Palm App Catalog sees 1 million downloads to 150,000 Pre owners
By Thomas Ricker 
posted June 25th 2009 5:50AM
posted June 25th 2009 5:50AM
[Via NY Times Blog]
posted June 25th 2009 5:50AM
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@Mike
It all boils down to the Apple fan attack machine desperately wants to paint the Pre as a failure.
You see, these numbers are totally fake, and by no means reflects the PATHETICLY small numbers of Pres that were sold. Also no app store, other than Apple's, could possibly garner this much usage EVER!
I mean, it not even an Apple project, so these numbers cant be real!
Without wanting to get into another boring iPhone vs. ? fight, there is no point comparing these figures to the first month of Apple's App Store. The App Store's initial success was largely based on the fact that 1st-gen iPhone owners had been waiting a year to do more on their phone than surf the web. Apple kept on marketing the iPhone as a computer, the community had jailbroken it to deploy their own apps and there was lots of expectation and frustration. The Apple hype machine (e.g. Engadget, etc.) also contributed to this by banging on about the App Store and the need for legitimate apps from day 1.
In other words, the conditions were extremely different back then. It took Apple a year to get apps to there users whereas Palm already have their marketplace setup and will have there SDK out to developers imminently. Just let them get on with the job and congratulate them for what they've done.
@Look You do realize that you are one of the few people on this site that actually attacks anyone. And you do it all the time. Its ridiculous, and i really really wish you would just get effing banned already. Everything has to be some kind of power struggle with Apple. You call all the Apple people haters, but here you are spreading your FUD again for the 2nd time just in this thread. Man you are just really really pathetic.
People with iphones don't want this phone to fail, YOU WANT PEOPLE WITH IPHONES TO THINK THAT, you really do. You see it justifies your whole existence and that is really sad. I have had an iphone since the first one came out and ive got a 3GS. When my friend who is on sprint asked me what kind of smartphone to get seeing as his contract was up, i told him just stick with sprint and get a Pre, if you don't feel that must have feeling for an iPhone, there is no reason to deal with the carrier switch hassle. He got his Pre, and since i follow all these tech blogs i showed him all the tricks i read up on it.
I know you will hate to hear this but YOU ARE the MS Paul A. Chapel.
So please, just stop with your BS, its sickening.
So, given the data we are looking at an average of 7 applications per Pre owner. That data sounds reasonable to me, assuming that the majority of the applications available are free since I am quite sure this just represents customer trying out what is available. The more interesting statistic will be for paid applications where customers are making serious decisions about which applications are of genuine use to them.
It's a bit of a shame that Palm's web site only lists 12 applications and does not seem to give access to the actual current catalogue since I would be interested to see what is on there.
With respect to the SDK release date, I still tend to feel that Palm was rushed into an early launch of the Pre before its developer program could really start to bare fruit due to the widely expected release of a new iPhone. If Palm had delayed then I am sure that we wouldn't be maligning the number of applications available in their Application Store but then they might have lost potential customers to the iPhone 3GS. I think Palm decided to pull the trigger sooner rather than later, which was probably the correct decision.
Does anyone know how many apps in total have been downloaded for the iPhone since it's initial launch? Is it significantly more than 1M for this Palm Fur thing?
I don't know the current figure, but they broke 1billion downloads a couple months ago, so maybe 1.2 billion. Regardless, the iPhone is way ahead and it's app store is much more diverse and mature than the Pre. Plus, once apps created using the 3GS's processing power, people are going to be blown away. The Pre will not be able to sniff the iPhone's ass once these start rolling out. 150,000 Pre's sold.............that's pathetic for a device that has been hyped-up and promoted as much as the Pre has over the past year and half!
Dion: really? As far as I know the Pre is currently only available in the US (European launch in September), the iPhone (3G) (S) however is available in over 80 countries in the world. It's your math, that is pathetic!
Anyone know what the Ovi Store has managed?
7?
