Best Buy In Talks with Sprint to Carry the Pre

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Friday, January 23, 2009 11:36:26 AM

Retail giant Best Buy has not only long been America's #1 electronics chain but has traditionally been a strong supporter of Palm's products, especially in recent years. A new report out today from Bloomberg reports that the retailer is in talks with Sprint Nextel to "potentially put the device in more than 1,000 stores."

Best Buy Mobile unit President Shawn Score said the parties aren't ready yet to announce an agreement about the Palm Pre, which works exclusively with Sprint service in the U.S. He declined to comment on whether Best Buy would be the sole retailer for the Pre.

"I'm really excited that they're back in the game," Score said of Palm in an interview. "We're working with Sprint on that, but no official announcement as of yet."

Best Buy's support of Palm is nothing new, as the retail chain has long prominently featured Palm handhelds and smartphones in their weekly sales flyers. In addition, as of this writing, Best Buy remains one of the only brick and mortar retail chains still offering Palm handhelds or accessories in any capacity, as seen in my retail report earlier this month.

Finally, it's worth nothing for historical purposes that Best Buy was specifically mentioned as one of Palm's retail launch partners for the Foleo Mobile Companion prior to its cancellation in 2007.

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Verizon

Gekko @ 1/23/2009 12:04:53 PM #

well at least those assholes at Verizon still have Circuit City.

NOT!!!

1900 Treo Pros distributed to Best Buy stores?

SeldomVisitor @ 1/23/2009 1:43:41 PM #

http://discussion.treocentral.com/showpost.php?p=1548229&postcount=26

If so, those are not impressive-sized shipments...

RE: 1900 Treo Pros distributed to Best Buy stores?

LiveFaith @ 1/23/2009 3:31:08 PM #

Let's see, sitting next to it is the Blackberry for $199, and the iPhone for $199, and the HTC Touch for $199 (or whatever) with 2 year carrier agreement. Then those same Americans who are railroaded into the carriers "subsidy" costs can pay the same rates as these carrier plans and pay $500+ for the Palm. Sounds pretty simple to me.

Maybe 1,500 units was a bit adventurous for 1,000 stores.

Pat Horne

RE: 1900 Treo Pros distributed to Best Buy stores?

LiveFaith @ 1/23/2009 3:40:05 PM #

The real question that I've never seen answered is why did AT&T pass on the Pro altogether. Has anyone got a reason, outside of speculation? It seems like a very competitive phone for those who want WM. The Palm name would have sold X number alone.

Here are my guesses ...

? To late for another MeToo WM phone (Samsung/Moto) in the rotation ?

? Past tech support issues with the antique 750v ?

? ATT not willing to pay enough due to WiFi competition on device ?

? ATT afraid Palm would fold B4 lifecycle of device ended ?

Pat Horne

RE: 1900 Treo Pros distributed to Best Buy stores?

joad @ 1/25/2009 7:52:58 PM #

Arm twisting by Big Fruit?

Palm "Preh": as in "eh, where's the microSD and Garnet emulator?"

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