Best Buy to trial launch Palm Pre on June 7th
Well lookie here. This one isn’t 100% confirmed just yet but a ninja hit us up with what could be some pretty juicy launch details for the rumor mill’s favorite handset du jour, the Palm Pre. Here we go — according to our ninja, Best Buy will be getting its hands on a limited inventory of Pre handsets for a trial launch on June 7th. Sprint will be direct-shipping the lot to arrive on the 6th and in total, about 4,500 units will be spread throughout Best Buy Mobile locations across the country. That might not seem like a lot, well, because it isn’t, but each and every Best Buy Mobile will be getting at least one Pre to hawk. Speaking of hawking, our ninja has some numbers to report as well. Pricing is supposedly still being discussed but the probable points are as follows: New customers with a 2-year contract, $199.99. Existing customer upgrades, $299.99. Outright, $999.99. Yes, seriously.
dibs!
What would be the purpose of doing a trial launch at Best Buy instead of corporate-owned stores?
@ Joe. Good first comment.. NOT!
Anywho, the $999.99 doesn’t surprise me. Sprint has been bleeding customers and money for a long time now, so either you sign up, extend your contract or you won’t be enjoying the Pre-goodness.
da hell wit best buy, wen can i go 2 da sprint store & get it.
Why is the new customers price cheaper than the existing customers who is ready to upgrade?
Wow… That $999.99 pricepoint is almost as crazy as that one phone with a Swaroski crystal as the screen… We know Palm is dying, but I would highly doubt that price for a no contract phone. That would be like a $500 instant savings if you buy the phone, maybe even more to get the price lower without tacking on an insanely large rebate.
Looks like I can cross this phone off a list of phones that won’t FAIL in 09.
Likely not heading to SPCS for the Pre, but wanting to check out the GSM/HSPA device.
The prices for new and existing subs looks pretty good. The outright price almost left me coughing up my lunch.
Unfortunately, the Pre is DOA. Launching concurrently with the 3rd generation iphone? Quick: what other movie launched besides Wolverine this week? Ghosts of girlfriends past? $87 million to $16 million. I’ll take 2nd place, and Palm can exist with the second place iphone, but the game-changer, homerun, revolutionary talk is NONSENSE. There is a ceiling for the Pre, and it’s 2nd place. That’s just being real about it. Had they launched this 1 year ago, they would have had an entire year to tout the things that the Pre can do that the iPhone can’t do. But the iPhone 3.0 OS eliminates much of the Pre’s advantage. Multi-tasking: it’s a phone. When do you need to multi-task?
$999.99 with no contract???
What’s the cancellation fee for Sprint? Cheaper than $800 right?
$199 (2-year prince) + ETF = >$999.99 for sure.
The two upgrade prices look about right – nothing too high. I think the outright cost is $999 only until Sprint starts selling these at their corporate stores and does a full launch. They just don’t want everyone picking these up off contract until they full launch it. Just my theory.
@ justin
best reply. perfect.
4500 units? What is that, 10 per store? Terrible.
This “ninja release” seems wrong from just about every angle.
Why have a “test release”? To test the WebOS servers that have never been loaded down?
Why limit it to 4500 units in the entire country – there are enough early-adopters who couldn’t care less if it’s a piece of junk in reality to handle many many more than that (that is to say, they’ll get sold out instantly)?
$999 without contract yet $199 WITH contract!? Uh…no.
Wtf is sprint doing? Dam i guess they wan to fail. Either way im still get a pre.
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone) at: New York United States
Are you Effin Kidding Me ???? Do You People Really Believe that Sprint would let this Trial Release at best buy happen?? I really dont think so…
There’s no way sprint is NOT gonna have this in their store BEFORE bestbuy? What kind of joke is this. lol
Who the hell would pay 999 for a cell phone with a new OS noone has tried yet on a network that the carrier doesn’t even own.
Ladies and gents…. THIS is THE moment… sprint is jumping the shark. This is the final milestone in Sprints “illustreous” history.
@Justin
You think that the two year price plus an early termination fee would be greater than 1k? ‘Cause that’s what it’s saying right now.
@blook
You obviously don’t have an iPhone, or you’d recognize the importance of multi-tasking. On a similar note, these smartphones are not simply “phones”, as you insinuate. Rather, they are mini-computers. And MY computer multi-tasks. What about yours?
Relax, guys, $999 is BB pricing. Pure and simple and wrong.
Not only that, but Best Buy has always been notoriously high on their off contract prices. I would be extremely surprised if this was higher than 550-600 off contract.
And at 4500 units, that’s about 4 phones per store. I’m sure Best Buy is up to 1000 stores now.
Best Buy is also probably doing a trial launch since their iPhone 3G launch was a joke. I worked there during that launch, (which was after the official launch). On the first day we had 95 phones and didn’t sell one. I don’t think they sold one the first week.
Sprint is expecting this device to be huge (which it won’t be. No one outside of tech sights like these have heard of the Palm Pre and the Pre will be crushed by the sales of then 3rd Gen. iPhone). Do you really think they can pay $800 per phone when they’re dying and when they think they’ll sell a lot of these? It’ll take a while to get that money back from subscriptions and I doubt they can wait that long. I call the $200, $300, and $1000 prices fake. $1000 is too high for unsubsidized and $200 seems too low, seeing as Palm has said “that it won’t be as cheap as the iPhone since the Pre is so much better”.
This report is useless, don’t fall for it, have some standards, please.
That is one ugly phone when the keyboard comes out.
THIS is why people hate Sprint. Are you kidding me with a $999 price tag outright? Sprint should be GIVING these away for free on contract JUST to get customers. They have been bleeding customers like a stuck pig for YEARS. They really amaze me. Just when I was thinking of opening a line just to have a Pre, they can stick it. Even if I would get the cheapest price for being a new customer I say NO thank you because of the outright price. I just can’t believe these guys…Dan Hesse should leave now and just let them cascade into oblivion…they STILL haven’t learned after all these years….