14 DAY TRIAL // The price that the Palm Pre will feature at launch is not known at the moment, and neither is the exact release date, yet it seems that the high-end device might come to the market much cheaper than the Apple iPhone, at least this is what some analysts tend to believe.
Neither Palm nor Sprint unveiled any kind of information on the price tag of the Pre, but only said that the mobile phone would be “competitively priced.” Given the fact that almost everybody sees the handset as a direct competitor to Apple's iPhone, many expect it to cost the same on a two-year contract agreement, namely $200.
According to some analysts at Credit Suisse, Palm's smartphone should sport a lower price tag, and they forecast that Sprint will have the Pre on sale for only $150 on a contract. On the other hand, it all depends on the importance of the Pre for Sprint, it seems, and analysts say that it will turn into a critical product for the operator, which suggests that we might see a lower price meant to boost sales, at least at first.
Provided that Palm Pre will be able to live up to the expectations, it might help Sprint a lot in regaining some of the customers it has been massively losing lately, and the fact that the carrier has exclusivity on the device could help as well.
AT&T, the wireless operator that has the iPhone exclusively on the US market, made a similar move in the past, as it lowered the price of the device from $500 to $199, which increased sales a lot. In case Sprint will also raise the subsidy budget for the Pre, the phone should sell for about $150, Credit Suisse analysts say, which means that iPhone will be pricier than Pre, and the latter could see more traction from mobile phone users.
According to the research firm, Palm will be able to sell around 1.3 million Pres in 2009 and about 3 million next year, a much lower figure than the 4 million iPhones Apple sold in the first year.