Consumer reaction to upcoming Palm Pre launch

With the Palm Pre (NASDAQ:PALM) launch just around the corner, this little handset has the weight of the whole company on its shoulders and it falls to consumers to make or break the smartphone maker. The first thing that we have to look at before anything else is, who will be the most likely buyers of the Pre, this will be current Palm customers for the most part.

14% of Palm customers say that they are very likely and 23% somewhat likely to purchase the new handset. There will also be some interest from new customers jumping ship from Palm’s competitors; this includes 3% from HTC (2498) and 3% from Sanyo (SANYO).

Consumer are now more interested in a Palm device than they have been over the past two years, and that is a great start even before the launch of the Pre. Although there is a great deal of consumer interest for the Palm Pre, the BlackBerry Bold from RIM (RIMM) and the iPhone from Apple (AAPL) had even more consumer interest.

It is no secret that Palm have had some troubles in recent years, but the upcoming launch of the Pre has breathed a breath of fresh air in to the company, we just hope that the Pre can live up to the expectations.

Palm cannot afford to get complacent and think that the Pre will become the hottest smartphone on the market as they have some tough competition. RIM and Apple will not allow Palm to have an easy ride, and rumors of a new iPhone in the summer have not done the Pre any favors.

So why will 17% of consumers stay away from the Pre, that it simple, they do not like the requirement to use Sprint (NYSE:S). However, we have to stress that this is the reason why the same percentage will not buy the iPhone, as they do not like the idea of being with AT&T (NYSE:T).

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