Palm Pre to be released on April 30th?
Take this with as much salt as a delicious freshly baked pretzel, but according to an alleged beta tester of the Palm Pre, the highly anticipated device will be released on April 30th for $299.99 with a two-year contract. The source of the information, Jim Van, works for Logicomm; an IT company based out of Rhode Island. Now, we know a lot of people are going to be excited about this, but we remain very, very skeptical. A few things working against the source: 1) He would certainly be under NDA from both Palm and Sprint forbidding him from discussing the product in private, let alone public. 2) Why would a beta tester have been told pricing and release date? 3) Then there’s the fact that no real and conclusive evidence is given, of course. We’d love to be wrong and have the Pre drop on us as early as possible but at this point in time, we’re still leaning towards late May/early June launch as we’ve stated in the past. Of course pushing it up to late April would be as great for Palm as it is unlikely — the more space between the Pre launch and the new iPhone announcement, the better.
[Via Giz]
Read (Jim Van has since made his Twitter account private)
I guess an NDA wouldn’t effect information he hasn’t been told. Why would he give his identity out? Can be true..
*Can’t – it’d be nice though.
I wish they would just publish a release date. I think more people are getting frustrated with all of this.
Hopefully he’s wrong …………
About the Price
not a big fan of the $299.00 rumor….hope that one is not true
$299.oo seems a bit steep to me but where does that rate with similar phones? Like others have said I think the price needs to b close to that of the IPhone to compte.
I think in this day and age, this is getting dumb! All the secret release dates, all the hype, then the famous shortage of the device on game day! Cell phone, PDA, smart phones, whatever we call them have turned in a circus when it comes to the day of the release. If the next generation iphone really does end up droppin this June, then this pre thing is not going to see the light of day. 1 is price, $299 for a palm these days is a little steep, especially if the apple drops at around $199. 2nd, the network! Sprint is the worst, hands down the worst service, whether over the phone customer service, or in the store service. Verizon would have been a better choice for a big new release.
Made his twitter private?
Someone is going to get fiiirreed….
I do agree that the phone price needs to be $199.ooish! I do disagree on your carrier opinion. I like Sprint, have had Sprint and I think they are a very good match up. I do agree with the circus comment. It really has become or seems to a circus when it comes to the release of new high end phones. The pressure is on both Palm and Sprint to get this phone out ASAP! With news of the new IPhone to be released it would be in both companies best interest and longevity to release the Pre prior to the new IPhone debut.
i dont care what the price is just release the dam thing. who gives a flying fuck about the new iphone it still cant multitask!
Bwahahahaha!! Way to out your source. It would be hilarious if he was under NDA and now he is fired.
I doubt Jimbo Van Dingleberry is BGR’s source.. This guy has been twitterin’ this info and somebody just happened to read what he was saying.. all the tech sites are reporting it.
@Michael Bettiol said: “the more space between the Pre launch and the new iPhone announcement, the better”
Explicitly biased much? That’s something we don’t normally see from other writers here. Interesting …
The more the merrier, I say. Head-to-head competition is good for thinning out the weak.
Haha* Poor Jim Van man… Thank you for the possibly valid tip! Hope it didn’t cost you to much trouble!
Wow, it’d be soo jankee if this is false and he got fired. Oh boo. This is why you shouldn’t lie, children!!
if he was to get fired i would just go all out post all the pictures,even do a video review lol.
More time between device launches? Well I believe if the IPhone launches first that may draw a substantial amount of what could have been Sprint subscribers.
This is GREAT news if true because I was almost tempted to get a BB BOLD for free from AT&T:
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/packages/packages-details.jsp?wtSlotClick=1-001TP3!CIWM01-1-1&rel=nofollow&q_package=sku3350235&_requestid=17392
Now the only questions is price???? HOW MUCH?
He’s a beta tester why would he care if he got ‘fired’ from it? He couldn’t play with the cool new gadgets I guess.
I’m sure (if its true) he’s a lot more worried about being sued. Actually even if he doesn’t get sued I’d imagine this would could hurt his business. I’d think more then a few large companies would be concerned about working with a company who’s CEO can’t seem to keep his mouth shut.
Of course everyone wants a release date; I’m sure Palm would love to release it tomorrow! But if tomorrow comes and there’s no Pre, because of testing, bug fix, or whatever – people would be ALL OVER Palm for missing the date. Or, they could release it bugs and all, and it would go over like the fart in church called the Storm.
The release date “circus” will only continue for several months, maybe a year. We are fast approaching a point where all the elements of a great smartphone are being packaged into super smartphones. Carriers and manufacturers have been holding back on delivering the complete smartphone, eventhough most of the technology pieces already exist. Soon we will all have what we have been passionately and impatiently waiting for. Then what will our obsession be?
Ha the obsession is and always will be the next best Gadget!
There will ALWAYS be a newer and fancier gadget. Complete contentment is something humans don’t typically posess.
There will ALWAYS be a new toy for us to geek over. Trust me.
sean76, has it correct if he’s talking about C.S. but way wrong if this is about the actual cell service. This will be a disaster if it’s out the same time as the new fruitphone especially if it cost 50% more
(1) I’m surprised a beta tester would say ANYTHING much less spill (or know) EVERYTHING.
(2) How easy is it to hack into a Twitter account?…
‘Actual cell service’ is in the eye of the beholder.