How successful the Droid actually was, few people know. We still don’t have complete sales figures. But it appears that at least the opening couple of months were pretty good. I still think the Droid’s audience was limited to über-geek males by the silly marketing campaign Verizon put out. But maybe they knew that audience was their best shot at any sort of success.
The Pre, on the other hand, has much more potential for wider market appeal. Women, in particular, would be much more likely to want a Pre or Pixi over a Droid, I’d guess. So if the Pre had been released on Verizon sooner, AND Verizon had developed a wide-reaching marketing campaign and put as much money behind it as it did the Droid, then yeah. I’d say Rubenstein would be right. But that’s a big IF.
I almost want to pick up a Pre, just to play around with WebOS more. If I could get one unlocked and not bother paying for monthly service, just use it via WiFi, that might be interesting.
I just hate to see Palm in this position. It has the best product to compete against Apple, but no one is buying it. It’s sort of the same position Apple was in throughout the ’90s. If Android stopped getting so much undeserved positive press, Palm would have a much better shot at making a go of it. They wouldn’t overtake the iPhone any time soon, but they don’t have to.
