The story over this weekend is "conflicting reports." Pre-land is increasingly starting to feel like a Black Hole: everybody wants to know what's happening beyond the event horizon, but whether or not the thing actually emits information is an open question. The news is random, chaotic, and while possibly indicative of the information inside, figuring out how to decipher it is a job for astro-physicists (That'd be the Information Loss Paradox, if you're wondering).
Ahem. First up, we'll give you what we're hearing from two anonymous sources. We don't have much history with either, but they do actually line up with each other quite well. The story goes like this: the shipping company has the Pre Phones sitting in a warehouse, ready to go after they receive one final firmware update. That update, however, can't happen until after Sprint's final audit of the phone, scheduled for early April. So according to these sources, a release before May is flat-out impossible, with late May or early June much more likely. Price these sources postulate: $199 after rebates.
Next up, via PreThinking, apparently a Pre Beta tester spilled the beans on his Twitter feed. If it's legit, we're looking at an April 30th release date, $299 price point, and fully operational tethering (USB-style, at least). We'd tell you more, but Jim Van (LogicommInc) on Twitter has smartly protected his updates from non-friend, ravenous, Pre-News-Hungry people like, well, like you. :p
Short version: we dunno.
Update: Jim Van responds and, well, basically he doesn't have time or patience for our rapacious desire for Pre info. Alternately, if you're inclined to be skeptical of Van's claims, there's plenty of fodder for that too.
Comments
The Pre beta tester heard the price and date from source completely outside his beta program (beta testers never had this kind of info). In other words he heard it from a source just like you and I or anyone with access to someone above csr. That is obviously one of many moving target dates. The $300 after discount price is highly suspect since $200 is the upper limit at which these would move. This is Sprint, and economic downturn, and after all.
To the first rumor of the Pres sitting in a warehouse. That fails the smell/BS test by miles. The original warehouse rumor, and the thread that came at treo central and was removed, were for the shipments of the betas. One can glean the fact that assembly of Pre is only starting in Taiwan this week from published Chinese trade press reports.
They could still make April 30, but they are bound to have a lot of clunky apps if they try.
Are you saying Sprint does not give discounts larger than $200? If so, I guess you haven't looked at Sprints website lately. Keep in mind, I am not saying that I agree with the Twitter.
Of course they do, I did not say otherwise. What the twitter implied was a net cost of $299 -- which is silly. $299 is way to low for list price and too high for after discount price. It will be more in the range of $600 to $500 list and $150 to $200 after discounts.
Sprint has had discounts of up to $500.
I hope that the Pre camera has GPS-tracker or geotagging options. Am I hoping for too much?
And instant uploading to flickr/picasa/twitpic!!!
Instant? I'm pretty sure my girlfriend wouldn't like auto-upload to anything public.
ofcourse you have the upload button first ;)
I still have access to Jim Van's twitter updates, but he hasn't said anything interesting since he went private.
perhaps it was knowing he was getting a cease and desist.
I had the LogicCommInc Twitter posts in our Predictions & Speculations thread almost 2 days before PreThinking got wind of it. Remember, we actually do get all information first here at PC/TC, you just may have to dig for it. ; )
It still hasn't passed by the FCC. Till then, don't worry about the release date.
Not necessarily true. Companies can have the FCC keep everything confidential.
It could have passed the FCC in January and not one bit be released until the day before actual release. FCC means nothing other than when test results are made public release could be the next day.
I said it a 100x. Bad move if they don't get it out by mid-April. If it is May forget it! New iPhone on the way, might as well wait for the 1st week of June announcement.
Wow, Palm is really screwing the pooch with this one...
late May or early June sounds about right.. my friend works for sprint (retail) i asked him if he had any info on the phone, he told me his supervisor chose him as one of the reps for the phone and that he would be getting one in about 3 weeks for training.. im not sure how long the training process is but my best guess would be 2 weeks that brings us to mid may.. ready for a late may early june launch? Hopefully sooner! I know its not much info but its something..
