14 DAY TRIAL // According to an analysis iSuppli recently made, the manufacturing cost for Palm's Pre mobile phone won't rise above the $138 mark, which is far less than what Sprint is expected to sell the phone for. At the same time, the research firm also states that Palm is likely to charge Sprint about $300 for the Pre, which means that the company could make a nice profit from it.
Palm's Pre smartphone is expected to come to the market as a direct competitor for Apple's iPhone, and its maker has placed all its bets on the success of the phone, which should land in the first half of the year. Sprint, the carrier that will have Pre exclusively by the end of the ongoing year, is expected to price it at $200, after a $100 subsidy, says iSupply, though Palm declined to comment on this statement.
It seems that the entire hardware and software costs for the manufacturing of the phone, including non-hardware-related costs such as licensing software and royalties on patents, should not rise above $170 in total, which is about 56 percent of the $300 price Sprint is expected to pay for each unit it receives from Palm.
One problem that Palm might face when it comes to Pre is connected to the multi-touch capabilities the handset comes with, given the fact that Apple says it owns a multi-touch patent and that it intends to fight anyone for it, which might include Palm as well, though its Chairman Jon Rubinstein is a former Apple executive. At the same time, Palm says that it also holds patents on mobile technology and that it would be able to easily defend itself against Apple.
Palm unveiled the Pre at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January, and the phone got a lot of attention at that time and still holds a steady interest, though things have cooled down a bit since then, mainly due to the fact that no precise launch date for it has been announced, despite a truckload of rumors that have been cycling around on the web.
The only thing left is for the Pre to come to the market, which should happen in the near future, given the fact that Sprint ran full-page ads on Pre in several newspapers this week, and seeing as how Palm is expected to get the phone on shelves before Apple releases its next version of the iPhone OS.