@jakem
Probably the most sensible response yet. The only thing to note is that the reason why Palm doesn't have many applications yet to sell is that they only let developers have 2-months with the SDK prior to shipping the Pre. Palm would be in a better position at launch of their store if they had given developers the same sort of time with the SDK as Apple did, which was about 5-months, I think.
Mind you, it also has to be considered that the Palm is supposedly easier to write applications for due to its use of HTML, CSS and JavaScript rather than the comparatively unknown Objective-C for the iPhone, so you ought to expect a faster delivery of applications for the Pre. Still, if you can write applications for the Mac then you can write applications for the iPhone so the existing Mac development community pretty much hit the ground running, so that could also explain why there were a lot more applications for the iPhone at the time of the App Store's release.
150,000 Pres sold in the US in the first 3 weeks sounds like a pretty good number for v1.0.? adopters.
These figures must be part of the Palm Reality Distortion Field. More likely the Palm Truth Distortion Field. Are they sure Palm has really sold 150,000 Pres by now? That's an awful lot considering how slow they're manufacturing Pres. I'd heard there was about a two week's waiting list for orders in Manhattan.
Too bad the Pre only uses the PowerVR SGX530 graphics chip (14 MPolys/s) while the iPhone 3GS used the SGX535 (28 MPolys/s). Otherwise those million Pre apps would look much better. Now they only look like 500k apps.
@Freakin Ijit
How convenient. Like all the other trolls, you've set your profile to private.
Anyway, I believe that the quote made by anylists is relatively accurate. With 50,000 being sold on the first weekend.... 3 weeks later.... it's an accurate estimation. Not to mention that if there are less phones, that means that people are dowloading more apps per phone. Either way.....
Oh a million. yawn. Wake me up when your even close to a billion. anddd the pre already got peaced out.
you guys have it backwards. this story is not from palm so no numbers are not real for the pres or the apps downloaded. the numbers are from "industry analysts" and other lesser known palm fanboys. the apple numbers are actually from apple who is held accountable by its shareholders so i would wager the million iphones sold this weekend is an accurate number. given the small production runs of pres so far, these numbers all seem inflated to me but who knows.
No, the number of apps downloaded comes from Palm's App Catalog. THOSE numbers are (if you trust them - I do) direct from Palm and real.
I seriously wonder how old you folks are on here...I mean seriously.
My 2yr old nephew has more sense then some of you guys and girls.
I'm so glad I wasnt like this in my teen years. Where does the school and paarents fail at??
But anyways...no matter what, congrats Palm.
The main thing still stands. Its a success for Palm & Sprint.
It's not trying to destroy the iPhone. Only a pure idiot would think a business would be trying to do that...and even if they did believe that, they'd have enough sense to know it wouldn't happen in THREE WEEKS.
But as long as the companies who push the device are making money and happy with numbers, then it's a success.
I guess you kids won't learn that until you get out the diapers and hit some business courses or something...
iDavey,
How DARE you use common sense, logic and a lack of adoration for a corporation? What are you, sensible?
GTFO!
As I understand it, the iPhone would be collateral damage since the Pre is targeting the RIM business, which is an even bigger task. But, you are indeed correct that it's going to take the Pre some time to get some real traction behind the platform (a release outside the US would be a good start). As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day so this is a conversation to revisit this time next year and see what the Pre's report card has been like for its first year.
Right, and I understand the target. But as we both stated...it's not going to happen in 3 weeks.
Palm's first priority is building up the userbase which they had and establishing a foothold with the WebOS
Then after that, that is when they'll go head on fighting platforms.
All this ridiculous childish rambling of "it hasnt killed the iPhone" and "Palm is going the way of the dodo" is ludicrous.
If in a year or two...they are still in the same position, on one carrier, in the entire world...then judgement can be passed.
Until then...I'd very much like these ignorant minds who can't understand basic business fundamentals to hush and stop acting like their word is right because they worship Apple/RIM/WinMo/Android/Palm like some Greek God!
This, you have it right exactly. One, it cant even technically compete with the iphone since its not on the same network. The 2 really really really big wins for the Pre is sprint getting a phone that doesn’t suck total balls, and Palm not disappearing into oblivion. Which will hopefully extend to verizon, assuming they don't rape it like they do to other phones.
