Palm in an uncharacteristic move late yesterday submitted an SEC filing hoping to dampen expectations created by Elevation Partners founder Roger McNamee during a Bloomberg TV interview. The US document specifically singles out McNamee’s claims that the Palm Pre would convert all early iPhone users and describes them as an “exaggerated prediction” that it wants to withdraw.

Assertions that the OS roots of the BlackBerry and iPhone are 13 and 9 years old are also “inherently imprecise” and also taken back, Palm says. Read the rest of this entry »

Palm investor Roger McNamee recently stated that when the phone contracts of the initial iPhone owners expire this summer, they’ll all be jumping ship for the Palm Pre – which should be shipping by then.

“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. 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.”

First of all, this statement belies a common misconception about Apple owners – namely that their purchasing decisions are fueled by and are a function of their desire to be “cool”. While these customers undoubtedly exist, the iPhone has sold millions of units simply because its feature set leapfrogged all other competing smartphones in one fell swoop. Think about it – the iPhone was unveiled more than two years ago, and competitors are still struggling to play catchup. Apple doesn’t create hype to sell products. Rather, the ingenuity of the products themselves create the hype. Read the rest of this entry »