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Sprint CEO sees Pre as Sprint "coming out party"
Fri Jun 5, 2009 2:59pm EDT
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By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp Chief Executive Dan Hesse is counting on Palm Inc's Pre smartphone to help the company move past criticism about its customer service and network quality, he said on Friday.
Ahead of the device's official launch on Saturday, Sprint executives said they hoped to move beyond consumers and draw in corporate customers, banking on the strength of the Pre's physical keyboard and raft of mobile email features.
"We're a very different company than we were 12 months ago," Hesse told analysts and reporters at a prelaunch event. "The Pre is the coming-out party for the new Sprint, to show off the new Sprint."
Pre is also pivotal for Palm, which is looking to claw back market share lost to rivals such as the BlackBerry from Research In Motion Ltd and Apple Inc's iPhone.
Palm and Sprint warned recently they expected shortages of Pre around the launch due to stronger than expected demand. Asked when Sprint expects production to meet demand, Hesse told Reuters after the event: "It's ramping up now."
Prolonged shortages would likely hurt sales, analysts have warned, noting that Apple could soon announce a new iPhone and that Sprint's top rival, Verizon Wireless, has said it will be able to offer the Pre in six months or so. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc.
Hesse, however, told technology website CNET News on Friday that Sprint's exclusive U.S. deal to sell Pre went beyond the end of 2009, dismissing the notion that Verizon could have the phone in just six months.
He did not provide a timeline for how long Sprint's exclusive deal would last.
Sprint held the event primarily to push Pre as a device for business customers, which heavily favor BlackBerry phones for mobile email.
Its executives said they see Pre's physical keyboard as a big plus over the iPhone, which only has virtual touchscreen keys for typing or making calls.
"That seems minor at times unless you actually have to type something," said Sprint vice president for marketing Tim Donahue. "As business users, we want a keyboard."
EYEING SMALL BUSINESS
While some analysts see Pre as having most appeal for consumers, Hudson Square analyst Todd Rethemeier agreed the keyboard may help appeal to some executives.
"It's a better phone for businesses than iPhone," said Rethemeier. But he said that asking a BlackBerry user to move to Pre could be a "hard sell."
It will succeed best "with smaller businesses and individuals," the analyst said. Continued...
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