Speculation on the Full Palm Pre Retail Price
Despite the fact that Sprint will be gunning for as many new and extended contracts as possible upon the Pre's release, there remains a small but faithful group of users with money to burn who only purchase unlocked wireless devices or at full retail without signing a contract. To date, the two biggest remaining questions have been whether or not Sprint and Palm will even offer Pres for sale without contract at full retail price and, if so, what that price will be for the Pre both retail and subsidized.
Last week we reported on an internal Best Buy inventory leak that suggested the full retail price of an unsubsidized Pre would be a staggering $999, though this amount was suspected to be a temporary placeholder price. Now thanks to some clever sleuthing and calculating, engadget is speculating that the full retail price of the CDMA Pre may actually be a bit more reasonable than previously reported.
engadget arrived at their Pre retail price by subtracting the known cost factors from the new Palm/Spring Pre giveaway sweepstakes' total prize value. After discounting the total Sprint service plan cost, all taxes, surcharges and the cost of the Touchstone accessory dock, Sprint arrived at a grand total of $469.99. Additionally, some are speculating a Sprint subsidy anywhere from $200 to $300 on new devices with a 2yr contract, so the retail price of the Pre could be anywhere from $150 to $299, depending on whether or not mail-in or instant rebates are involved.
For comparison purposes, Palm.com currently sells CDMA versions of these devices without contact for Sprint at $399 for the Centro and $549.00 for Sprint's Treo Pro.
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RE: bflawyer
In fact, I can assure you that palm.com sells the CDMA Treo Pro for Sprint at full retail price on their web site. I just added one to my cart, in fact. $549, no sales tax in my state, & free shipping.
You need to have a current plan with Sprint, obviously. Look for the "I want to keep my existing plan" option on the palm.com online store and hit "Add to cart". It'll have $549.99 next to it.
1. Go here: http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/treopro/index.html?productId=3457918
2. Hit "Select" in the lower right corner
3. Choose "Sprint" from the list. Ignore the $199 part. Then hit "Next"
4. Select the $549.99 option. Then hit "Add to cart"
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
RE: Sprint
The link you posted ends up with a "Treo™ Pro smartphone for Sprint". That does me no good in my state, Montana, because the Sprint web site states that "We're sorry...
Sprint does not currently offer wireless service in this area. However, please check back because our coverage is continuously growing."
So if it is a CDMA phone, it is not an unlocked CDMA phone. It appears to be a special Sprint specific CDMA model, which probably can't be activated on Verizon.
RE: bflawyer
I am in a smilar boat as you---well, not in Montana but in a semi-rural area where Verizons' coverage far surpasses everyone else's. In addition, my VZW bill is partially reimbursed through work so switching to a new provider and paying 100% out of pocket is NOT an option in this day & age.
Also, in the US there are really no such thing as "unlocked" CDMA phones. If a CDMA handset (whether smartphone or dumbphone) has an ESN or MEID is not recognized by a particular provider's database, then it almost certainly cannot be activated on that network. Now, some folks have gotten Sprint-only devices to work on Verizon in the past (and vice versa), such as in the days of the Treo 650 or 700p or the final Sony-Ericsson CDMA handset, the T608 in 2004) but those examples are few & far between so you are basically unfortunatey correct in that you are out of luck in that regard.
For reference, I only use the term "unlocked" with regards to GSM devices. For CDMA, I use "unbranded" and discuss "full retail pricing" which is NOT the same as a generic, unlocked, universal device.
My advice? Look for a deal on a cheap, gently used VZW Centro or 755p becuase I personally feel that we will never again see a Palm-branded device on Verizon's network.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
How about 'free' for the Pre price?
Needs Everything 2-year contract AND 'select' unlimited data plan
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bflawyer
In fact, you cannot buy a cdma version of the Treo Pro without a contract. Only the GSM version is available, which does no good for those of us in rural areas with no gsm coverage.