Palm, Sprint to launch Pre early as May?

Sprint and Palm could be reach to launch the Pre as early as May.

(Credit: Palm)

There are two things the tech world is waiting to hear about the Palm Pre: when it will arrive, and what it will cost. The first answer might be falling into place.

Phone News (via Gizmodo) obtained internal e-mails sent to Sprint retail employees informing them that training for the Pre is about to begin, and that taking a vacation during May is not going to be allowed. There are two scenarios for the Pre launch date outlined in the memos that seem to depend on Palm's ability to wrap up development and ramp up manufacturing.

The first scenario involves a May 17 launch date, which assumes Palm can get enough Pres in Sprint's hands by the end of this month or the beginning of May. If that doesn't happen, Sprint and Palm would then delay the launch date to June 29th, according to Phone News, which would allow them to just slip in under the deadline Palm set earlier this year for shipping the Pre within the first half of 2009.

May 17th is a Sunday, which might seem like an odd day to launch a phone, but perhaps Sprint is looking to take advantage of weekend traffic in its retail stores. It has definitely seemed that Sprint is driving much of the Pre endgame strategy, which needs just one more detail: price.

[seven7dust]

the only thing I find interesting about the pre is the multi-tasking cards interface

[codynews]

another phone to try to take on the iphone that'll flop.

Pass

[miles4444]

This phone is not going to flop. Its not the iPhone killer, its the anti-iPhone, a great option for those people who DONT want to buy an iPhone. Has a physical keyboard, not on AT&T, replaceable battery and clean UI.

[solu1978]

@codynews

Line 1 - you tried Plam Pre yet ?? you got a crystal ball ??

Line 2 - Did someone ask you or offer you the Plam Pre ??

[kzicee]

u r an idiot

[uph0m3r]

ditto. The phone looks terrible. Fire the person in charge of hardware design. I?ll stick with my iPhone.

[SNOOP_ROCA]

I don't know if it'll be a COMPLETE failure, but unless they do some serious advertising and release it with a low price, it may be just another iPhone wanna be

[ace10134]

iPhone can't even multitask yet. Already the Pre beats the iPhone. Nuff said.

[Austinite007]

uph0m3r,
If you want to comment on this phone having a bad hardware design, you should check out other smartphones that are currently on the market (and I do not mean just the iPhone)...believe me the Palm Pre's design is not bad at all. Based off of the photos and specs on Palm's website, the Palm Pre is thin, light weight, slick looking, and after seeing the Palm Pre's 2009 Consumer Electronics show video, the user interface is demonstrating itself to have incredible potential. Its not an iPhone but its one of the first real rivals that the iPhone should start to worry about.

[prelude619]

POh please launch ASAP!!!! I need this new phone!!! HTC TOUCH PRO SUCKS!!!!

[rnaoncfixd]

Seconded!

[A-Random-Potato]

Hell yea.

[ace10134]

I want it tooooo!!!!!

Make it able to run WinMo though, cuz when WinMo 7 comes out, i wanna install it!

[externallain]

Sprint usually launches new phones on Sundays so a 17th - 18th release makes sense.

[miles4444]

"May 17th is a Sunday, which might seem like an odd day to launch a phone, but perhaps Sprint is looking to take advantage of weekend traffic in its retail stores."

Seems like Sprint has launched phones on Sunday before, its nothing new for them.

[A-Random-Potato]

May 17th is my B-day... If it does get released maybe thats a sign for me to get this phone.

[1812dave]

Hate the buggy software on my VZN BB Storm. My 30 day trial period is over on May 5th and the Pre is the only other phone on my short list. I WAS getting excited to hear about the newer OS for the Storm that's about to be released, UNTIL I heard the new release will likely reduce the image quality of the phone in order to speed it up. DAMN!! Maybe I'll get lucky and the Pre will hit by the 5th...

[abcd9009]

No matter how good the Pre is, it will SUCK because at the end of the day "it's the network" and Sprint SUCKS!!! Even worse than T-Mobile. It is no wonder that of the 4 national carriers, Sprint is the only carrier to post a loss when the other 3 are making money.

[Rawnchie14]

Sprint, does not suck. I don't know where you get that idea... oh yea, public opinion and hear say. A bunch of useless testimonials by people trying to be cool an knowledgeable about phone carriers when the two main alternatives: Verizon, AT&T - are the two biggest highway rip off providers available on the market. T-mobile is the only other decent provider and you insult that too! If you want to pay more for less just because its cool to hate Sprint/T-mobile, then have it your way.

