14 DAY TRIAL // Palm's first mobile phone to run under the recently launched webOS platform is now available for purchase on Amazon at a price far lower that the one it sported when first available on the market: $99.99 upon the signing of a two-year contract agreement with wireless carrier Sprint, and with no mail-in rebates included.
The handset was put on sale about two months and a half ago, and is available in the United States exclusively on Sprint, yet reports shows that its performance on the market is not as high as one would have expected before its launch. Pre's maker, Palm, announced recently that it managed to move only around 800,000 smartphones during its latest fiscal quarter, which, although it sounds good for the troubled company, is not as good when compared to other devices on the market.
Palm Pre's price has been lowered not too long ago by its carrying service provider, yet the offering that kicks off now on Amazon surely seems to be the most appealing one. Although Palm hasn't performed very well during said quarter, the recent price drops should help it do better in the future. Especially since Pre will soon be accompanied by another Palm device on Sprint's airwaves, Pixi, and since it will also reach more markets with the recently announced launch in Europe via O2.
Palm is also expected to do better in the following months, considering that it managed to raise $359.9 million in a public stock offering recently, when it announced plans about selling 20 million shares at $16.25 each, and then reported that the underwriters were able to sell 3 million more shares. The phone maker still walks on shallow ground, yet it seems that others are confident in its capabilities to regain its position on the smartphone market. We should also mention that the company's shares went up recently based on rumors regarding a possible takeover from Nokia (voices naming Motorola and Dell's interest in Palm have been heard as well).