Best Buy Will Offer the Palm Pre at $200 without Mail-in Rebate

Yesterday, Sprint announced that it will charge $200 for the Palm Pre, but to get that price customers will have to send in a mail-in rebate. There's a way to get this same price without the hassle: go to Best Buy.

This retailer will have Palm's latest smartphone in its stores on the launch day, June 6, and will be selling this device at $200 with an instant rebate, not a mail-in one.

To get this price, customers will still have to commit to a two-year service plan, a requirement that's become standard for discounts on smartphone purchases in the U.S. 

Don't Dawdle
Those who are eager to get a Palm Pre probably shouldn't wait around to buy one, as Sprint is warning that it's expecting demand to exceed its supply immediately after the launch.

"We don't intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while," is what Dan Hesse told investors recently.

In addition to Best Buy stores, the Pre will be available at Sprint stores and Sprint.com, as well as at Radio Shack and select Wal-Mart stores.

An Overview of the Palm Pre
The Palm Pre will use Palm's webOS, the replacement for the venerable Palm OS. This will be a new, multi-tasking operating system able to wirelessly synchronize a wide variety of data with online services like Google and Facebook.

The Pre itself will feature a sliding keyboard as well as a multi-touch-capable 3.1-inch display. This device will also be equipped with 8 GB of on-board Storage (7 GB available to users), Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, and a 3.0 megapixel camera with LED flash. 

In the U.S., this smartphone will be available first from Sprint, who will add its mobile broadband service EV-DO Rev. A, Sprint Navigation, and Sprint TV. 

A Canadian version from Bell Mobility will be released later this year, while the GSM version for Europe and Latin America is also expected before 2010, and will have the 3G standard HSDPA.

A follow-up model called the Palm Eos is reportedly on its way to AT&T and Sprint.

Source: Best Buy and Reuters

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