Palm Pre vs. iPhone - THE FIRST WEEK

So, given Apple’s announcements this week, the Pre’s first real test will be its sales numbers this weekend, but let’s just sum up where things stand at the moment.

Analysts estimate the Pre to have sold a respectable number over the past few days: anywhere between 40,000 and 100,000 units. Some writers have compared the number unfavorably with the millions of units sold during iPhone 3G’s launch weekend, but that’s a very unfair comparison: Apple had unprecedented buzz and a year’s experience in the business, whereas Palm is a failing company that no one cared about releasing the first iteration of a breakthrough product/OS. Palm’s current sales numbers are definitely very encouraging - by comparison, it took Google six months to sell one million G1s.

On the other hand, Apple introduced its iPhone 3GS this week, making a few much-desired improvements: dramatically lowering the price point, bumping up the phone’s processor and RAM and adding some extra features like a 3-megapixel camera with video recording capability. It’s clear that, in terms of featuresets, Apple has the best phone on the market right now, at the most competitive price point. (Apple sells a 32GB phone for $299 on contract, and the 8GB Palm Pre sells for $199 on contract after a $100 mail-in rebate.)

It looks like if your priorities include a seamless and intuitive user experience, you’re going to want to go with the iPhone. The Palm Pre offers an interface not unlike a handheld computer: with well-implemented multitasking, a wide list of supported gestures and a physical keyboard, it seems to be more of a phone for power users. Both are great choices, and based on this first weekend’s numbers I’d be surprised if the Pre weren’t a big success. If not quite up to the iPhone’s caliber, it easily takes the title of second place - and given how excellent a phone it really is, second place is more than good enough.

PHOTO CAPTION. Left: Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein shows off his Pre in front of the line at San Francisco’s Sprint store at the device’s launch. Right: attendees of Apple’s 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference show off their iPhones.