Well the dude played very well, targetted for the low niche keyword and got to the results very well.. however i am not too sure wether u tried or not. if we put space in zoomm soft the things changes. i think here you needs to work hard becoz that niche is bigger and will give you more traffic.
PR and SERP results don't always sink... The higher the PR the better, but if you have a low competitive keyword phrase and a few articles or press releases it is easy to rank well. PR or not