AT&T Cento for $40 Next Week at Best Buy
Best Buy's string of major Palm discounting continues in full force. This time around, Palm's newest product, the GSM AT&T Centro is showcased in Best Buy's retail circular for the week of March 30th –April 3rd. An advance scan of the upcoming flyer indicates that the GSM Centro is being offered at a rock-bottom $39.99 rebate-free price with the activation of a new 2yr contract. This beats the previous sale price for this version of the Palm Centro by $10.
Unfortunately, the ad only mentions the white Centro, so it looks like this is another stock-clearing maneuver in anticipation of the imminent arrival of the black version of the phone. The earlier PIC preview and unboxing of the white AT&T GSM Centro with its signature lime green numeric keypad can be found here.
While pricing such as this is certain to gain new converts to the Palm OS and the world of smartphones, the heavy discounting and slim margins of the entry-level Centro has put a major dent in Palm's earnings, as their recent financial reports from Q3 FY ‘08 have indicated.
As always, this offer is subject to change and varying regional availability.
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RE: Different vendor, different price
1. Reward Zone points. You'll make a few $ off of this purchase if you are a member of the free RewardZone program. I believe BB sends $5 gift cards for every $100 you spend in-store.
2. Instant gratification (the biggie).
3. Easy returns if you are underwhelmed by the Centro's small screen, puny keyboard, or poor battery life. And if you end up with one of the Centros with a tilted screen (are those occuring as often with the GSM models?) you'll be glad you can just turn around and march right back through the door and demand a new phone.
4. $40 + sales tax out the door. No mucking around with a $100 upfront & waiting on a $50 mail-in rebate that'll likely never materialize.
In my opinion, one of the best things about BB (one of the few, in fact) is that they usually have the best "with 2yr contract" prices of any of the larger B&M retail chains...and are almost always cheaper than the carriers' corporate stores.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon 755p
RE: Different vendor, different price
But I understand your points.
[I am a satisfied customer of LetsTalk, having "bought" a couple free SE520As from them two years ago. My contract is now up so I guess I'm free to do more purchases or transfers, etc, but the minimal use we put into these phones make AT&T (er...was Cingular) just fine for us]
RE: Different vendor, different price
It's (the Centro) free after rebate for NEW customers. For existing customer re-upping a contract it's $100-$50 MIR.
Either way, these rapidly plummeting prices ain't gonna be good for Palm's bottom line-especially with no more POS products on the horizon and no products of ANY kind from Palm for the next several months.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon 755p
RE: Different vendor, different price
RE: Different vendor, different price
Yesterday the CFO explicitly said during that "analyst conference" that Palm was going to be spending extra dollars on advertising for the Centro.
Why spend MORE money on advertising the Centro if they can sell all they can make?
RE: Different vendor, different price
Why spend MORE money on advertising the Centro if they can sell all they can make? <<
And CEO Ed Colligan said last week that even at current vendor demand, Palm was already bumping into shortages for Centro parts.
Why cut prices if you can't even keep up with current demand?
very tempted
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Different vendor, different price