As the Palm Pre smartphone nears its much anticipated release date, major Palm investor Roger McNamee said in an interview with Bloomberg that, come June, Apple iPhone users will be switching to what he called the new "coolest product on the market." This bold statement comes as Palm looks to gain back much needed momentum from the RIM BlackBerry and the iPhone.
When the
Apple
iPhone hits its two-year anniversary in June,
Palm
plans to release its
highly
anticipated Pre smartphone, which a major Palm investor is insisting will
turn the tide in the competitive handset market.
In a March 6 interview with
Bloomberg, Palm
investor Roger McNamee boldly declared: "Not one of those people will still be
using an iPhone a month later."
They're big words, but ones McNamee seems to take delight in defending.
"If you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the
coolest product on the market," McNamee added during the Bloomberg interview.
"Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they're going
to buy."
The Palm Pre features an iPhone-like touch-screen that slides up to reveal a
QWERTY keyboard.
Its designer, who came from Apple, suggested the dual touch-screen/keyboard at
Apple, but the idea was rejected.
Palm
is banking on the success of the Pre to pull it from six consecutive
quarters of losses, totaling more than $650 million.
McNamee is a co-founder of Elevation Partners, which paid $100 million in
December to lift its stake in Palm from 25 percent to 39 percent. He says he
believes Palm's newer operating system will give it an edge, saying that the
technology behind the Research In Motion BlackBerry is 13 years old, and 9
years old for the Apple iPhone.
The economic slowdown, McNamee told Bloomberg, "is an enormous risk for
everybody in this marketplace-but I don't care."
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