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Palm Investor Banking on First-Gen iPhone Fallout

Categories: iPhone, Palm, Palm Pre
By: , IntoMobile
Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 2:00 PM

Elevation Partners co-founder Roger McNamee is especially excited about Palm’s launch window, and think a lot of iPhone users will make the jump to the new Pre.

“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone,” McNamee said today in an interview in San Francisco. “Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later. … Think about it — If you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market. Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy.”

Nevermind the ones who swallowed the ETF and picked up the next gen iPhone at launch, will the floodgates really open as soon as those early adopters’ contracts or up, or are they more likely to ugprade to the iPhone 3G? While I’m tempted to side with the Pre, folks who have their iPhones love them, and would probably be wary of switching to something where they wouldn’t be able to keep using all of those apps they’ve bought through iTunes. We’re also assuming Apple doesn’t make another announcement before the summer rolls around, which, although possible doesn’t seem entirely likely. What do you guys think: will expiring iPhone contracts be the lynchpin for the Pre’s success?

[via Bloomberg]

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About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.