Palm Pre Sells Out Over Its First Weekend

Limited supply equals US operator Sprint reporting sell-outs.

The Palm Pre – probably the most hyped phone since the iPhone – went on sale on Saturday in the U.S. and just as quickly sold out. From Reuters:

Palm may sell about 150,000 Pre phones this weekend, Lawrence Harris, an analyst at CL King & Associates, said in an interview. Piper Jaffray & Co.’s Michael Walkley puts the number at almost 200,000. New York-based Harris rates Palm “neutral” and Walkley, in Minneapolis, advises clients to buy the stock. Paul Coster, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, estimates weekend sales of more than 50,000.

Sprint’s store on Mission Street in San Francisco sold out of its allotment of 60 Pre phones within two hours, manager Daniel Chan said. The outlet started a waiting list and will get its next consignment in a few days, he said. About half the people who bought the Pre already owned an iPhone, he said.

Ebay has a few selling without the contract for around HK$4000-5000 for one of these bad boys. Reviews have been mostly positive calling the operating system strong but the material used to make the phone flimsy and toy-like. The buzz we’re getting from reviews and tweets is that its great but not revolutionary. Treo fans will be happy, but it seems iPhone users will not change even before hearing what Apple is announcing today.

No word yet on when, and if, this Gen 1 Palm Pre will be making it’s way non-gray market to Hong Kong.

Here is a nice 26-minute overview of the OS, if you still haven’t seen it:

And here are a few video reviews: