I had a note in from Mr Operator — our super-high level mobile industry executive contributor. Here is what his email said:
Saw your Palm Pre coverage, Ewan –
Remember this?
Mr Operator: Palm Pre – destined for European failure
Heh.
Mr O.
That post he’s highlighted is a column he wrote published back in March 2009 when the Palm Pre noise was beginning to hot up. At that point Mr Operator said the Palm Pre would go nowhere in Europe and set out his reasoning why. You can, of course, read what Mr Operator had to say right here.
Nicely done, Mr Operator.
We never doubted you!
I'm not sure of the point of this post. You offer no new data, just a link to an old speculative post. The claims as to the sales figures you mentioned before for Ireland were never backed up, and could not be without an official O2 statement. I could just as easily claim that 100,000 were sold, and offer the same amount of proof – none.
Are there any hard sales figures for the Pre in Europe? I'm actually quite interested.
There's a reason there are no 'hard' figures. They're absolutely shocking.
Perhaps they are. Perhaps the are not. Unless some corroboration can be offered, any number is pure speculation.
I understand the chicken and egg problem here, but regardless, this is all just guesswork based on a supposedly “in the know” source. As I said, I could easily write a blog post saying that a “friend” told me that a million were sold. Without naming the source, there's no credibility to the claim, and you saying “They're absolutely shocking” carries exactly the same weight.
Back it up.
I've corroborated with two impeccable sources Shane. That's good enough for me. I've also learned the approximate UK activations as well (rubbish, but in line with Irish sales).
If you talk to o2, they'll deny all knowledge citing their 'we don't talk about handset sales' policy which is only lifted when there's good news (eg a million iPhone connections).
OK, two supposedly “in the know sources” 🙂
Can you at least say where in the supplier chain these two people work? Do they compile sales reports for upper management, or are they shop floor assistants with possibly limited access to the sales database?
They are senior level management at companies operating close to o2 UK and o2 Ireland.