palm Pre Owners

A million downloads, impressive. Even more so when you consider that fewer than 30 applications were available for download from the App Catalog to a single device (the Pre) available only on the number 3 carrier (Sprint) in the US. Unfortunately, Palm’s not offering any official numbers.

The figure comes via industry analysts who suggest 150,000 Pre devices shipped since the June 6th retail introduction for an average of about seven apps downloaded per phone.

Imagine the numbers had Palm’s SDK been ready prior to launch.

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Sprint And Palm Pre Share Successful Launch

Sprint sings its 3G network praises following launch of the Pre.

Overland Park, Kan — It’s one thing to sell Palm® Pre™ – the most anticipated consumer electronics device of the year – but according to customers and industry observers, it’s a much bigger thing to be able to unlock its complete potential thanks to Sprint’s nationwide 3G network.

After the fanfare of the Pre launch – breaking sales records and glowing headlines – customers are now taking advantage of the device – and something much less heralded – America’s most dependable 3G network.

Since 2006, Sprint has invested almost $17 billion in capital to continue improving and expanding network performance. Today, according to customers and third-party reports, Sprint’s networks have never been better. In its latest quarterly report, the company reported that both its CDMA and iDEN networks are performing at best-ever levels.

“Better network performance has been a major priority and a key part of the improvements we’ve made over the past year that have materially changed the customer experience with Sprint,” said Dan Hesse, president and chief executive officer of Sprint. “Palm Pre is the coming out party for the new Sprint – the perfect device to show how far our networks have come.”

The investment has paid dividends for Sprint. Today, Sprint operates America’s most dependable 3G network.

The Sprint 3G Network is faster in more places than AT&T’s 3G network, 2 and Sprint has more than 20 times the coverage of T-Mobile’s current 3G network, based on square miles.

No one has a larger voice calling area than Sprint. The Nationwide Sprint Network (inclusive of roaming) reaches more than 304 million people in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with a Sprint national calling plan that includes roaming.

And, continuing to lead the way in network performance, Sprint is the first and only national carrier to offer wireless 4G. Sprint 4G is available in Baltimore today and markets expected to launch in 2009 include Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia and Seattle. In 2010 Sprint 4G launch cities are expected to include New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Houston and the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Skype Has No Plans To Develop Palm Pre App - Yet

Skype enjoyed tremendous success with its iPhone application, which was downloaded more than 2 million times in its first 10 days of release. Skype also released a beta version for BlackBerry recently, and has also released versions for Windows Mobile, Java, Android and Symbian. So it’s somewhat surprising that Skype is holding off on developing an app for the Palm Pre application store, especially given the hype around the phone’s launch.

A company spokesperson told GigaOm that Skype is “keeping an eye on the Pre and its webOS platform,” but is not ready to announce development for the Pre.

For more:
- see the GigaOm post here

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Palm Pre Gets Its First Homebrew App - Unofficially

Within hours of a leaked WebOS root image spilling onto the internet, would-be developers have coaxed a respectable number of hacks and tweaks out of their Pres—including the phone’s first homebrew app.

Their accomplishments are modest in the grand scheme of things, but this is an auspicious start:

My first application works!! I’m so excited! It’s just a pretty “hello world” application with a few simple command tests - but hey - it’s a working application on the pre!

Other mini-hacks include changing vibration length and intervals, adding a shot timer to the camera and eliminating its shutter sound. The early consensus, it seems, is that the Pre is an easy hack.

Notice anything familiar here? This is a lot like what happened with the first iPhone, which shipped without native app support, leaving prospective developers to toil with lame web apps—sort of like what’s been outlined in upcoming the WebOS SDK. That situation spawned a productive homebrew community, which is still alive and kicking today. From the looks of it, the Pre will have a burgeoning underground app gray market before its SDK even gets distributed.

Granted, Palm will grant developers appreciably more leeway than Apple’s initial web-only approach, allowing for local storage and tighter system integration, but system-level mods, like the aforementioned changes to the camera and vibration functions, aren’t on the table. Follow the thread for more—it’s fascinating stuff. [Precentral]

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Palm Pre Disassembled - Cost Estimated at $170

You know the deal—as fast as companies can churn out gorgeous, functional gadgetry, nerds worldwide are waiting in the shadows to tear them apart. The Palm Pre barely survived the night before being torn up.

It looks like a reasonably painless disassemble job, at least at first, though they don’t recommend removing the heat shield. Once all the parts were arranged on a table, the guys at Rapid Repair estimated the hardware cost of the Pre at just about $170, which makes the smartphone’s $199 price tag a pretty good deal for us consumers. Go check it out if you like seeing your gadgets unadorned and forcefully stripped. [Rapid Repair]

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Palm Pre Will Work with iTunes & Twitter Search

Palm revealed today that the upcoming Palm Pre will include Palm media sync, which will allow it to synchronize with iTunes to transfer DRM-free music, photos, and videos.

Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s Chairman, and Roger McNamee, a Palm director and co-founder of Elevation Partners, made a presentation at the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference, where they talked about iTunes support and other new Pre features.

Palm Media Sync
Thanks to Palm media sync, users will be able to connect their Pre to a PC or Mac via the USB cable, select “media sync” on the phone, and iTunes will launch on the desktop computer. The user will then be able to choose which DRM-free media files to transfer.

“We designed Palm media sync to be an easy and elegant way for you to take the content you own and put it on Pre, and it’s just one of the ways we think you’ll be amazed by webOS,” said Rubinstein.

Twitter Support
One of the hallmarks of the Palm Pre’s webOS is giving users access to online information, and there’s a new addition to this: Palm also announced that Twitter search will be integrated into webOS universal search.

This function will allow those with a Pre to look for a contact or an application on the device, and also search the Web via Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, and now Twitter.

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