I highly doubt you know what you are talking about anyways.

[monkeyfun14]

Sprint sucks?

They have a better network then AT&T they can actually handle the load the iPhone would of put on the network.

[UKStory1355]

Sprint is completely unusable in rural areas. At least AT&T has EDGE.

[bimmin]

I agree with the other posters that Sprint has a superior network. Especially for us data users.

[bimmin]

To the person who said that Sprint is "completely unusable in rural areas", I live in Vermont (the state with the second smallest population and our largest city has a population of only about 38k people) and am a Sprint customer. I have full EVDO coverage where I live and have been quite happy with their coverage. You couldn't even get ATT in this state until literally a couple months ago.

[abcd9009]

I can see why Sprint is the best network which is why it's losing customers and revenue to AT&T and Verizon. And yes Sprint posting loss when AT&T and Verizon are making profits.

I can see just by these two things alone how superior Sprint is. As a shareholder I would definitely want to invest in a company which is losing customers and revenue just because of public opinion and hear say. Oh wait that's a FACT.

[rnaoncfixd]

I used to have T-Mobile and then I switched to Sprint.

I can tell that you obviously have no idea what you are talking about. My office building in the DC area was a complete dead zone for T-Mobile as well as other areas of the city and northern VA. It wasn't until I switched to Sprint that I was able to get not only great reception, but I got bars in places that Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile couldn't; specifically speaking, in my office building where it is completely made of concrete. Everyone has to use landline phones because no one's cell phone works except for mine.

[KwayZeeyT]

I would like this phone to come to other carriers so that I could choose which service to go with, not have the phone dictate which service provider I must have. But to say that this phone will suck because you think Sprint sucks is just plain idiocy. Maybe Sprint coverage in your area is not the greatest... I know I had Sprint/Nextel for two years and was not impressed by the coverage where I lived, but I never had the billing issues or customer service woes that I have had with AT&T. Unfortunately for me AT&T works everywhere I need it to. I can't say that about any of the other services.

[spacydog]

According to the January 2009 Consumer Reports ratings, Sprint ranked generally last or second to last for various urban cities compared to other carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Alltel. These ratings were based on surveys sent out to their subscribers. Interesting also was that AT&T ranked generally second to last for most cities, while Alltel or Verizon ranked at the top.

I would love to own the Pre but having switched away from AT&T for their sucky service, I'll probably wait till it comes out on Verizon or T-Mobile for my area.

[bplewis24]

He's mostly right, Sprint's network does...at least in my region. I'm in California and I switched to Sprint (from Verizon) so that my previous employer could pay for my cell phone bill. I missed Verizon's network after about 2 months. As soon as I left that employer (after about 1.5-2 years) and had to pay for my own bill again, I switched back to Verizon.

My contract is up in July with Verizon and I'm really interested in purchasing my first "smart" phone. IF the Palm Pre gets rave reviews I'll considering switching back to Sprint IN SPITE OF their inferior network. If it doesn't prove to be a "must have" phone for me, then I'll stick with Verizon and use the "new every 2" $50 discount towards either the BB Storm, LG Dare, or whatever new phone seems worthy.

Brandon

[mikehill33]

Sprint is taking way too long to launch this. With the iPhone having been out for two years, they need to hit the ground running, not be secretive over their late-to-the-game phone on a 4th rate network.

[Bardo008]

Perhaps they are trying to make sure that some of the bugs are worked out before it hits the market. Don't want to do what Apple did with the iPhone or what Blackberry did with the Storm.

[ace10134]

Sprint isn't even launching it.

Palm is.

[struct210]

IPhone is the BEST. It seems like every new phone that comes out, the phone is always compared to the IPhone. Its an "IPhone Killer" people would say. The IPhone been out for more than two years now. If people are always comparing new phones to the Iphone, then the IPhone must be best. They dont compare new phones to anything else. Way to go Mac for staying on top of the competition.

[kzicee]

that was great deductive reasoning. "if people are always comparing new phones to the iphone, then it must be the best." that's because most people are lemmings and sheep. including yourself.

