Happy Pre Day, mobile fans
Fear and Loathing joke aside, you know a phone has heat when people would rather drive through a store window than wait for the store to open… If you’ve been chained up in a basement for the past few months and haven’t heard, Sprint and Palm just launched one of the most highly anticipated handsets of the year — the Palm Pre. The webOS-powered wonder is now available in stores across the country and supplies are likely to be a bit limited so if you want in on some steamy Pre action, you best crawl out of bed and get yourself to a Sprint store. Now if you’ll excuse us we have some more Pres to scoop up and if you’re grabbing one today as well, let us know what you think!
(source image courtesy of NBC)
In miss sprint, i had them when they 1st started the hot phones (in my opinion, since i was a 16 year old with color screen, rare in 2001)…back then sprint was awesome…the plans, the price, the handsets. then they went downhill, the service was good, the prices went up and the phones sucked. i switched to tmobile…the biggest mistake ever…im ashamed to admit i owned a sidekick. =( verizon was awesome with service, phones were ok, but they are soooo expensive and the customer service sucked ass….excuse my french. Im williing to try out att regardless of the phone service.
i think that overall, the plans and services in the U.S. are great compared to the ones in Brazil. when i was there for 3 months i suffered sooo much, it was *extremelly* expensive, it was almost like a joke, and the plans were 90 mins. type of s**t.
so att’s iphone crappy reviews or not, i have no complains at the end! cell phones are still luxuries, we need them , but we can live just fine w/o them…..i havent had one since xmas….lol
NYC the sprint stores have special machines to pay in cash and you always see a long line of what looks like illegal immigrants there waiting to pay. I think the other carriers got them way after Sprint.
Around 5 years ago the penetration rate of cell phones got so high that the customers you wanted were already taken and the only ones left were the low income ones who want a cheap phone just to call. I guess Sprint was happy to take that market
I’m at a loss with the 101st and 102nd post, the former is about cool phones (Pre) and expensive plan cost (ATT and VZW) with the latter is credit challenged. I so want my BM’s Pre but will wait for two reasons, they have no more more now and she only got $75 and I can’t afford it after getting myself a MiFi too
@ alen
wow….nice job trashing the “illegal immigrants” & people of the “low income”.
i dont know your race, obviously not foreign. because those illegal immigrants with low income standing at a line to pay their bills at sprint are the suckers taking care of your lawn, washing your car, pumping your gas, building your home and fancy building where you work wearing a suit, they also fixed the ac there so you wil be comfortable.
sprint is lucky to have them, because they make an honest living and pay their bills on time.
DEAL WITH US…WE ARE HERE TO STAY. (otherwise who would do the dirty work for ya? at 16 i was too busy serving rich country club members their food so i could be one of the “legal” immigrant at that nyc line at the sprint store.)
TBB, give the Pre a go if it disappoints in the 1st thirty days you’ll have the new iPhone but at a more expensive and less inclusive plan
I am an existing Sprint customer and was waiting to replace my Treo 700p on an existing unlimited data plan with a Palm Pre – but not anymore, for three reasons. Sprint is disabling a Pre feature I use and would force me as an existing unlimited data customer to switch to higher cost plans with outrageous charges for excess phone call minutes. Today I confirmed that in writing with Sprint’s online chat. First, Sprint changed its mind and decided to disable the Pre’s tethering phone-as-modem feature. Tethering is a great feature for those of us who occasionally need to use the phone as a modem, but don’t need a dedicated laptop card and can’t justify the extra monthly expense of $60-$100 for the card. Second, to have a Pre, Sprint decided to force existing Sprint customers like me to leave existing unlimited data plans for higher cost plans that are similar, except for three things. Sprint (a) eliminates the option to use tethering phone-as- modem, thus (b) increases the cost about $20 per month while disabling the tether feature (a function customer’s can only replace by spending another $60-$100 per month for a laptop card), and (c) will penalize customers if they exceed their package’s phone call minutes at the exorbitant rate of 40 cents per minute (another negative of the new required Pre plans). Switching to a Sprint Pre with otherwise similar features would cost me the loss of tethering, and a minimum of $20 more per month than what I am now paying Sprint for my 700p with unlimited data and tethering. I’m not ready to pay Sprint $20 more a month for a reduction in features that would cost an additional $60-$100 dollars to replace, and have any overage phone call extra minutes cost 40 cents each. I plan to keep my Treo for now, hoping Sprint realizes it should allow customers to keep their existing plan packages and restores Pre’s tether. Can Sprint hear me now or does it want to continue losing its existing customer base?
Keith, you must not have done your due diligence because all this was known already and the most you’ll pay for a data card is $60 if you have any type of data plan. Have you checked the competitions overage prices, get real, they all charge about the same with the difference being the inclusiveness coming from Sprint. I do agree that subs should be able to keep thier old minute plans, they should have to get the Pro data pack if not changing though, just like any other smartphone on the competition
My gripe is that my current Sprint package for my Treo 700p already has unlimited data and tethering included. Using the numbers provided to me by Sprint (or using Don’s response) replicating the core services I already have with the 700p will cost an additional $80 more per month if I switched to a Pre. ($20 monthly increase +$60 for use of a modem card to replace the tethering function that Sprint is disabling on the Pre. There’s no question the Pre is better technology and has some nice new features, but its not worth an extra $80-100 a month over my current Sprint bill for the privilege of switching to the Pre. According to today’s press, even AT&T plans to “soon” offer tethering – like most iphone GSM carriers already do in other countries according to Apple’s presentation today.
I don’t plan to buy this phone, and yes, I am an iPhone fan, but I’m really happy that it’ll give Apple a run for its money… more competition means Apple will have to work harder at improving the next iPhone. And MS gets pushed further into irrelevancy in the mobile space. Seriously, they must be panicking in Redmond.
I bet you can use either voice or data in more places with the Pre than the iPhone w/o the use of WiFi