Palm Pre launching no earlier than May 16 according to leaked doc?
We've been made privy to some Sprint planning documentation that implies that the carrier is looking to get all its Pre ducks in a row by May 16, which would suggest that there's no way in hell it's launching any earlier than that.
Context & Ripple Effects
Sprint has spent weeks managing expectations downward on the Pre: its CEO said in early March that the phone was still not ready to launch, before the picture firmed up mid-month when pricing plans were confirmed alongside a commitment to a first-half-of-2009 window. The software side looks ready — Sprint demoed WebOS apps including Pandora, Google Maps and a PalmOS emulator at CTIA earlier this month, and hands-ons found the apps anything but lightweight.
Today's leak is a Sprint planning document implying every 'Pre duck' must be in a row by May 16 — which, if genuine, converts that broad half-year promise into a floor rather than a ceiling. The claim is unconfirmed, but it lands on a carrier with clear reasons to hurry: Sprint's shares jumped nearly 20% to $3.25 when the Pre deal was announced in February, on top of a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss.
First-order effects
- If the May 16 date holds, Sprint's retail channel — training, inventory, marketing — gets a hard deadline about five weeks out, compressing the ramp for a launch the carrier is betting its turnaround on.
- The leak narrows the public countdown: buyers waiting since CES now have a concrete earliest date to plan against instead of an open-ended 'first half' window.
Second-order effects
- Unconfirmed reports have suggested Best Buy Mobile will be an exclusive retail partner for the Pre's first 60 days; a mid-May launch would put that partner's staffing and stock decisions on the same compressed clock as Sprint's own stores.
- AT&T and Verizon face a fresh WebOS rival landing on a carrier whose network performed credibly in last December's eight-city 3G test — pressure to accelerate their own spring smartphone responses.
Third-order effects
- A struggling number-three carrier using an exclusive flagship plus a tight, leak-managed launch cycle points toward handset exclusivity becoming the standard competitive weapon in US mobile, with carriers' internal timelines routinely exposed by leaks along the way.
The trend: US carrier smartphone launches are increasingly choreographed around exclusive flagship devices and leaked internal planning documents, with exclusivity deals doubling as lifelines for sub-scale carriers like Sprint.