I really hope it does come to verizon, not that im a customer, just if i see that stupid commercial for that ridiculous LG phone with the tiny screen advertising their "Apps", you know the one where they are at the fast food restaurant trying to convince that ugly guy to get this shitty phone and he is like, "But id never use those things, while thinking if you put that down im going to steal it", yeah that one. Im going to throw my old first gen iPhone through the TV effing Elvis style.
@Tao
Hilarious! LOL!
And that is right. The fact that handsets are selling out...no matter limited stock or not...it shows that something was done right.
And the beauty of it (as with all multiple form factors) is that WebOS will be spread out to other carriers...on other devices. Making it better for Palm (while probably hurting Sprint in the process...but we don't care about Sprint, LOL.)
How people are judging the outcome of a company within 3 weeks is truly beyond my comprehension. Maybe they have some magic time machine that I don't know about =\
Apparently G1 users are downloading more even than iphone users.
"The wireless operator reports that G1 Android users have downloaded an average of 40 applications for their devices in comparison with the 37 downloaded by iPhone owners."
And on top of that, Android users supposedly appreciate apps more. They (or should I say we) use our apps more than iPhone users.
That was such a fanboy crap article and graph. Laughable statistics.
Those numbers are embarrassing to look at. Palm should be cringing after seeing these numbers. Palm targeted the Palm Pre directly against the iPhone. From the looks of things, the Palm Pre is a massive failure.
Palm regarding the iPhone from Apple:
“We think that will be a greater driver of purchases in the future. We don’t want to follow design fads.” (about iPhone vs. Centro)
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
"I think people are buying Centros for different reasons [than the iPhone]. They’re [Centros] easier to use, they’re a little less pretentious, they are smaller form factor. They’ve got a full keyboard for doing data entry."
Roger McNamee (of "Elevation Partners", major stakeholder of Palm):
“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.”
"The Pre going to be a million times -- well, not a million times -- several times faster than the iPhone."
"The Pre is going to run rings around [Apple] on the Web."
Clearly one man's opinion (that wasn't even endorsed by Palm as a whole) does not cover all of the company.
They need to put one of those movie type interview disclaimers before somebody speaks.
And in response to the first comment...I didn't know that 3 weeks was the "future" they spoke of =|
Drop this beating of a dead horse.
Pre is selling to the expectations of the company. (not the brain dead man who said such quote)
So Pre is not a failure. End of discussion. Hush your mouth. Learn business dealings. Then come back with an unbiased, business oriented comment.
@iDavey
Wrong. Those quotes were not from one person. Remember the CEO? Selective amnesia is common among Palm fans. 50K Launch numbers is pathetic. 18 App during launch is pathetic. No distribution of the SDK is pathetic. Device build is pathetic. Its not even optical grade glass for the screen, rather its plastic. Again pathetic. Back to the drawing board for Palm.
@Jubei Im not sure if you have held one in your hand but the manufacturing isnt as bad as the blogs made it out to be. Listen, im a huge Apple nut, and i love my 3GS but the pre is a damn awesome phone, and to be missing that is so ridiculous, it holds about the same water as the people saying the same old "Whats a Zune" about the ZuneHD. If you cant admit that both of these devices are awesome, and you are an Apple person, then i don't see how you could appreciate your own equipment.
As far as the plastic screen goes, before the iPhone i had never seen a phone with a glass screen, and havent seen one since. Its just not the norm. Also keep in mind that this was the last chance for this company, and it pulled out something that trumps everything they have ever done, even after being stale for 8 years or so, i can only assume that they didn’t want to bet every last dime by jacking up the build too much, with glass screens and aluminum enclosures.
It’s an awesome phone, coming from someone who is a 100% apple person, Except at work where i manage a couple hundred windows machines and im a sad panda.
Sorry forgot about the quotes. I will say that i laughed really hard when he said the June 29 thing. Its BS like that, that will sink your company. Hopefully they will keep ol Roger in check from now on.
