I'd heard Palm had 250k phones available (which included Best Buy locations). Problems with supply chain can end a company just as quickly as a lack-luster product. I don't think I read that all locations had sold out on the first weekend, so if they were truly limited to 100k phones, that means their sales numbers where even lower than common estimates. Regardless, having only 100k or even 250k phones ready for a launch that had been planned for so long is a real, and very serious, issue.

If you correlate sales to mindshare, I do think Palm has done better than the iPhone with these two weekends however. I suppose it doesn't mean much, but I can't imagine you'll even find 1 person that knows what a Pre is out of every 100 "normal people" that know what an iPhone is. Despite this, they managed a 1/10th sales rate. When you factor in this complete lack of awareness, the numbers seem pretty good. May not be good enough to pay back Elevation Partners at the rate they expect though.

I think Apple should take all competition seriously, but I maintain that they need to keep a closer eye on the established RIM Blackberry and the Android platform from other established players like Motorola. Palm has never been a big dog in the mobile communications space. While I think the Pre and perhaps a follow-on product will increase their share relative to where it was prior, I don't think any of the big players, including RIM have much to worry about. It's showing to be an extremely niche product and the road to change that seems very steep and a difficult climb for Palm given how they have gone about with their Pre roll-out.

BTW, how's the camera on the Pre? People are raving about the one on the 3Gs and frankly, I'm questioning their sanity. In the examples I've seen, the real showcase is the talent of the photographer first and foremost and the device's software. In the end you still have a crappy sensor and a crappy lens to deal with. The result is extremely grainy photos that don't really look very good unless down-sampled by photo editing or presentation software (such as Flickr). I think these folks aren't looking at the large or 1:1 versions of the images.

BTW, all (recent) reports indicate that Palm's exclusivity agreement with Sprint is longer than 6 months, though neither party has come forward with a specific time-frame. I also think the ATT deal is seriously holding back Apple's sales numbers, though probably not revenue. I'd love to see the phone sold unlocked just like any other device from them, but $599-$699 would be a hard pill to swallow for most people. I don't think the price elasticity stretches that far.