Palm Pre Victory Could Be Over Thanks To New iPhone

The Palm Pre is here, but so is the $99 3G Apple iPhone. Any victory in the smartphone market by the Palm Pre over the weekend will definitely be short-lived thanks to Apple. Mobile phone market analysts predicted that between 50,000 - 100,000 Palm Pre's were sold over the weekend but can record breaking sales last?

On Monday, Apple dropped the price of the original iPhone 3G from $199 to $99, opening the most popular smartphone in the world to a wider range of audience. If this weren't bad enough to hurt Palm Pre sales, Apple also unveiled the Apple iPhone 3GS - Apple's latest iPhone innovation that comes choc full of new features, doubled performance, and much better battery life.

Nor Sprint or Palm are throwing in the towel though. You have to admit, 100k smart phones in a couple of days is tremendous at debut but I tend to think it might be short-lived.

"Sprint is a very different company than it was 12 months ago," said Dan Hesse, president and chief executive officer. "Palm Pre is the coming out party for the new Sprint. It is the perfect device that highlights all of the positive changes in our company, including our revolutionary Ready Now retail store experience, greatly improved customer care, unmatched value pricing plans and America's most dependable 3G network. the Palm press release said.

Palm Pre vs iPhone 3G S For Business
The iPhone still lacks in the business side of the smartphone market. Users and companies alike, still seem to prefer Palm-based devices like the Palm Pre versus the iPhone - mostly for compatibility reasons. In my opinion, Apple still hasn't penetrated the business side of the smartphone market - and perhaps never will. After all, an iPhone as it is today is geared towards the consumer - not business.

The Palm Pre on the other hand, comes off as being a business device - but actually has subtle features that will also appeal to consumers who want an entertainment phone too.

Looking at both of the devices today, I can see the Palm Pre being classified as a business handheld and the iPhone 3GS still being a consumer only device.

Palm Pre Shortages?
A few weeks ago, the Sprint CEO stated that he expected Palm Pre shortages at launch. Where are they? We haven't heard of any shortages, especially in our area's where we operate. Perhaps it was part of their marketing, to hype the device up and sell more units more quickly? Maybe we'll see announcements of shortages in the upcoming weeks as the supply fails to keep up with the demand if the Palm Pre still keeps selling well.

Whatever the case, I still like to see the competition - at least this is the first device ever to possible take on the iPhone in terms of innovation. It's always good for business to have competition and I'm sure consumer will welcome it.

It will also give AT&T a bit of competition, until they loose the exclusivity of the iPhone contract.

The Palm Pre is available now and costs $199 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a 2 year contract through Sprint stores.