[uph0m3r]

baah baah baah....iPhone iPhone iPhone.

kzicee (as you so kindly put it above) u r an idiot. The iPhone will always be the device other companies try and copy...and fail.

[ace10134]

Can iPhone multitask? No. Can you install any program on it? No. Can you customize the interface to fit your needs? No. Can you use any network? No. Can a phone that can't do all of that possibly be the best phone? No.

Lol, you fail.

[DarkHawke]

Well, you apparently CAN multi-task on the iPhone if you jailbreak it, as well as install any program you like. Dunno what interface customizations you're talking about, but you can put app icons wherever you want out of the box. And if you unlock it, it works just fine on T-Mobile or any other GSM carrier. Granted, the Pre multi-tasks out of the box, but we have NO idea how open it is vis a vis app installation. Ditto interface customization, as no one outside of Palm and maybe Sprint has so much as even TOUCHED the damn thing. As far as use on any desired network, the current CDMA radio on the thing precludes use on ANY other network BUT Sprint's! And unlike the Pre, if you want to you can actually go out and BUY and iPhone today. Sounds like a "lol, you fail" back at you! ;)

[seven7dust]

people have been multi-tasking on the iPhone for 2 years now !
but yes you cant multi-task with third party-apps
but bear in mind the battery-life is a very neglected/concerning topic
I think Apple's push notifications is a good strategy too
but until the Palm Pre is reviewed who knows how good it is ?

[Bardo008]

Interesting conversation.
As someone who has used Sprint, AT&T and Verizon I find that I like Sprint the best. I live in DC and travel for work and I find that I get good service in all major cities and in places that the other two didn't (subway, office buildings, basements). The Other two are also more expensive and offer less. Its a fact that in major cities AT&T's network can barely handle the traffic (Its the reason that the iPhone is so slow in NYC). I have heard from friends that they are good in places like rural IL but who cares, I live in a city.

[Genjinaro]

Yeah, I've had AT&T Verizon & I've found Sprint to have the better network & customer service by far, I frequent Phila & NYC.

[timber2005]

Amazing they can launch Pre so fast but nothing on Andriod in months...

[Lucknowlars]

Sprint sucks, but so does AT&T. But given the fact that Apple has been working on the iPhone and has had such a huge success with it's app store, I think you'd be nuts to gamble on Sprint and Palm to have a better product on the market right away. Especially after 3.0 software suggests that the new Apple hardware will address 90% of the issues with 1st Gen and 3G. Anyone who has a Pre on Monday the 18th will immediately go on my "idiot list." (People who got 1st Gen iPhones the first day went on my "rich idiot list.")

[ikramerica--2008]

I'm waiting for iPhone 3.0 before buying my first iPhone, instead relying on my Sony K550i for two years now. AT&T works well in Los Angeles, Sprint was bad and got worse so I left. That was many years ago though, but the process of leaving was so painful that I will never, ever, ever give Sprint any business. They continued billing after I switched (I had no contract) and it took months of continued calls and still more billing to get them to stop. Never, ever again with Sprint.

[jaroslaw_k]

I'm Sprint user for 10 years, travel a lot in the US, did not have any problems with Sprint coverage and do not plan to change providers. One very characteristic example from recent trip to DC area: I was browsing internet and checking e-mail on my Instinct (Sprint) without any interruption, while my colleague was calling our boss on his AT&T phone and his call was persistently dropped. I do have prepaid AT&T sim card in my GSM phone that I mainly use abroad, and I'm tired of imbeciles working at their support: they send me reminders to buy more time at random times - never when it is close to expiration, and getting live person to talk to is impossible. BTW - I didn't have to contact Sprint support yet, because I had no problems.
As a long time Sprint customer, I'm getting $150 off new phone EVERY YEAR, and I'm definitely planing to get myself PRE when it appears. Promise of being able to run hundreds of old apps created for original PALM is one of the factors, but new OS is a major one. And to silence Apple nazis: I tried iPod once and decided never to fall for Apple products again. And for all those fans endlessly praising crApplications at crAppstore: palmgear.com and similar stores were selling high-quality applications for mobile devices when Apple didn't know what PDA or smart phone is. Well, what else to expect from brainwashed population that thinks Steve Jobs invented MP3 player and touch screen....