Yeah, but which still begs the question, when will they start advertising it? Remember advertising? It's when you let the rest of the non-geek world know when it's coming out. May launch, for example, equals April advertising with a normal company (think Verizon Storm ads before it came out.)
Your move Palm. But move quickly...
How would one go about updating firmware on an entire warehouse full of phones? One by one? Smells like BS.
$299 would be a kick in the balls too.
They do that kind of updating all the time (i.e. Blackberry Storm, Nokia 5800, etc. etc. are recent examples). Brightpoint, Sprint's warehouse and distribution partner, has extensive facilities to do just that.
No. Brightpoint has no facilities to do that. Flashing stateside is done by makers, or third parties contractors to makers.
just read that palm denied this rumor of april 30th release
no surprise. I don't think the date was legit, but even if it was they would deny it.
Palm is really mismarketing this thing! For something that can save their company, they are leaving all of the marketing to people that have absolutely NOTHING to do with the company, us. All we can do is discuss wanting the device and talk about rumored release dates till we're blue in the face. The actual company is saying a bunch of nothing and withholding information that could help if they got more people outside of these forums involved and interested. Time is running out if they want to snatch some of the iPhone users before the 3.0 is released. PALM, WAKE THE HELL UP!!!
I agree. Palm has made a great move in coming out with a great product but a horrible choice in how to market it. Two things, put out a release date, even if it has be June 30th. Give the public to look forward to something. This whole guessing game is fun at first, but gets old and irritating after awhile (even to the point, it backfires). Second, everyone claims that Palm is not competing against Apple's iPhone, but wake up and release something. It's not up to you who the Pre is in competition with. That's up to us, the consumers.
Palm isn't looking to snatch many iphone users. If they released a firm date before now, or even price, then you'd be crying for other info. Palm played it smart.
Though there is some frustration mounting, the buzz is still there and its all set up for a big preview before launch that will include such irrelevant details like price and release date.
It must have worked if you're still dying to know more and you are since you posted here.
I have to disagree with your first statement. Whether or not they want to admit it or not, Palm IS looking to snatch some iPhone users. The iPhone's base is too large to NOT want some of those customers. You are ALWAYS competing against the leader of the pack even if that is not your intent but you don't make that call, others do.
And we are forgetting an important player in this game, Sprint. They have just as much invested in this as Palm. If Palm is not competing with the iPhone to steal some of the customers, Sprint definitely is.
One more thing. How are release dates and pricing irrelevant details? That all we need to know at this point.
Palm is looking at iphone users.
The buzz is pretty much dead.
Posts like these show that Palm is marketing this thing perfectly. They want as much pent-up demand and excitement as possible prior to the launch. We're the bleeding edge folk, and for us the wait is interminable. Palm wants mainstream users to get excited prior to launch, and it takes time to build that.
Palm is kacking up the marketing. The average mainstream user will ask: is that an iphone?
>Short version: we dunno.
or... short version: we dunno, but we write about it nevertheless.
Why would they release this phone on a Thursday?
>Short version: we dunno.
LOL.
I wish the Pre had a tripod mount on the bottom like a regular camera. That would be pretty cool.
That'd be kinda dumb. If they could fit a mount for a tripod they could have maybe put micro sd. I would much rather have that. Plus no one should be trying to take serious photography with a cell phone.
Enough with the PREnatal - this kid is really to be born. Induce labor please.
Pre's are at the shipping warehouse waiting for firmware? Is the freighter's crew going to reflash the phones on the open sea the week they cross the Pacific to Long Beach?
I'm glad you have it from two sources, but even if you have it from three, if it doesn't make any sense, don't egg us on.
they can be flashed here. In fact it is a near certainty they will be. but they are not manufactured yet anyway.
This site ought to be renamed to "prerumors.com"
>This site ought to be renamed to "prerumors.com"
WORD!
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