Sprint released the new Palm Pre smartphone into the wild about three weeks ago, putting a lot of hope in the handset's performance on the market, and now it has begun to market its device a little more aggressively than before. To be more precise, the company touts it as having more capabilities than the iPhone, the leader on the market.

Even before its launch, the Palm Pre had been expected to be an iPhone killer. Although other handsets have been stated to have the power to bring down the iPhone from its throne, they have failed, and it seems that Palm's handset is the one to do it. Thus, Sprint, which has the Pre exclusively throughout 2009, pinpoints that users should choose its device instead of an iPhone.

The reason for such a choice is simple. The Palm Pre comes to the market with more capabilities than the Apple device, including multitasking and over-the-air updates, while also offering more value than the iPhone and AT&T's price plans. According to Sprint, and already reported by us, the Pre on its airwaves would allow customers to save up to $1,200 with a two-year contract agreement, when compared with the iPhone on AT&T.

Moreover, the carrier also touts its Now Network as being the most dependable 3G network in the country, and that it will also be the first operator to have a 4G network in place. For what it's worth, Sprint indeed seems to have a few aces up its sleeve, especially since AT&T's network is already known to have certain issues when it comes to sustain all the pressure iPhone users put on it.

On the other hand, some early benchmarks on the Pre and the new iPhone 3GS (the latest version of Apple's phone) have shown that the Palm device falls behind the popular handset. Although it comes with more features, including a physical keypad, removable battery and few others more, the Pre cannot achieve the same performance levels as the iPhone, which doesn't sound that good for it.

As stated before, Sprint needs the device to prove successful, so as to help it keep its postpaid subscribers, which have left the company in masses lately. At the same time, Palm, the maker of the Pre, has placed almost all its hope in this device, and needs it badly to sell great, for it has seen a drop in shipments of around 60 percent during the last quarter, compared with last year.

The phone has sold rather well until now, with 150,000 units estimated to have been shipped, and is expected to sell in millions in the near future. It remains to be seen whether Sprint chooses to continue an aggressive marketing of the phone and if it will actually pay off, helping it to lure customers from the rival AT&T.