Palm Pre defect poll prompts 'sell' recommendation

An analyst has recommended investors sell their Palm shares, after he read a poll on a Palm fan website that suggested very high return rates for the smartphones.

The poll, which took place on the PreCentral.net website, saw 40 percent of respondents claiming they had returned their Pres due to manufacturing defects. Based on that poll as a major source of his information — another was direct questioning of retailers — Jesup & Lamont analyst Kevin Dede recommended: "Sell".

"Golly, our own forums being used to advise investors, we're honored," blogged PreCentral.net writer Dieter Bohn on Monday.

"Our forums - God love 'em - are likely to have a higher-than-average rate of people experiencing issues with the Pre. One of a forum's main functions is solving problems, so people without problems may not head there. Our PreCentral.net forum members understand that context and take the poll within that context. Your average investor reading a release from an analyst firm may not."

ZDNet UK has asked Palm for its own Pre return figures, and for clarification on the widespread complaints over the handset's build quality. No reply had been received at the time of writing.