Pre hits $0 in Canada 20
Okay, so maybe Bell wasn’t the right choice for launching the Pre in Canada... Today MobileSyrup noted that Canadian wireless reseller Wireless Wave had discounted the Palm Pre to $0 with a new Bell contract. It appears that the continually discounted price of the Pre in Canada has done little to drive sales, but given that Bell (and Telus) both just picked up the iPhone, we can guess where their marketing dollars have been going as of late.
While it is clear that Palm and Sprint are still special friends here in the US of A, somehow we doubt that Bell has maintained special Canadian friend status. Makes one wonder how many of those 210,000 unsold units from the last quarter are sitting on shelves in Canada.
Well, here’s hoping that Telus can do a better job with the Pre and Pixi.
20 Comments
Well, would you buy a phone like this with no apps on the horizon in Canada?
Here in the U.S. Are spoiled with apps compared to the rest of the world and we still complain our fool heads off.
For the Palm Pre, like anything else, price matters!
Mikey47,
I think Palm ramped up production of the products for overseas shipment and from what I have heard, some of those companies have not trained their staff well on how to represent the product. But also, we are in a global recession, and for most of the past quarter, these products (Palm Pre) have been priced at $150. Gush, even Palm's #1 competitor cut their phone's price to $100, way back in June 2009.
But as far as apps (applications) are concerned, I do not think that they affected the sales very much. Palm sold a lot of products in the U.S. in a 3 month period, possibly 600,000 Palm Pre phones from June to August of 2009. This was a period when the App Catalog (store) was not yet available. But in the case of Canadians, at least they can download free apps. So I think the lack of sales had to do a lot with pricing.
They spent money running fancy ads in Canada. All they should have done was say... "Get a smart phone that is smarter than you... for free!"(tm)
There has been no marketing for the Pre here in Canada. There is the pedestal with the pre on it and I have met quite a few sales people who either have one or like it but the real push is on the iphone for Bell, its a shame really.
While I do not like Telus, I do hope they can do better job when they get them, almost impossible to do a worse job marketing the phones here. Not one ad for them.
And while its not helping the app catalog is not whats holding the pre back, it is the lack of marketing.
Yeah, we hardly hear about the pre and I am always looking. I bought my pre here in Canada just this week from Best Buy for $50 and they gave me a $75 gift card. I look at it like they paid me $25 because I was going to buy the touchstone anyway. Pre needs and deserve a lot more attention here in Canada. I am so pround to show it all my friends, and pretty much all of them had never seen or heard of it before. It's so sad because it is an awesome phone.
*proud...loll
Don't forget that the $0 is also part of Bell's plan to fight new competition from WindMobile by dropping many of their phones to $0 at Wirelesswave. The Pre is hardly the only phone they priced at $0. The point is to lock in customers and stop them from going to WindMobile. I suppose because demand for the Pre is not the same as the iPhone Bell can afford to treat the Pre as a loss leader in order to capture market share. Palm is just unfortunate to have been caught in the middle of this. Especially as Bell as offered little support for the Pre past September. They could have made the Pre their Olympic phone instead of the crappy samsung they picked though.
As for apps, it has nothing to do with why people are not picking up this phone. People don't ask about apps.
For Bell, the Pre was just an excuse to have its own "iPhone" until it could actually sell the real thing.
The phones will sell, especially at that price. It's just gonna take time and it won't be the type of high end users Palm would like that will spend on apps. it will be bargain hunters that want a good deal but may get caught in the webOS hype along the way. That's the best thing that could happen at this point.
As for Bell, I have to remind everybody that they have a very bad reputation. This is not a well liked company, which could explain the low sales. I feel that Palm made a mistake by partnering with Sprint and Bell. Bell has the market share, but not the respect. Sprint has little market share, and little respect.
I forgot to mention the three year contract... That's how you kill a phone.
The news seems to be getting worse and worse...
The poster who made a comment about Wind has a great point.
I love the Pre.. I had it for a week but unfortunately I had to return it because I just can't deal with CDMA.. it's not the same in Canada and it does not perform well.. i was sick of text messages and phone calls just getting lost in mid air.
If Bell started to offer an HSPA version, I will jump on it like there's no tomorrow.
Palm also screwed themselves because of this iPhone hype this world has so now it's just lost in the mix of things.
Is it 100% sure that telus will get the HSPA version in January?
I love how the Precentral staff podcasts about how the phone is too expensive, the price should be cheaper to compete with other phones - Then when it happens, we get angst over it going to free and how it means the phone must not be selling well. You guys need to make up your minds I feel like I reading the forums here.
Just wanted to point out that the headline in that picture is 100% wrong. In point of fact, EVERYTHING necessarily follows pre because pre means before.
Sorry... my vacation started today so my wise-ass mode has completely engaged :0
Here in Toronto there have been tonnes of ads and every Bell store has a video of the Pre. Its not that there have been no effort from Bell.
I love the Pre, and I left Rogers for Bell because I was sick and tired of the dropped calls on GSM. CDMA has been very reliable.
I think many people are scratching their heads trying to figure out why the phone isn't more popular. There HAVE been ads. They have tried. It's sad but true.
Which has recently all been replaced by videos of the iPhone. Pres are only limited to demo units sitting on a stand.
What phone were you using that you kept on getting dropped calls? I've been with Fido for almost 7 years now, never had problems with the network.
"Makes one wonder how many of those 210,000 unsold units from the last quarter are sitting on shelves in Canada."
This is not an unusual figure at all, unless you suggest Palm customers pick up their phone right at the factory door. It takes several weeks for a product to go from China to the Western Countries to the distributor to the shop shelves into the customers' hands and finally into the customers' shopping bags. Apple has 2 million iPhones "sitting on shelves" (or more precisely, somewhere in the retail channel) at any time, according to their financial reports. Palm entered several new markets in the quarter. There was no way around putting some 50k Pre's each into the German, British, and Spanish retail channels.
It's a real shame. Apple have blinded people with their brand and shop-bought popularity/trendiness. The Pre really is a better phone, it's how Palm communicates this to potential buyers that needs addressing.
I can only assume that BELL isn't getting the Pre into people's hands. Apple have convinced people that nothing can touch the iPhone so when the Pre is offered as a viable alternative I'm willing to bet they write it off in disbelief before having a go.
There was no way around putting some 50k Pre's each into the German, British, and Spanish retail channels.
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