Uh...clearly I'm an Android supporter. Nice try, but no cigar =]
And did the CEO specifically say "We'll have iPhone beat within three weeks of our launch!"
The first set of quotes from Palm was stating the future...a period of time. Clearly 3 weeks is not what they were speaking of.
They spoke no ill-will of the iPhone. Just stated people use Centros for different reasons than iPhone...which is entirely true.
McNamee is one man, one thought, one idiotic opinion. Just because his company is a major stockholder, his opinion is not representative of Palm.
Right...like I said, until you "cult members" can understand the basics of business...give it a break.
Smack talking is smack talking.
Everyone in the "big bucks" chairs know that nothing will happen this soon...on one carrier...with one new, untested device.
Their first priority is bringing Palm back up to a respectable level.
And no matter WHAT your opinion states...Palm is happy with the success of the Pre. It sold as they wanted it to, and it's making them money. From there they will branch out, add more carriers, more countries, and build from there.
That's how you operate a business that is backed against a wall. Not going all out with one device on a limited carrier.
So please...once again, get business acumen, then come back with legitimate responses beyond
"Palmz failed, oh noes...iPhonez rulez...anyone who speaks on the side of common sense must be a Palm fanboy...pawnz"
And I could go into how the iPhone's SDK wasn't released until March of the year that 3G was released...or how irrelevant a plastic vs glass screen is (as long as the touch controls are effective)...or question how 50,000 launch is pathetic (when they sold out of all devices available). But I won't prove your ignorance just yet...I'll wait on further arguments to appear
-I'm rolling my eyes now-
"-I'm rolling my eyes now-"
Yes, thats pretty much all Palm fans can do after failing miserably and ignoring the facts. The fact that the Palm Pre launch was a total failure. LOL
@Jubei
Oh my...I must be arguing with a minor. Well...nevermind then.
Because you clearly missed some main points
1.) I'm an Android user =|
2.) How did the launch fail when Palm is satisfied and handsets are selling? =\
3.) Well...you're just a little kid with nothing to do but spout opinions and try to label them as facts.
Hmm...as I said. Learn some business...then come back with "factual" arguments...okay? =]
"Hmm...as I said. Learn some business...then come back with "factual" arguments...okay? =]"
Typical. Once facts are stated, the usual personal attacks ensues. I won't go that route. Because your ignoring these statements.
Palm regarding the iPhone from Apple:
“We think that will be a greater driver of purchases in the future. We don’t want to follow design fads.” (about iPhone vs. Centro)
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
"I think people are buying Centros for different reasons [than the iPhone]. They’re [Centros] easier to use, they’re a little less pretentious, they are smaller form factor. They’ve got a full keyboard for doing data entry."
Roger McNamee (of "Elevation Partners", major stakeholder of Palm):
“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.”
"The Pre going to be a million times -- well, not a million times -- several times faster than the iPhone."
"The Pre is going to run rings around [Apple] on the Web."
50K sold at launch far less than expected = FAIL
No SDK = FAIL
No capability for high end graphics and games = FAIL
Substandard build = FAIL
Palm Pre failed to attract new customers = FAIL
Yes roll eyes again please. :-)
If you're point is to show your lack of intelligent debating skills, congratulations.
now, i'm an iPhone LOVER, but good for Palm!!! considering there are only 30 apps, and there is no SDK to speak of, I think those are great numbers.
How many iPhone apps were downloaded in the first month? 0. Hell, we had zero app downloads in the first YEAR!
False argument - at the time the idea of an "app store" was unknown and new (perhaps insignificant implementations elsewhere).
But NOW App Stores are standard stuff and are expected by all.
Palm included.
And all they have right now is an App Catalog from which you select an app but cannot buy an app.
30 apps... that's cute
that's pretty amazing for only 30 apps.
I think as time goes by people will begin to see that the pre is pretty kick ass, and with sprints recession friendly monthly plans it will become more popular. For my sister her contract w/att couldn't expire soon enough, she cant wait to switch to the pre.
You're just sounding stupid now. Who says 'booyah' anymore? Honestly.