Palm Pre Released June 6 and is now For Sale!

The much-anticipated Palm Pre phone was released today and is now available to the public.  The Pre is on the all new webOS platform and you can get it right now for $199.99 on the Sprint network with (/w 2-year service plan & after rebate).

The Palm Pre smartphone is listed on the Sprint website, but it is only available in sprint stores and sprint retailers (like Best Buy).  Here is a screen shot from sprint.com this morning:

So the question is, even though the Pre is officially available are there and Palm Pres at the store?  Check back for updates from our users.

Sprint Palm Pre Release date News

5/4/09 - report that Best Buy will offer the Palm Pre on a trial basis starting JUNE 7! The Boy Genius Report received unconfirmed confirmation that has plans for Best Buy receiving 4,500 units and making the Pre available June 7.

This June 7 Palm Pre Release Date is the most credible release date we have seen.

Rumors for the Palm Pre release date have come and gone.   The first rumors were that the palm pre would be releases tax day (April 15).  Palm Inc. has never released an official release date for the Palm Pre.  But Palm did state they were hoping the Pre would be ready by the end of the second quarter.

We do know that Sprint wants th Palm Pre released ASAP.    This is because the Palm Pre will only be available on the Sprint network until 2010.  The quicker the Palm Pre is released, the better it is for Sprint.  Palm does not want to release the Pre until they are sure all the bugs are worked out.

Win a Free Palm Pre phone with 1 year of the Sprint Everything service plan and a Palm Touchstone!

Hurry, because contest ends May 18!  Odds of winning are probably 1 in 1,000,000,000,000

Here is the Contest Link: http://sweepstakes.sprint.com/palmpre/

We all know that Sprint will be the first wireless carrier to offer the Palm Pre.  And only Palm really kn0ws the exact date that the Sprint Palm Pre will be available.  There are plenty of rumors and data out there that we can stay up to date and get a pretty good idea of the latest Palm Pre news.

The latest credible release date was leaked by Best Buy with the Palm Pre release date of June 7.  But many have said that this is a small number of phones that will be used as store display models and not available to customers.

Check back on May 19th for an update!!

"We're excited to bring Pre to Canada with Bell Mobility," Brodie Keast, senior vice president of marketing for Palm, said in a company statement. "We've seen enormous interest from mobile operators worldwide and fully expect to continue to expand distribution for Pre, putting it within reach of more and more customers."

In the United States the Palm Pre Release will be on the Sprint network in the first half of 2009.  Rumors have it being released on June 7.  Bell Mobility will announce soon the Canadian Palm Pre pricing.

Canada's Bell Mobility is the second carrier announced that will carry the Palm Pre Phone.  So far we have Sprint as the US carrier and Bell Mobility as the Canadian carrier.  Bell Mobility has around 4.75 million contract subscribers.

Palm is offering a Free Palm Pre for a Review!

I was reading the Palm website and saw that Palm is looking for people to review the new Palm Pre. In exchange for your review, you will receive a Free Palm Pre. It only takes 2 minutes to fill out the application, and you never know.

Here's the link from Palm: http://blog.palm.com/palm/2009/04/got-opinions-become-a-real-reviewer-and-get-a-new-phone-courtesy-of-palm.html

1. When is the Palm Pre going to be released?
2. What is the price of the Palm Pre?

While there is no definite answer for the release date yet, Best Buy leaked a possible Palm Pre release date of June 7 and this date makes sense.  But this will be a very limited supply of only 4,500 pre units and will probably serve as store demos.

An unnamed source at Best Buy also said the Price of the Palm Pre will be $200 with a new 2 year contract or $300 for current sprint customers who are upgrading their current phone.  This is about the same price as the 8gb Apple iPhone ($200 with contract), which is the main competitor of the Pre.  Of course this palm pre price is not 100% certain, but based on the information it is highly believable.

The price to manufacture a Palm Pre is listed as $138, which is cheaper than the competition.  The iphone costs $174 to build and the Blackberry Storm costs $203 whil;e the G1 Android phone is $144 to manufacture.

Last month the 2009 Sprint Phone Roadmap was leaked online.  These screenshots are from a presentation showing when Sprint would release their new phones.  On the list of upcoming Sprint phones is the Palm Pre (codenamed Palm P100) and shows a potential release date of the second quarter of 2009.

On the Palm Pre description slide (shown below)  it lists the launch date as TBD Q2'09, which goes in line with Palm stating it will be out in the first half of the year.  Please note that these may be production dates and not release dates.

It is no real surprise to see the Palm Pre there, but it helps confirm the possible Pre release date we currently have.  Sometimes, I think Sprint leaks these type of documents themselves, just to create a buzz and start the rumor mills.

For more details on the Sprint roadmap and more pictures of all the phones on the sprint roadmap, please visit: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/03/16/sprints-q1-q3-2009-device-roadmap-leaks/