Palm Pre means the iPhone’s days are numbered

There’s a rather irritating trend spreading though big corporations, whereby product confidence seems to have been replaced by corporate organ measuring.

First Nintendo's and Sony’s chief UK executives obtusely refuse to acknowledge they have any competition (a move which is also effective in needlessly alienating vast consumer demographics), now Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners - which bought up 39 per cent of Palm recently - has told Bloomberg that the Pre signals the immediate death of the iPhone.

“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two- year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone,” says McNamee. “Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”

We expect a company to push its own product as a priority, rather than acknowledge the strengths of the competition, but unfortunately it seems McNamee attended the same marketing seminar as Nintendo’s David Yarnton and Sony’s Ray Maguire.

An unreasonable statement backed up by corporate grandstanding an advert does not make.

“Think about it. If you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market,” continues McNamee. “Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy.”

We’re as excited as anyone about the Pre, but this trend for inglorious egotism casts serious doubt on those who are making the marketing decisions - and it’s on these people that the device’s success really rides.