Sprint Nextel sets opening-weekend sales records with Palm Pre - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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That’s roughly 50,000 to 100,000 phones, analysts Sprint launched the Palm Preon Saturday, breaking first-day and first-weekend sales records for a Sprint (NYSE: S) device, the companyh said in a release, though it gave no specifics. More than 150,00p applications were downloadedfrom phone-maker ’s PALM) App Catalog on according to a Monday blog entru on the Palm Web site. “Sprint is a very different company than it was 12 months Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said inthe release. “Palmm Pre is the coming-ouyt party for the new Sprint.
” Sales in the firsf two days probablyexceeded 50,000 phones, comparer with 146,000 for the first iPhone, which debuted in analyst Paul Coster said in a Monday note aboutr Palm. Sales probably were limited by manufacturing capacity constraintsor Palm’ss balance sheet, he said. Although Sprinrt analysts predicted strong sales this year and upgrades bySprint customers, some doubted that the Pre coul help Sprint pull many customers from larger competitors (NYSE: T) and . the No. 3 wireless carrier, has about 49 million analyst John Hodulik predicted that Sprint wouldsell 1.
6 millionb Pre phones this year, which with cannibalization and 70 percenty upgrades could mean the addition of 330,000 incrementall gross subscribers. Analyst Christopherf Larsen with labeled the phonethe “firsf true competitor to the iPhone.” “Wwe believe its weekend launch was a success, but that the buzz and excitementf was well short of the initial launch of the he said in a Monday note. The Pre has created plenty of buzz in the pastseverall months, though Palm and Sprint kept the device under wraps.
The touch-screen smartphoned features a slide-out keyboard and a new operatinb system, webOS, that has the capacity for functionss such as integrating contacts and calendarss from multiple locations and operating multipldeapplications simultaneously. Sprint hasn’t revealed how long it has the exclusiver on the phone but has confirmedthat it’s at leastr through the end of the Two days after the Pre (Nasdaq: AAPL) and AT&g said the new iPhonee 3G S would launch June 19 for $199 with a two-yeadr service contract. Prices of the current iPhone 3G have been cutto $99 with the The Pre sells for $200 afte a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year servicse contract.
Sprint said its Simply Everything which offersunlimited voice, data and saves customers $1,200 or more compared with similar plans by Sprint has been orchestrating a turnaround, attemptingt to reverse several quarters of customer losses. The company lost about 4.1 million contract subscriberslast year. Sprint ranksx No. 1 on the Kansas City Business Journal ’s list of the area’s top public companies.