Palm is betting the bank on the Pre, spending heavily on development costs and simply hoping it will be the iPhone killer that they think it can be. One of Palm’s major investors, Roger McNamee, must have felt the need to add a little more pressure to the situation because he unleashed some bulletin board material for Apple in a recent talk with Bloomberg:
“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone,” McNamee said today in an interview in San Francisco. “Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”
McNamee is the co-founder of Elevation Partners, an investment firm that recently upped its stake in Palm from 25 percent to 39 percent with a $100 million investment. It’s easy to understand why he feels the need to exude confidence in the Pre, but saying not one single person will be using the iPhone a month after its anniversary is just silly.
“Think about it — If you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market,” said McNamee, 52. “Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy.”
The zingers just keep on coming. McNamee doesn’t stop there, he believes Palm has an advantage with their new smartphone because it uses a new operating system, claiming both Apple and RIM’s technology is outdated.
The Pre does look good on paper, but making so many impractical claims before the device is even released is ridiculous. No one knows how much the device is going to cost, how it may perform in a real world environment and of course the biggest factor, whether Apple will have a new phone of its own around that time.
“Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy.”
im going to buy the next new iPhone haha. thats a cute way to try and get customers roger.
:-\
I was ALWAYS anti-Apple ANYTHING, then upgrade time came a month ago and I got a 16gb White iPhone, it has changed my opinion a lot! I have had close to 12 phones in the last 2 years, 1 of which was the Palm Centro, man talk about hard to find good software for. Before the iPhone, I was using a Curve and so many things I had on it, I got for the iPhone for free or half the price!! I’l be using my iPhone for YEARS, simply because it’s easy to find things for it! I can’t imagine ever using anything else other than an Apple phone! 36y.o. stay at home mama
apple is a piece of shi*. I hope Palm wins!
Yeah I’m just going to stop using all those useful apps I got on the app store just because my contract is up. Keep dreamin beauford.
freeloader…do you know this is appleiphoneapps.com?
APPLE RULES MAN! you must be lost…
Fear can make people do some crazy things. Oh well, Rog’… Maybe another investment will even you out [financially]. :8-)
haha, this douche is giving ballmer a run for his title of king of unfounded confidence
what are you gonna buy? Palm, seriously? people are gonna buy the next iphone which is gonna kick the shit out of your prius i mean pre wtf name is that!!!
That thing in the pix is not the real thing right? If it is, there is already a reason not to buy it, for the reason of “butt ugly”.
@newAddict – It’s the real thing.
If the palm pre is half as good as it looks on paper it will be better than the pre. All you ever hear iphone people talking about is Jailbreaking and Cydia. Something you have to do in order to do half the things the palm pre AND OTHERS can do out of the box. The Iphone is all about hype and the cult army keeping it alive.
Wow. I think what he said is really ridiculous.