[crossont]

i've been with them 8 years, they have always treated me as a valued customer, my palm centro gets better 3G speeds than any other phone i've seen.. (iphone, G1, ANY verizon phone)

they bar FAR have a superior data network than any service providor. Also, they are the first providor to offer 4G services in select cities.

I don't get where they got such a bad name. its really sad.

[ATruHeroUnderGod]

I LOOOVE SPRINT i been with them 12 years goin on 13 nov 26th 2009. Im waitn on this phone its gonna be a good upgrade for ME. me me me me. an its gonna be compatible with the new 4g network sumway or the 16gig version that will be out in another year are to.

[KaalX]

Palm has been 50% down in sales and will be bank corrupt if Pre fails. Most likely, it will be a great phone after all it was the best product at CES 2009. But it all comes down to the marketing, Sprint's status, and its price. Sprint hasn't been doing good economically. They got Instinct S30 coming up. But Sprint is also hugely dependent on the Pre. The Pre can be a savior for both Palm and Sprint.

Palm has taken off the Teal OS. They stopped making products with Palm OS. Palm Treo Pro will be running Windows Mobile. Now they really have to promote their Web OS, a lont-awaited OS that will be run by Pre.

[AppleFan73]

I have had all of them (AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile and Sprint) However, Sprint is the only carrier that works inside my house with full bars. Other providers only had 1 bar.

[ikramerica--2008]

I had the reverse here in LA (though never had Verizon). Sprint and T-Mobile had 1 or no bars in my house, AT&T had 4 or 5, which is weird considering T-Mobile in theory should have the same strength as AT&T.

[datum226]

you cannot seriously expect any provider to be best in every area, that is unrealistic. I live in Orlando, I have Sprint, my wife has AT&T. Both work perfectly fine. However internet is faster on Sprint. Sprint has 99 dollar plan, and no one can beat it. In addition, sprint allows me to tether. As much as I like iPhone, it won't allow me to do that. So far not a single issue with Sprint, so I am all for Pre.

[slacker15]

T-Mobile can beat that plan if you qualify for the customer loyalty plan. 49.99 for unlimited minutes and 34.99 for unlimited data/messaging. Granted you can only get that if you have been a customer for 2 years.

Also, T-Mobile has some new plans coming out tomorrow that will give customers free mobile to mobile on rate plans over 49.99 a month. Additionally, they are adding 500 minutes to some existing my fav's family plans and regular family plans and dropping the price down by $10 on some plans. Sounds like one company has the right idea how to fight a recession. Lower monthly bills instead of launching a $200 (maybe $300) phone!

[v3fm]

there is no tmobile plan with unlimited minutes for 50$ where do u get this false information ??
--->

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Cell-Phone-Plans.aspx?catgroup=Indvidual-cell-phone-plan&WT.mc_n=Individual_PlanFirstTile1&WT.mc_t=OnsiteAd

[Cirothe]

I'm reading some of your posts and just thinking how pathetic many of you sound. Have any of you thought that maybe your carrier is great in your area, but not everywhere else in the US or vice versa?

And what's up with all the phone and carrier bashing? If you're happy with what you have, then SHUT UP! It's really getting annoying. I have an iPhone 3G (AT&T) and I wish Palm and Sprint the best of luck with the Pre. I won't be switching because I love everything about my jailbroken iPhone and don't like physical keyboards at all, but why should I wish for another phone's failure because I prefer another? After all, competition is good. If the Pre really is an iPhone-killer, then Apple will be forced to give us more of what we want.

My $0.02.

[darkpoet25]

Very well said. I too have the iPhone 3G and love it. Simply because I do doesn't automatically make a fanboy or idiot or moron because I don't like a product someone else does. I looked into several other phones and chose it, plain and simple. I have a feeling that the Pre will do for Sprint what the iPhone did for AT&T, which will give better choices for us consumers. AT&T is great where I live, Sprint not so much which is why I chose my iPhone. I hope the Pre does well too, so that Apple will have take a look at what they have and improve on it.

[oo7swoosh]

I can't wait for this phone! I'm getting of my iPhone and jumping to this completely Web-OS based platform. ALso Sprint has much faster data rates than my ATT so I'm pumped for that! I like my iPhone still but this will be a welcome change!

[vtecracing10]

I still like the iPhone more from what I can see. I currently own a iPhone and it is close to perfect. Specially when 3.0 comes out. But I like palms new os from what I can see. I hate the design of the phone.