Edible Apple

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, who you might remember from those black and white Spring commercials, recently had this to say about his company’s advertising efforts, or lack thereof, regarding the upcoming Palm Pre.

We don’t intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while.  We won’t be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.

Is this just an attempt to generate hype and get people to camp out in front of Sprint stores before the devices sell out?  Possibly, but I highly doubt that people will be lining up for the Pre in the same way they lined up for the iPhone and the BlackBerry Storm.

The Palm Pre looks cool, but what about it is so compellingly different from the variety of smartphones that are currently out on the market?  Also, while the Pre might be getting a lot of traction and hype in the geek/tech world, that hasn’t really spread over into the mainstream.  It might be hard for some people to fathom, but the majority of Americans don’t read Engadget or Gizmodo, and most haven’t even heard of them either.  On the flip side, every one (techies and non-techies alike) knew about the iPhone months before it even went on sale.  That said, the Pre might be a must-have phone for consumers currently stuck with a Sprint contract, but aside from that, the Pre hype is bound to disappear inside the vacuum that will swirl around Apple when it releases a new iteration of the iPhone just 2 days after the Pre is released.