Sprint employees now training with the Palm Pre?
By Laura June 
posted April 10th 2009 10:58AM
posted April 10th 2009 10:58AM
We're not totally sure here, but it sounds like Sprint employees are now being trained on the anxiously awaited Palm Pre. Over at PreThinking, they seem to have gotten their paws on an internal Sprint email that says that "employees can expect training to start in April as well as multiple communications to get them excited and ready to help our customers" for the Pre. Being of a curious nature, they apparently followed up to ask if the training had indeed begun, receiving this mysteriously veiled reply: "I would like to inform that Sprint is in the process of providing the training for the new Palm Pre. Once it's launched, Sprint will be ready to serve their valued customers regarding the Palm Pre." We've seen the new ads all over the place, and it was really only a matter of time, so we're not exactly shocked and awed at this one, but you tell us: what does it all mean?
It's training on how to use and SELL the phone. You need to be able to demonstrate to the customer how to use the Pre and what makes it special, hence the training.
I've called Sprint tech support before - they don't even know what phones they carry let alone how to provision one properly when you switch to it. My guess the Palm Pre training only takes an hour and consists of :
A photo of the palm pre being flashed on a small screen
An hour of questions mostly consisting of - what is my name? Can I go to the bathroom?
The execs get the same training class and ask the same questions but they get danish and coffee at their training.
I had a dream last night that I got my Pre and I was walking around showing it to everyone.. Then I get on Engadget when I wake up and BAM a huge picture of it..
I have a 3G iPhone on AT&T and Treo 755P on Sprint. Can't wait to replace the Treo with a Pre and have the 2 most badass phones on the market. What's that? You guys are STILL bickering as to which one is better? Well have fun sucking on my gonna have both of them dick! ;)
Do you feel that? That emotion building up as you read this? It's jealousy.. No hurry and get back to arguing! YOU MIGHT WIN THIS TIME!!
Easy there tiger....
Lulz, why in the world would I want an iphone?
NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT'S NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually, Bold and Pre would be more precise on the 2 most badass phones (CURRENTLY) but iPhone 3.0 DOES look VERY promising. Shit, too many gadgets, not enough "termination fee" money. ;-)
What a complete idiot!
my money is still on the original feb 15 predicted launch date
Tep. I want one. Badly.
I just wish it was coming out on AT&T. Aw well. I'm almost at the end of my two years anyway.
Off to Sprint!
Sprint should offer to buy out ATT contracts for new Pre customers. If they did that, I will camp out at the store the night before launch.
still awaiting my nokia n97, i just can't wait to get rid of my iphone 3g. As for sprint, its just gimmicky.
http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/ctia-nokia-n97-demo/
...sorry i meant to say 'as for pre its just gimmicky, my i'll even prefer my iphone to it, but i'll prefer the nokia n97 to my iphone, which means the N97 rules"
http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/ctia-nokia-n97-demo/
I just can't wait for this iPhone Killer to be available. It's gonna rock, yo!
HTC Touch Diamond? Fail
Samsung Omnia? Fail
LG Vu? Fail
BB Storm? Fail
Pre? Likely fail (but admittedly looks like a solid attempt, no doubt)
The Storm is my favorite fail, so far. Absolutely horrid reviews, plus within two months they were GIVING them away in a buy-one-get-one Blackberry sale. Pathetic.
UTAHNKID: GOOD JOB AFFORDING THOSE PHONES U R PRO... 2 BAD I DRIVE FERARRI BITCH
Yeah I’m sure you do. Maybe you should go look at the emblem and figure out how to spell Ferrari correctly. Poser.
So much overhype for pre,
Very high expectations.
So if it sells less than iPhone did
, 1 million in 72 hours will it be an upset?
After all success is measured in sales,agree?
Will people aspire to own pre over 2 year old iPhone ?
If it breaks iPhone record I will get a pre outta respect.
This is a US only phone. Your numbers are reffereing to the iPhone 3G lauch that happened world wide, which cannot be used in a comparisoin to the Pre lauch. You need to compare to the original iPhone launch, which took just under 3 months to reach 1 million units in the US. Which is an amazing figure. That is the time frame for the Pre to shoot for, but, even though I love this phone, my opinion is this economy isn't going to allow that to happen, which means even if it didn't reach that sales figure in that time frame the comparison isn't really fair. If a million sell in 2009 (including the holiday season, which I pray Sprint will still have exclusivity during) I consider that a huge success for Palm and Sprint and this will turn Sprint around. I'm pulling for Sprint on this one, we need them to stay in the game to keep the wireless competition going. Then we all win.
