Sprint puts a vacation blackout on May -- Palm Pre launch likely?
By Paul Miller 
posted Apr 10th 2009 4:14PM
posted Apr 10th 2009 4:14PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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I WANT!
I would have to agree.
The money's been burning a hole in my pocket since February...
Yes, this phone has Sex Leg.
I WANT it to be compatible with my Sero plan.
Going to be one of the "better" phones of 2009/2010. If Palm does it right and Sprint prices it right and releases it BEFORE the iPhone, they both stand to come out ahead and prepare for the next version of webOS in their next release by pulling an Apple and making minor revisions each year.
I will gladly camp outside a Sprint store if that's what it takes to get one. I want now.
"Palm Pre mentions online"
Yeah, right. Search for "Palm Pre" (with the quotations) and report the real results you bias bastards. Palm Pre w/out quotations brings up every mention of the prefix 'pre' and 'palm' as both a company and a part of the body. How is that an accurate depiction of the Pre's popularity?
"Yeah, right. Search for "Palm Pre" (with the quotations) and report the real results you bias bastards."
First of all, it's an ad... it's not hurting anybody. Relax.
"Palm Pre w/out quotations brings up every mention of the prefix 'pre' and 'palm' as both a company and a part of the body."
Let's see...
"Palm Pre" = 3,860,000
Palm + Pre + Sprint = 5,760,000
Palm + Pre + Phone = 10,600,000
palm + Pre + iPhone = 30,400,000
Palm + Pre = 35,500,000
This is turning up websites mentioning all these words. And if it's mentioning the Palm Pre along with the iPhone, you can bet they're talking about the phone.
So... Yeah, I'm going to have to say Palm is a lot closer to the mark than you. Not every website will call it the "Palm Pre" in every instance. It's the Pre, afterall, by Palm.
Same, but "right phone, wrong operator" (cdma is 1990's lame!) A better question would be who will this hurt more from a churn perspective? Verizon or AT&T? I say Verizon. Same network tech and AT&T/Apple will hold with the promise of a pending iPhone 3.5G release later this year. Watch!
PS and if you're a GSM user addicted to the phone independent SIM/Service model, wait for the Pre GSM version to show up on eXpansys...
Gator says: chomp Pre good mmmm and tasty!!
Tali, I am talking about the Pre, but from an analytic perspective. So, I get a few of those links. But, I wasn’t happy about developing for the iPhone using WebKit, so making me want to do so for the Palm isn’t going to entice me.
I look forward to seeing the device. As an iPhone user and developer, the world needs better mobile devices. I remember a bar owner talking about a new one opening a couple of doors down. He was happy because that meant more traffic. I’m for more mobile traffic! And, I’d frankly rather have a drink than sit around and dis competing platforms.
I cant help but say the pre is just F******* gorgeous.
I really hope to be wrong and that the Pre will turn out to be the best device human mind can possibly imagine, but I really can't understand all the excitement over this phone.
What does it have that my HTC touchHD or my Samsung Omnia don't?
Looks of course is a subjective matter, but in my opinion both my phones look better too, and the pre portrait qwerty k-board seems a pretty silly idea to me.
In the next few months truly innovative smartphones will reach the stores, equipped with processors like Snapdragon and even faster than that, and incorporating other new features like FM senders(Nokia N97) , pico projectors (samsung Show) , HD camera/videocam (Samsung OmniaHD) , capable of substituting netbooks and running XP (Samsung Mundi) , or likeToshiba's TG01, or SE Idou, or specially HTC's Super Star or Thoth with a mix of most all the above features.
And I don't even want to talk about the Android smartphone that Archos and TI have promised for the second half of this year .
Now, I can understand the excitement for these coming phones, I myself I'm just waiting for one (anyone) of these devices to get in a store near me to ditch my phones and bring one of them home with me, but why the Pre?
Why do you think it will be any better than my touchHD or my Omnia?
Please let me know what I missed, I would really like to be able to share some of the excitement and maybe become a Pre convert, but for the moment what I have seen does'nt tempt me in the least to substitute even one of my 2 phones.
@Kilgore Trout
Its not always about specs and those phones u mention dont skimp there
Pre is so hyped because of the intuitive software. Software that can revolutionize what people expect from moblie devices
that is why the pre is so hyped just like how the iphone was so hyped.
Imagine that, a guy who has 2 touchscreen only phones can't understand why people might actually want a real keyboard. Have you ever used a blackberry that thought that it would be sweet if the screen slid up more? No? Well then I guess you don't get it. Plus the software on this phone is what is supposed to make it so sweet.
kilgore,
here is why I'm buying a pre after having owned an omnia(drowned) and test drove a touch pro. I'm a picky buyer so I made myself a chart of features I wanted in a phone and assigned each feature a weight from 1-3 with the screen size adding directly to the score. Well I'll save you the detailed breakdown but the big things where pre beat the omnia or the touch pro was capacitive screen, 3.5mm port, and full keyboard. It lost points for me on the non-WinMo os which I know well and have few complaints about, but it still won. At first even though the pre was the high scorer in my own system I didn't like it because I thought it looked ugly (not a ranked feature :P ) ,but it grew on me and now I like the keyboard layout because I think it will make one handed typing easier when im trying to pretend to be paying attention to someone at work but am really texting lol.
