Bell Canada has launched a new contest for, you guessed it, a free Palm Pre! The full contest rules can be found here (and yes, they did erroneously use the Treo Pro as shown above). Essentially all you need to do is fill out a quick registration on the contest page between July 7th and August 31st. Oh, and you need to be Canadian and of legal age.
A few interesting things can be seen in this contest rules. First off, it would appear this contest is open to all Canadians, even to those in provinces Bell doesn't sell phones to. A bit strange, though the rules do note that the winner will use the Pre on a Bell Canada plan, which just raises up more questions and confusion.
As happened with Sprint's contest, a read through the rules gives some hints at pricing. Section 5.1 of the rules state:
The Prize consists of one (1) 3G Palm® Pre™. Approximate retail value $650 Cdn.
That's a pretty good indication Bell will be selling off-contract Palm Pre smartphones at about $650 CAD. Not too bad considering Sprint's full retail price of the Pre is $549.99 USD (about $640 CAD). Hopefully Bell Canada contract deals will keep it in the affordable range for most.
Lastly, while the contest itself ends on August 31st at 11:59pm, the rules say the drawing is on September 7th, which seems to reveal the release date is sometime between then. Seems to make the most sense that Bell is going for a September 1st release, which could be beneficial in marketing. Bell could pose this as a great back to school device, which could sell especially well to college and university students.
Hopefully Bell will make some pricing and release date details official soon, so we don't have to keep making educated guesses.
Thanks, blueadept!
Comments
That's not a Pre in the picture.
The picture is not Palm Pre, or is it Pixie!!
its the pixie for sho... Whats the deal... i want 1... just cause they are so cute... LOL... :-P
That's the Palm Treo Pro, folks. Screwy advertising.
Looks like a Treo Pro to me.
Oh. I got beat by my not reading the whole post pwn3d!
I can't wait for Bell to finally release this phone, it sucks having to live in Canada - always getting the goods way later than the southerlies.
oops! next time they they should make sure they have the right phone pictured.
from allthingsd.com (the iphone blog)
-----------------------
Pre Sales Slow Again
by John Paczkowski
Posted on July 9, 2009 at 9:30 AM PT
Print Buzz up! Share
palm-prePost-Pre launch, Palm may be, in the words of CEO Jon Rubinstein, “exactly where we hoped we would be.” But how long Palm (PALM) will stay there is an open question. Because according to Pali Research, Pre sales are clearly slowing.
“We estimate that sales of the Palm Pre slowed again over the past week compared to the prior week but likely remain over 30,000 compared to less than 40,000 in the prior week and our estimate of 50,000-60,000 in the week ending June 26th,” Pali analyst Walter Piecyk said in a research note this morning.
Now, to be fair, the holiday weekend may have negatively affected sales. And another report from Piper Jaffray suggests that the Pre is cutting into sales of RIM’s Blackberry. So there’s that. Still, if Pali’s estimates are correct, it’s pretty clear that demand is tapering off a bit.
Perhaps it’s time to ramp up the Pre’s marketing. Problem is, marketing costs money and Palm doesn’t have very much of that right now.
Bell Canada uses GSM/UMTS/HDPA or that other thing you have in the US?
hey is ebay safe when it comes to buying the pre???
id stay away from ebay for phones unless you need parts man.
Anyone know when or if the palm Pixi or whatever they wanna call it, will get released in Canada???
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