Palm aiming for early Pre sellout?

Is Palm hoping to duplicate last summer's feeding frenzy for the sold-out iPhone 3G? Maybe so, given new reports that Palm might have fewer than 400,000 units of the much-anticipated Pre on-hand come launch day (whenever that is).

After checking with a half-dozen analysts and averaging their estimates, Bloomberg News is guessing that Palm's stockpile of the red-hot Pre will total only about 375,000 units—a relatively small number that would virtually guarantee an early sellout given the pent-up demand.

As Bloomberg points out, iPhone-hungry consumers gobbled up about a million units of last year's iPhone 3G in just three days—a figure that I'm assuming includes worldwide sales, not just U.S. activations.

That said (and assuming Bloomberg's estimates are correct; Palm isn't talking), with just 375,000 Pre handsets available for the initial launch (no official date yet, although the latest frenzied rumors are pegging June 7, a day before Apple's WWDC keynote), I'd imagine that the Pre would surely sell out within 30 days, if not sooner.

Of course, high demand and low supply for the Pre (which made a huge splash on its debut during CES in January; click here for details) could only serve to stoke demand even higher, as we saw last summer when lines for the hard-to-find iPhone 3G stretched outside Apple Stores for week after week.

Then again, Palm might only be shooting itself in the foot with such a (rumored) strategy; for example, if the Pre is sold out and Apple announces a hot new iPhone in June (another big "if," mind you), frustrated chatters might just throw their hands in the air and go for the new iPhone instead (assuming that isn't sold out, too).

So, I'm curious: How many of you out there are thinking of buying a Palm Pre? If it does sell out, would you be willing to wait? Or would you snap up a new iPhone (or another smartphone, for that matter) instead?

Related:
Palm May Cap Pre Stockpile at Less Than 400,000 to Boost Cachet [Bloomberg]