I just want the Pre to have:
A) Video Recording
B) Bluetooth OBEX
C) A File Explorer
D) Stopwatch
E) Unit Convertor
F) FTP
@Kilgore Trout
Well all i can say is that while you have 2 very expensive nice phones,most of us do not want to spend as much as you and also most everybody else wants all the features they can get at a good price and a really good network for a fair price in...get this...ONE device!!!!! Why you woud have to have 2 phones is beyond me or anyone else but that is your choice.Thos are both really cool phones and if i coud get them on Sprint with my low low low cost plan I might think about them both but the Pre has the features plus more and will be constanty updated for free. I serioudly doubt you have both of those phones because it would cost way too much and would be STUPID to PAY for both of them and the service and a WASTE of money. I'm just sayingggggggg
@Gsan201
I've got 2 phones because here in Denmark we are tied to the susidized phone(and carrier) only for a maximum of 6 months (I think in the US is 2 yrs) so I bought first the Omnia from one operator and it broke after 3 days requiring a trip to Sweden to get fixed . When after 2 weeks I had been told that I will have to wait 2 more weeks I walked into my old operator and got The touchHD.
Now I have had them both for more than the required 6 months but I like them both for different reasons and I can't decide which one I like most so I decided to keep them both until I can get one of the next generation phones.
The first to hit the market here will probably be the Nokia N97 or maybe the OmniaHD so I will get one of those (for 6 months) and then Ill have to decide if to sell one the other or both.
While I would have never bought the 2nd phones if I would'nt have broke the first , now I find it hard to let go one of them, and somtimes I even found that it's useful to use one for work and one for private use .
For the moment I just moved to a single operator and this move alone saved me quite a bit of money.
has sprint had any good iphone alternatives? At work we have treo 700w's - they are not too awesome at all.
How well does this baby sync? Exchange support?
google
why not just spend the same effort here - asking...twice.
Anyone?
Good grief, Joseph. Have you not noticed Engadget's "Palm Pre The Full Story" gigantic image link that's on EVERY page of Engadget? Have you tried Palm's website? Quit being lazy.
Joeseph, by no means was I trying to be mean but honestly Mr. Maze is right. You find out more for yourself by looking it up yourself. Now if you were asking the same question and the device was possibly in the hands of an engadget reader, that would be a different story. but here I will give a link and the answers to your questions are (good) and (yes).
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/palm-pre-in-depth-impressions-video-and-huge-hands-on-gallery/
I got a loyal customer courtsey call yesterday (Thursday 04/09/2009) from Sprint and was told within 6 weeks Pre will be available.
Can anyone else confirm this call?
Haven't heard anything about this...
Whats a vacation blackout?
....kidding right?
Not allowing employees to sign up for vacation during a specified time.
In case you're not...it's when CEO's (whilst on golfing trips, smoking cigars, and drinking a cold beverage with an umbrella) decide that because of a bad ass new product they're launching they will be so busy that they will need to turn their peons into slaves for a given period of time where they cannot for ANY reason take vacation. So the CEO's can make more money to buy more golf, cigars, and cold beverages with umbrellas.
Or maybe Jesse they do this to insure the best customer satisfaction during a product launch.
Why assume the negative things?!!!
So why not hire more people do ensure a higher level of customer satisfaction? There's plenty of people out there looking for jobs right now. Oh wait...because they're fat greedy assholes who want to make money...and they don't give a rats ass if their workers miss cinco de mayo. lol
Jesse, why should they employ new people when they have enough? I mean neither you nor me know what their plans and strategies are, and they might not actually need more employees. Also asking resident employees to work little extra is much better than getting new people, teaching them code and conduct then making sure that they are actually right for job, I'm not saying that it's bad to get new people, but it is better to keep the old ones and urge them not to ask for vacations; better team.
Claiming that the CEO or higher management are greedy is like me claiming that you are 12 years old just because you asked an easy question to me.
I'm not going to argue with you Saad....because you're probably working for Dell customer service in India right now and haven't seen the sun shine in 90 days. You obviously have prescribed to the idea that you should never question the man because the man signs the checks.
Jesse James, you are the biggest idiot there ever was.
You make a radical comment about greed that makes no sense and then make racist remarks/insults. Then you turn to mama jokes. Are you 13?
No I'm not 13! I'm an asshole! Stupid.
Jesse, dear, question as much as you want, but don't go around claiming that someone is bad just because you think so out of hate or boredom and without even a single provided evidence. I also question such things, but I will always research them before throwing around my talk. This is what grownups do, at least act like one.
Wow, Jesse, you are a f'in idiot.
I really hope people of different races and nationalities can excuse this guy and be reminded that in every culture group, you have those who respect others and those who don't. By saying this, I'm assuming this ass is probably an American who doesn't know what exists outside his zipcode.
Those who don't are often the greediest, laziest, dumbest or just so full of themselves, it will make you wish there was a place on this planet we could put these people until they learned otherwise.
