Palm Pre Update

BusinessWeek has a mostly pessimistic update on the Palm Pre. The gist of the article is first quarter sales are expected to be much lower than expected - especially given the hype the phone received. That's not good news for an already ailing company (losing money, losing subscribers). The bad news could have a ripple effect as well, cooling potential interest in the device from other carriers. Glimmers of hope include a possible $99 Palm Smartphone running the new WebOS and the potential for more developers and more apps.

Palm's Pre Is Trying to Live Up to the Hype

Palm's road to a comeback is hitting a few speed bumps.

When Palm (PALM) launched its Pre smartphone on June 6, expectations were high that the long-troubled company could have a hit with the device, the biggest launch by the new management team led by a former Apple (AAPL) executive. Now analysts estimate that Palm likely will sell just 300,000 to 500,000 Pres in their first three months on the market. That's not bad, but it's short of the outsize expectations ramped up by the phone's advanced technology and splashy debut.