Despite the reportedly 'small' crowds gathered outside the Palm Pre stores on the day of the launch of the smartphone on Saturday, the analysts have called the launch a 'noteworthy' success! According to J. P. Morgan estimates over 50,000 Pre phones were sold in the first two days of the phone's availability, while the Wall Street Journal cited analysts putting the sales numbers at between 50,000 and 100,000.

Though both Sprint and Palm have refrained from disclosing specific sales figures, Tim Donahue - Sprint's Vice President of Business Marketing - remarked that the Pre launch exceeded the company's expectations.

Donahue said that the newly-launched device had been sold out over the weekend in most of the Sprint store locations, at a pace much faster than the companies - Palm and Sprint - had planned on.

Reacting to the Pre sales figures, Endpoint Technologies' President, Roger Kay, said that Palm would want the Pre to surpass the Apple iPhone sales numbers - hitting the low tens of millions - in order that the success of the smartphone can actually be a substantial one.

About Palm's expectations from Pre, Kay said: "They need more than just a successful product. They need a huge hit so the company itself is re-launched. A lot of people today think the company is really not in the game, and they want to change that."