Palm still noncommital on Best Buy, although deal makes sense
Neither confirming nor denying bloggers' accounts of a supposed deal with Best Buy around the Palm Pre, Palm today essentially issued a "no comment" to Betanews.
"Those are just rumors, and Palm doesn't really have a comment on them at this time," said Alex Hunter, a Palm spokesperson, speaking with Betanews on the phone today.
As reported earlier today in Betanews Alpha, WebOSArena published a blog earlier this week predicting that, for the first 60 days of the Palm Pre's commercial lifetime, Best Buy will be its only retailer.
But while still unconfirmed, a deal of this sort would seem to make sense, in light of Best Buy's growing tendency lately to partner with Sprint and other OEMs, together with Palm's newfound close friendship with Sprint.
Last summer, Sprint launched the Samsung Instinct phone, also with Best Buy as exclusive retailer. Then, in October, Best Buy rolled out its "Blue Label" laptops, an exclusive line of PCs built in tight collaboration with manufacturers like Toshiba and HP.
Users would certainly be happier if they could buy the Pre at Best Buy as opposed to say, Walmart, the retail purveyor of first, HTC's Android-based G1 and then, Apple's 3G iPhone. Unlike Best Buy, doesn't have a Geek Squad, or even anything of the sort.
As for the now budding friendship between Palm and Sprint, Palm announced last week that the Pre will be offered only for Sprint's broadband mobile network.
The Palm Pre will be operating on "most dependable network in the country," Sprint CEO Dan Hesse contended at a Palm press conference held at CES. "So it's the best smartphone on the best platform."
The Sprint chief also waxed enthusiastic about some specific features of the Pre, such as the ability to "flick between open applications." Hesse told reporters that this represented a "first for any smartphone."
Sprint's own exclusive relationship around the Palm Pre could be a big plus for the financially challenged mobile carrier, which has been struggling hard to differentiate itself in some positive ways from rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
Exclusive retail distribution of the Pre through Best Buy would surely be beneficial to Palm, although the deal alone wouldn't be enough to seal the Pre's success, noted Carmi Levy, senior VP of AR Communications and a frequent contributor to Betanews.
"Palm finally has a competitive product and is looking for any boost it can find. Selling through Best Buy represents the best possible scenario for the beleaguered smartphone vendor," Levy said today. "[But] even if the rumors are true and Palm manages to finalize this exclusive deal, it still has a lot of work to do to turn this partnership into a door-busting sales success. [There] are a number of unique features built into the new hardware and OS that should play well at a retail level if the sales experience is structured to deliver that message to potential customers.
"[Yet] sales personnel have to be better than well trained, and in-store fulfillment and activation can't be as bug-filled as the iPhone's experiences were early on," he continued. "At the time, Apple fans forgave the company. I doubt any other company, even Palm, would get off as easily."
Spokespersons for Best Buy and Sprint were temporarily unavailable for comment today.