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.
Although the investor was roughly accurate with relative market share for iPhones, BlackBerries and smartphones as a whole, Palm further corrects him and says that the Pre won’t necessarily be “several times faster” than the iPhone as it’s still under development. Touting webOS as superior is also difficult when it’s in a beta state, the company notes, and claims that Sprint’s 3G network is better than those for AT&T and Verizon are just “generalizations” that are likely to vary by area.
The filing prevents legal ramifications from McNamee’s statements but also underscores Palm’s awareness of the Pre’s role in the market, where it’s expected to be one of Apple’s most direct competitors and one of Sprint’s few true “halo” devices that could lure customers to its network. Where McNamee has been known for making aggressive claims about Palm’s competition with the iPhone since the Pre was introduced at CES this January, the company has regularly backed down and is best known for having preemptively claimed there would be no patent disputes with Apple over the use of multi-touch with the Pre’s interface.
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