5 Reasons Why Pre Won't Replace The iPhone For O2

O2 may well have managed to grab the Palm Pre smartphone but the mobile phone network probably knows that Pre is no replacement for the Apple iPhone.

Palm shares were up significantly today with the shares reaching $11.14, a 10 percent improvement over last week but as one analyst puts it, "Palm's current share price implies the company can walk on water".

Here are five reasons why we believe that the Pre, despite all the promises and/or hype, won't be a worthy replacement for the iPhone in O2's roster of exclusive smartphones.

(1) Marketing Clout of Apple

Whether you want it or not, Apple is a huge marketing giant. The company spent $486 million on advertising in 2008 on its three main products; the iPhone, the Mac and the iPod.

Given the number of iPhone ads that were broadcasted ad nauseam over the UK television channels over the Christmas period, it would not surprise us if a significant portion of the marketing budget was allocated, within the UK, to the iPhone.

Palm certainly doesn't have similar deep pockets and will have to depend on O2 instead to get the word out.