Not that I would be happy if Palm and Sprint were to fail in their Pre mission, but I am sort of becoming too excited reading everything about the Pre and the iPhone 3GS. 

Many supposed iPhone killers came and simply had vanished. Where are BlackBerry Storm, Samsung Instinct, HTC G1 and the likes that we thought would dethrone the iPhone? When all hopes were gone and when we were almost convinced that the iPhone is going to rule for some more years, Palm gave us the webOS running Pre to take down the iPhone. 

The launch of the Pre weeks before the iPhone 3GS, we thought was an advantage for Palm and Sprint. Well, that was a misconception. Sales statistic is suggesting the reverse. During the first weekend of Pre’s launch, industry analysts put the sales figure at 50,000 to 100,000 units; Apple sold one million iPhone 3GS in just three days. 

Now, thousands of Pre users (well I made this up; I mean ’some’) are complaining about the hardware. (Read this discussion thread)

For some users the sliding concept seem not to be working that well. The group here are complaining that the slide is going loose. Some are complaining that their devices have dead Pixels. Some are even reporting of the device getting overheated (oh that! You are not alone, iPhone 3GS users are learning to live with that).

A particular Pre user wrote that he has replaced his handset for four times and still have a problem with his fifth one. Each of the handsets have specific problems. That sounds really painful. Thank goodness, iPhone 3GS users are spared of these type of heartache. 

It is not all sad though, some Pre users are very satisfied with their Pre handsets and don’t care much about the woes of other Pre users. 

I feel sad for the unhappy Pre users and adopters. However, I am simply tempted to ask “Is Palm Pre a failed mission?”