Get ready to camp out at the store for a week before the Pre is launched. Ok most of us aren’t that hardcore but according to a recently published Bloomberg article, Palm may be intentionally capping the initial production of the Pre at around 375,000 units. Their goal is to keep supply down and demand high, generating obnoxiously long lines and angry mobs. Yes, this is the same evil strategy Nintendo used to hype of the Wii. Sadly it ended up working surprisingly well, which means we will be seeing quite a bit more of it.
Although the Pre is innovative, Palm is in a bit of a different situation than Nintendo was when they launched the Wii. Apple is set to release their new iPhone right around the time when the Pre launches. The big question is, if there aren’t enough Pres to go around, will people jump ship and get the snazzy new iPhone?
Sprint and Palm both NEED this phone to be a success. Sprint is continuing to bleed customers and until the Pre is released Palm has nothing that can really compete with the iPhone or Blackberry. Seeing how great the Pre is shaping up to be, I trust that both Palm and Spring brought on enough smart people to figure out the most effective strategy for the launch.
Regardless, I’m not taking any chances. After reading the Bloomberg article I decided that I need to get to the store before they even open in order to snag one of these. Obviously once the phone is launched I can’t run a Palm Pre blog without one, so failure is not an option!
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I’m not going to be able to pick it up until a couple weeks after the initial launch. Luckily there are 2 Sprint stores near me, one walkable, one a couple mile drive. Hoping I don’t run into the same problem everybody had with the Wii, waiting out the initial boom and potential server issues only to not be able to find it for several weeks or even months. My current phone is pretty much dead and I refuse to replace it with anything but a Pre.