There are two things that we see having happened here. One: the Pre has not sold well on Bell in Canada and they have more inventory on hand than they would like and need to discount it substantially to sell what they have left. Two: Bell is today flipping the switch on their new GSM network and welcoming phones like the iPhone. Specifically, the iPhone 3G, which sells at 8GB for $99.
With that in mind, today the price of a Palm Pre on Bell has dropped to $99.95 to match. That sub-$100 price will still require you to sign your life away for three years, as seems to be the Canadian way. Could Bell soon see a GSM Pre? We wouldn’t count on it, if anything a GSM webOS device in North America will launch on a larger network first, such as AT&T in the States. If anything, the Pre’s disappointing performance on Bell may lead Palm to be more cautious with future expansion into Canada, though we would recommend that future launches be iPhone-style conquer-the-entire-world-in-a-single-day type launches. But what do we know?
[via: MobileSyrup.com]
Thanks to Nima, Bryan, and Trevor for the tips!
Comments
How are they making money!
A $100.00 Pre is still not a $100.00 Pre. If it is anything like it is here in the States, it is more like $250. It is not legitimate to name the post rebate price as if that is the amount you need to purchase the item. Does anyone know what it actually costs to walk out of a Canadian store with a Pre?
Lucky Canada. Those are two words you don't often hear together. :)
maybe palm would have done better with the pre with a "real" advertising campaign instead of the ads they have put out everywhere. Yeeck!
With their awful build quality, slow phone application and other obvious limits and short comings documented fairly well all over the internets: I don't think the Pre ever had a chance.
Why in the world are you even on a site called precentral.net then. To be honest if a few things get fixed like more native support for the SDK, unlocking the GPU, get flash 10 on the device(which opens up so many apps and development possibilites to developers), fix the slugishness and make a tweak to contact syncing and app memory space. Do these things and the Pre will be unstopable. Those may seem like big major things but everything I stated is being worked on by Palm at the moment.
Hopefully build quality will also improve...
I've had my Pre here on Bell now for the last two months, and I have yet to see one other person with a Pre.
On another note, it disappoints me that I had to pay double for mine, and not even so much as an accessory credit.
First and last time i'm ever an "early adopter".
right on! remember the first gen Iphone $600.00?
well if it's any consolation i'm on Sprint the biggest city in the country and i've never seen anyone with a pre outside of a sprint store on launch day.
I'm in Chicago, and I've seen plenty of Pre units floating around the city from the airport, to a culinary gathering I went to last weekend (Baconfest!), to one of my wife's co-workers, to a good friend of mine who decided on it after getting weary of the iPhone.
I don't even go looking around to see others' phones; it just happens.
I got an e-mail from Palm and Bell that until November 30, 2009 if you get a Pre you get $50 off in accessories, and that if you're already a Pre owner and spend $75 on accessories in a Bell store, you'll get $50 off.
Here's a link from Palm's website:
http://www.palm.com/ca/emails/pre/promo/Pre_Available_CA.html
I am a Bell Mobility Pre owner as well. I love my Pre. From my username, you probably could tell that I am a huge Apple fan. But apps aside, WebOS blows the iPhone OS out of the water. Love it. I sometimes wonder why the writers here paint such a bleak picture for Palm. But it is the truth. Palm is at the 'do or die' stage. And from all the 'ringers' they are hiring lately, at least they are giving it all they have. I, as most people here, hope they make it. The Pre has so much more potential yet to be unlocked. And hopefully that speaks for itself. You may say that it's too little too late for Palm, but keep in mind that the iPhone only had web based applications for it's first year. That was terrible.
Good catch "You may say that it's too little too late for Palm, but keep in mind that the iPhone only had web based applications for it's first year."
- And now Palm needs to let fansumers know its immediate plans such as: 1) that Palm's working on a larger-screen/executive size unit. 2) that in short order it will be releasing GSM PRE in US.
Am tired of waiting w/centro when iPhone/iTunes is mature, ready, and willing.
There were way too many conditions and expensive contracts to make this phone fly through there. Also its limited compared to the Sprint Pre so thats producing lots waiting for upgrades. Get this phone on Rogers with some competive contracts and this will fly better. Them Canadians are smart looking at the long run.
Perhaps if the App catalogue was more than just free apps, it might do better.
After all, it's a good phone with lots of great features. However, having it's main feature (apps) out of reach despite the advertising, is going to impact sales.
I'm sure this is because you can now get a $99 iPhone via Bell. I got my Bell Pre for $199. Yes I missed out on $100 but I got a couple months of Pre usage so I'm not sad at all.
Almost forgot to add, I did pay the full $600 for my Pre. No contract. No force data plan. I do pay $30 for unlimited data. My wife and I also have free Bell 2 Bell calling. We use on average 1000 minutes a month (many which are long distance) all for less than $100 a month for two phones. Let Rogers try and do that.
I called Bell corporate offices and they told me they are selling the PRE very well.
Hopefully this means the pre will drop on sprint... then the pixi will have to drop too
I'm a Bell Pre user too. I think Bell has been pushing the Pre but I suspect people are waiting until the iPhone is available on Bell or Telus.
The average person (who are the ones who need to be getting the Pre) don't know a lot about it other than it's another phone. Feature for feature, the Pre simply doesn't stack up to the iPhone or the Android phones coming out. It could, certainly, but currently it's hard to argue it does. It's the job of advertising to play this down while playing up the good stuff and I've yet to see anything like this that I think would make someone go, "wow, I should check this phone out".
In the case of Bell, I am thinking that once they get the iPhone the Palm will be quietly dropped (unless something really drastic happens soon to make it more popular).
(just so you know, I'm personally enjoying my Pre, warts and all)
Edit: Yikes, iPhone is available on Bell today
I paid full price for my Pre (@600CD) and it's worth every penny. Bought it on the first day and I was told that Bell employees weren't allowed to buy the phone because the demand was so strong they'd have to wait. Even the top brass at Bell. It was a couple of weeks ago when employees could finally buy one.
I think the phone sold well. Remember, when the iPhone 3gs was launched here, there was no mass hesteria. We don't do that here. Not for any phone.
In my opinion there could be more ads. But I saw three ads last night for the pre while watching Criminal Minds. It was insane.
I think the phone is selling well, not crazy bad ass. But well. And it's that time for a price reduction before the Pixi gets here.
And yeah, this site seems to think that Canada has been luke warm to the Pre, but I disagree. I think we've been as excited as we Canadians get for cell phones.
the comment above about the accessory credit for people who already bought the phone is legit. go back to the store you bought the pre from and take advantage of that.
also, sales reps in the corporate stores have the ability to dock an additional $50 off the $99.95 on new activations. they are leveraging that for accessory sales generally.
the major hindrance to the pre's success in canada was that bell didn't promote the phone much outside of toronto and a few other major cities. in toronto on launch day there were street teams with live models inviting everyone nearby to demo the phone. in ottawa where i work at a bell corporate store, there was no real hype built other than word of mouth really.
I got my Pre on August 30th for $149.99 + taxes. And they gave me that leather belt holster for free even though I would never use it.
But I'm still disappointed, because my Pre is built like shit. And Bell isn't willing to let me swap it for another Pre or anything.
It sucks, oh well. I'll just deal with the oreo effect and loose power/volume buttons I guess.
It would be unfair to pin this on Palm, Bell is a really shitty company. They get away with all sorts of stuff, mainly because there seems to be a carrier cartel up here. I love my Pre, but bell has ruined the experience of buying it. Now I'm not getting the features that I was promised because the bastards won't add support for paid applications.
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