So, we're not entirely sure what happened between late May and now (minus the influx of press surrounding AT&T and Verizon obtaining the device next year), but Sprint and Palm seem to be reversing their strategy and downplaying the success of the Palm Pre at launch by telling customers not to expect lengthy lines on Saturday morning.
Palm spokeswoman Lynn Fox encouraged customers to equate success with time and not with the picture of a jam-packed store: ?We?re not like Apple,? she said. Mark Elliott, a spokesman for Sprint, went on to say that Sprint sought to replace the typical "line out the door" mentality with a more personal experience for customers buying the Pre: ?What we?re trying to do is not have people backed up waiting so customers feel rushed. We want each customer to get the experience.?
Whether this is a creative marketing ploy or an actual belief by Sprint and Palm executives remains to be seen, but at any rate, I would still recommend arriving as early as possible. Regardless of how much they would like to, traffic patterns can't be predicted across the US - and hey, it's always good to plan for the worst, right?
Source: New York Times
(Image courtesy of Palm InfoCenter)
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