Palm Pre Document Leaked: Device for "Right Customers" Only

by cyn.khoo | May 26, 2009 at 03:59 pm

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The Palm Pre is set to launch on June 6, but Sprint seemingly released slightly more than intended with the leak of its entire Palm Pre Launch Guide. The guide reveals marketing strategies, potential strengths and weaknesses of the Pre in the market, price plans, and details of secret or exclusive launch events, among other pieces of information.

The document reveals Palm’s plans for domination of the business world, its traditional marketplace. Sample points taken from the manual:

The device can be supported by existing IT infrastructure and will make many IT managers’ standards list.

[Non-Palm] charging solutions may not work properly.

Due to anticipated high demand, employee availability will delayed to first meet the needs of our customers.

The sealed form factor of the device makes repairs challenging and the potential for damage is significant.

Arguably most interesting to potential clients of the Pre is a statement in the leaked document reading, "We can't afford to sell the Pre to the wrong customers."

The text appears in big pink lettering on page 11 of the guide, which explains the the Pre is not for everyone. Titled “Sell the Palm Pre to the Right Customer”, the official line is that the Pre is “best suited for non-IT Centric business users.”

Wired concludes that while the Pre has its merits, Palm itself has acknowledged that the Pre may not be an adequate mobile device for business use, suggesting the Treo Pro instead.