Palm Pre Sprint’s pricing update and sales volumes

Staska  By on 11 Jan 09

When Mobile Review’s Eldar Murtazin revealed $399 price for Palm Pre on Sprint network, he caused a lot of discussion and even more questions in the mobile blogosphere.

Is $399 price tag for Palm Pre smart or stupid decision, given that it’s main competitors - iPhone and Blackberry Storm are selling for $199?  Was the quoted price for a contract or contractless phone? Is this price real at all?

Well, today Mobile Review has published a much needed clarification and also revealed some more interesting details about initial Palm Pre’s sales volumes and strategy plans.

The earlier quoted $399 price for Palm Pre was actually for a handset without contract on Sprint. And it is only one of the possible price points Palm is contemplating. Another one is $499 for a phone without contract. So when Palm Pre starts shipping on Sprint in summer of 2009, the actual pricing should be either $399/$149 or $499/$199 for no-contract/2-year contract Pre. However, the final decision will be based on the competitive landscape, when the next gen iPhone and Storm devices will make their appearances around that time.

There’s another interesting news tidbit in Mobile Review’s article on Palm Pre. It seems that the initial production run of Palm Pre devices for Q3 will be limited to 200 000 units. That is because only a limited amount of non-standard display panels for Palm Pre is available for now.  Palm expects to start ramping up the production volumes heading into Q4 and holiday season. With the expectation that a very positive reception of the handset, combined with the shortages will fuel the demand as production volumes increase.

As for the Palm Pre getting to Europe and onto other networks in the U.S., it will all also depend on how Palm Pre is received on Sprint. If there is a huge demand there, only several key European markets will get the new handset and in a very limited volumes as well. And other U.S. operators will have to wait for a while for their own Pre device.

If Palm Pre flops on Sprint, then you can expect it appearing in many other countries and U.S. networks pretty soon.

Via Mobile Review

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  • Wondering Mind

    Why did Colligan say this at the Pre demo?

    “…The biggest unknown is price, which went unmentioned during
    the demo. My assumption is that Palm would try to take market
    share by coming in significantly lower than the $200 or so that
    Apple wants for its iPhone. But when I ran that by theory by
    Palm CEO Ed Colligan, he looked at me liked I’d peed on his rug.
    “Why we would we do that when we have a significantly better
    product”, he told me, then walked away…”

  • Anonymous

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  • http://www.pcguidepro.com/ PCGuidePro

    Not til the Palm Pre did I really fall in love with smart phones. It's a blackberry-iphone hybrid that is sleek as hell. Pls. I hope they sell this in Europe soon.

  • Arman

    Palm and Sprint have no need to lower their price, they can't even meet current damand based on existing supplies. Only when they reach full capacity on the supply side do they need to consider the effects of Price Elasticity. At this moment they could raise their price and still come short of Demand. The first batch of phones will go to the die hard fans of Palm, who will in turn be the best advertizing avenue for the company. The second phase, when production is in full swing, will be to mass market the devise, with an already existing base of over 500K existing users promulgating the benefits of the device. This is when the iPhone will be most vulnerable. Already the reviews have found little to contravene the hype surrounding the Pre before it was launched. The reaction from Apple is a manifestation that they are seriously worried at the potential of the Pre and its ability to take the lead as the “best Smart Phone” available. At the annual WWDC for Apple nothing of substance was disclosed. All they did was add the ability to 'cut and paste' and improve the camera from a 2Mp to 3Mp, both of which already exist on the Pre and give you the option for 16 & 32 Gigs of memory, however at an extra cost. The so called speed increase appears to be coming from an increase in memory rather than a faster processor. The new phone still will not be able to multi-function, change battery or have a qwerty keyboard. The iPhone will still be tethered to ATT, hence potential hidden costs of $50 extra each month when compared to Sprint.

  • coolbreezesd5555

    I love my iPhone!! I wish Sprint good success with its Pre as well.

  • payasyougomobilephones

    In the UK the Palm Pre has done an exclusive deal with mobile phone operator O2. Well I guess I have to wait a little longer to get one for myself.

    I am an Orange UK customer and I have still five month left on my contract until then I can only dream of owning one.

    source:
    pay as you go mobile phones

  • payasyougomobilephones

    In the UK the Palm Pre has done an exclusive deal with mobile phone operator O2. Well I guess I have to wait a little longer to get one for myself.

    I am an Orange UK customer and I have still five month left on my contract until then I can only dream of owning one.

    source:
    pay as you go mobile phones

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