Poor Palm. They had one shot, and they hitched their wagon to a dead dog.
can someone please tell me if Pre is licensed from FCC yet? Can they really have Pre ordered for mass production even before FCC approval? I am very upbeat for Pre and hope it release before June 30 but I am just concerned when they keep on saying that Pre in hands of testers is early beta. If they didn't finalize the product yet how can they license the product, go for production and deliver it within next 2 month and half? I hope they break some records and still deliver Pre before their own deadline. I am more concerned about quality control (have very ugly past with Palm Treos) of Pre. I dont want to be the one with dead pixel on screen or unable to press P on keyboard.
They can (and probably have) request an FCC embargo on publishing the certification details until the release date.
As for Trēo quality, I've owned two (and three Palm PDAs before that) and never had any build problems.
Having worked for Sprint in the past these type of emails are given to store reps and associates alike and only cover training for "Upselling" so expect there to be a lot of sale pushes in the up coming weeks.
With all the deom video's I watched since CES, I dont need any training,
Confirmed by my Sprint source. This is the real deal. They are interviewing employees at each branch and selected one individual who will be trained by Palm. The employee that is selected will be trained and then given a Palm Pre free and the employee will then train all other employees at that branch on how to use the Pre. They are being told that the training session is still a few weeks out, though.
This is a good sign. I needed my Pre fix for the day.
... The pre has been handled for sprint employees for months now; I'm dating one and friends with two ;) It's quite amazing to see the two company work through the bugs in the phone. They're trying hard to make sure this is a solid product when it comes to market, hence the silence on a release date. You guys have right to be excited, this is a cool cool phone.... I have to wait a few months to be eligible for an upgrade... ho hum :(
Thats nothing, I been waiting almost 2 years for this phone and have to switch carriers to get it!
Finally the pre has arrive to put an end to the rein of the "mighty" iphone.
i plan on getting one the day it comes out, how u may ask. i just got people in the right places
Yeah, my aunt works for Sprint and she has a closet FULL of Pre's that she's been programming. It's pretty awesome.
Yeah, and I just arrived from Uranus last week.
If Training == Looking at spreadsheets and PPT decks, then yeah! We're Training! No clue when or if we'll get the phones to touch. They're being VERY tight with them. Makes the Instinct launch look like a pinata party with phones falling everywhere.
@ Bonqueesha
I had to have the cable installed as my AUX on my car stereo (since it didn't come with one) and ran it underneath the center console so I could have my iPod in my car's center box, where my additional power adapter is located and it stays hidden out of site. FYI.
Are we looking for a June launch... against a new iPhone?
@Hamidxa - You have missed some key points bro...
Bolt is faster than Opera (for now)
http://boltbrowser.com/
Task Facade is nice alternative to the touch FLO interface but compare that experience with the Pre and you tell me which is faster?
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=3794
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R33Lc8cOXRs
Overall, webOS smokes WinMo all the way around in sheer speed as demonstrated in the video above.
Smart Zoom is not very smart on a WinMo device's browser.
I am a fan of WinMo so don't get me wrong but everyone knows linux runs faster than WinMo and that's the point (at least until nvidia steps up with their processor and gets the HTC out sometime this year or next).
When the Pre comes out, take your Touch HD to the store and compare it side by side, you'll see for yourself.
What sucks is, I never got an e-mail @ work. I had to find out @ Engadget lol.
Does this mean that the long awaited 2012 "end of days" is still on schedule?
GSM GSM GSM GSM GSM GSM GSM GSM GSM GSM GSM GSM
We need GSM and other version !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At least ,I can use my palm os sw on pre if the simulation is ok.
Holding centro, I am waiting for PRE.. If possible..
Already seen it in person in the wild with a Sprint Employee.
The retail employees don't have them yet. The ones that have supposedly been seen in the wild are beta units. We haven't even started our trainings yet.
I'm just glad to get my pre fix. Damn, can't wait for this thing to get out already! I sooo hope that a Canadian launch will coincide with US (that's something Palm gotta wanna do since it'll boost their sales numbers) but I'm not too optimistic about it.