Preliminary numbers for Palm Pre sales have come in, as well as download estimates for the new webOS App Catalog. In spite of backordered stock at many Best Buy locations, an estimated 150,000 units have already been sold, reports RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky. We could also see as many as 550,000 units ship by the end of the quarter.
In addition, demand is rising for Palm handhelds, and although still trailing far behind Apple's iPhone, in a recent poll about 8% of consumers plan to purchase a Palm smartphone within the next 90 days. This is up from just 1% in late 2008, before the Pre was announced, reports CNN.
Despite the Palm Mojo SDK being pushed to the end of summer and only 30 apps currently available, the App Catalog has also been progressing, reaching the million mark in downloads. Also, easily-installed homebrew apps are beginning to surface, which should allow a wide range of users to add apps to their device before the App Catalog picks up steam. More after the break.
In comparing number of applications, Palm OS had taken 10 years to collect around 29,000 apps, while Apple had a library of over 50,000 in less than a year, notes Gearfuse. However, the exceedingly positive response to webOS from developers and users along with a centralized app store should greatly accelerate growth. Abramsky also predicts that the upcoming Palm Eos hardware as well as releasing the Pre Verizon and AT&T (after Sprint exclusivity ends) and international carriers such as Bell Canada, O2 UK, and Australia's Telstra will help boost support for the platform.
Sunday, 28 June 2009
One aspect of WebOS that hasn't been really highlighted is that the ability to run multiple apps at once significantly reduces the "opportunity cost" of running an app. On the iPhone, running a specific app also means you are not running any other app; i.e. there is an opportunity cost to running apps on the iPhone. This cost doesn't exist on the Palm Pre.