Verizon Customers Not as Interested in Pre as You Might Think?
In a recent study by Compete.com, their analysis showed that Verizon may not receive a considerable boost from when the Pre (or another webOS phone) lands on the nation’s most popular cellular network. The study focused on “pre-churners,” or current customers that are considering switching networks (having logged at least ten page views on competitor websites). In the end, there are two groups of people: those satisfied with Verizon, and those exploring other options. Of those looking elsewhere, only 1.7% were looking in the direction of the Palm Pre on Sprint, whereas 14.8% were considering the iPhone on AT&T.
It’s no surprise that the iPhone has drawn more attention from potential switchers than the Pre, as it has been on the market for two years longer and has a much larger established base (not to mention the marketing muscle of Apple). Unfortunately for our curiosity, the study did not take a look at what satisfied Verizon customers think of the Pre. We here at PreCentral know that there are a good many of you that do want the Palm Pre on Verizon, and at the very least early next year there should be a webOS device of some variety on Big Red.
There’s some good news for Verizon’s competitors, however. Pre-churners on Verizon logged 40% higher interest in the iPhone than Sprint or T-Mobile customers.
[via: EverythingPre]
iPhone developer revolt brewing, what can Palm learn?
Charles Wolf, of Needham & Co., recently described the iPhone App Store as a “wasteland of mediocre applications” and that it was taking “its place alongside YouTube, where poor taste is the defining metric.” And now, following Apple’s killing of various Google Voice applications for ‘duplicating features’ of the iPhone (possibly at AT&T’s bidding), developers are beginning to question the logic of developing applications for the iPhone platform. Even Michael Arrington, noted lover of all things Apple, and editor of TechCrunch, is dumping his iPhone (and would have picked up a Pre if there was a webOS Google Voice app, somebody tell that guy about Homebrew!).
Mr. Rubinstein, I sincerely hope you’re watching what’s going on here as Palm moves towards finalizing its own App Catalog. While Apple may have led the way into a place we didn’t know we needed to go (the land of the application store), they’ve since gotten lost and wandered into an ever-darkening corner. Palm, we’ve got some helpful pointers, some of which you're doing, some we want to make sure you do.