Sprint Sets Sales Record With Palm Pre Debut

Jun. 9, 2009

Within hours of offering Palm Pre the most widely anticipated electronic device of the year – eager customers delivered the result: a record Sprint sales debut.

By late Sunday, Palm Pre had broken previous sales records (first day and first weekend) for a Sprint device.

Palm sold about 50,000 units over launch weekend with another 10,000 to 15,000 customers on waiting lists.

"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.”

Pre comes with Sprint’s service plans. For example, Sprint’s Simply Everything plan saves customers $1200 over the comparable plan for AT&T’s iPhone, and more against Verizon’s smartphone and PDA pricing over a two year period – that’s real value.”

The anticipation of getting a device found many customers waiting in line at Sprint retail stores Saturday morning. One person in line – on his wedding day – was Theodore Travis.

On Saturday at 7 a.m., Theodore was 14th in line at an Atlanta-area Sprint store, fidgeting for his new Pre. His wedding was scheduled for 8 a.m. As much as Theodore wanted Pre, he wanted his bride, Anita, to see him at the altar at the appointed time. At 7:45, he abandoned his wait and left his line-number and credit card information with a Sprint store employee, asking that he “hold the 14th phone for me.” The Sprint store employee obliged. Minutes after the recessional, the newlyweds returned to pick up their phone, spending the first minutes of married life with a Ready Now consultant who walked the happy couple through Pre’s setup and features. The new Mrs. Travis later revealed that her reaction was “You did what?” to her husband spending the hour before their wedding waiting for a phone, but later admitted, “I guess I kind of understand now.”

Pre's new handset has been heralded as a must for the multitasker, with multitouch capabilities, cached contacts and calendars synced in one place, a keyboard that’s easy to use and a new webOS operating system that lets customers operate their phone just like a PC – with multiple applications open at once.

Pre comes backed by Ready Now, a key differentiator for Sprint that proved valuable throughout the weekend as sales added up and customers sought to use the phone right out of the box. With Ready Now, Sprint retail associates work one-on-one with customers to personalize phones, set up features and demonstrate how each Sprint phone works before customers leave a Sprint store.

With the strong customer response to the launch of Pre, as expected, Sprint has sold out in many locations. Sprint is getting the device in to its retail locations as fast as Palm can make them.