So you guys think that because a company is crappy at managing it's employees it should be able to tell them when they can and can't take vacation time that they have built up? They tell you when you can come and go, take your lunch, have a break, and now vacation time too... Do you want them to tell you when to poop?
It's when they turn off all the electricity on your vacation because you are an idiot.
I think it's a pretty safe bet that Jesse James will never manage anything. Also, I question his claim to being employed. Idiots like that are usually big fat zeros in our society. There have been a lot of bad posters on Engadget. Jesse James beats them all.
@jsidatra By saying this, I'm assuming this ass is probably an American who doesn't know what exists outside his zipcode.
Those who don't are often the greediest, laziest, dumbest or just so full of themselves, it will make you wish there was a place on this planet we could put these people until they learned otherwise
WOW jsidatra I agree Jesse is an A$$whipe trying to piss people off and has an anarchist streak in him/her but look at what you just said!! You are being extremely judgemental and stereotypical and very bigoted(racist same diff) yourself. Not ony are you ASSuming making an ass out of yourself but then want to round up a whole group of people that might not see things as you do in life. That itself is full of HATE!!!! Should we put them all in California?Oops already there...jk Put them all ijail until they think as WE do???? Who gets to decide what the WE should think? YOUUU??? Jesee if you are so upset with these bosses,what do you think of the Salaries that NBA or Baseball or Footbal stars make? Movie Stars? Or do you just have the mentality that it is ony in Business circles peope shouldn't b allowed to make Millions? Guess what ? the support staff in all the sports and making movies make very little so why not HATE your favorite football plyer for being greedy bastards? Or do you just have Double Standards like most? WEEZY is just a simpleton btw with what is a vacation blackout but i couldhave figured that out by seeing the Icon on display!
Looks nice but you couldn't get me to go back to Sprint for anything. Horrible service and even worse customer service.
I'd probably agree about the customer service (I'd like to use a bunch of expletives here) from my own dealings with Sprint.
Their service in my experience has been pretty good.
Cut the BS. Although I don't live in the US, I hear people complaining about every single telecom company equally the same. It is either that all companies are bad, or all are good, and in both cases you will need one of them if you are happening to use a phone in there. So, read a review about the phone, head to the carrier, make sure they support your area, sign, use and enjoy your life.
I don't get this. I have service everywhere I go, websites load in 3 seconds with Opera Mini and I have the most features for the lowest price with Sprint. I've been with AT&T and T-Mobile and you couldn't pay me to go back. I get that it's cool to hate Sprint, but their customer service has really improved and they're service/pricing is amazing. I love Sprint.
@Saad Rabia the problem is with the size of the US. Some carriers are better in different parts of the country, like Verizon is better in the New England area, but when you take a trip to California, you're screwed. AT&T has the biggest nationwide coverage, but rarely cover many rural areas. ALL carriers stink in general with the price-to-performance ratio for how much you pay per month versus how many problems you have, though a few unlimited plans are starting to crop up. Also, all pretty much suck when it comes to customer service.
Although CS is supposed to have improved significantly with Sprint since Dan Hess signed on, so good luck to all of those signing up for the Palm Pre. I'm still waiting on seeing how the whole multi-tasking thing works out, but very excited at the prospects.
Whats a vacation blackout?
[see above comments]
A weekend in Cabo....
@ aaron
+1, good sir! :D
Screw the low rank, just press the [ ! ], and just get rid of this guy.
There's a few things wrong with you...
1) You don't know any pricing about the Pre.
2) The word iPhone was not even mentioned in the article.
friend is sprint manager ,.vacation block is true.
He not feeling though cuz will elevate his labor rate , his store sales hurting bad.
Done, Look_Around_You.
what does selling 1 million phones in 72 hours prove? That a company can lure more 14 year old girls all at the same time? Quality over quantity, buddy.
I will have a pre ,so far sd release date is may 22
Are all Apple Fanboi posts automated? Or just yours?
Sometimes I wish holding down "shift" while clicking the low rank button would make it count as ten clicks.
You mean a moratorium on vacation?
Great writing staff you have there. You pay folks for that?
actually most places do refer to this as a vaction blackout, not just sprint
wow just got off phone with sprint manager ,.
Said insane presales requests!!
We might see beginning of new era
oh so now you like the Pre? make up your mind dude
DUDE!! Get over it the iphone you only buy in store no web sales. iPhone is no way near what the PRE is. They didnt want to market it that way. So.. they marketed to teens and young adults. Sprint and Verizon have better networks than ATT. They know that so guess what they can do whatever they want. Ok so it bit them in the ass and people started complaining NOW sprint CS is way better. I worked for the fruit company and could of had an iPhone but i didnt cause i knew apples track record and knew something better was going to come out and it is..PRE BABY!! The people that i know that switch cant even afford the bill for the iphone. $100 phone bill and you dont even get half the stuff Sprint gives you
COME ON PRE!! I have CC ready to buy. 2 yr contract with an awesome phone....YES PLEASE!!
LETS THANK Jon Rubenstein for going to PALM and taking engineers with him and develop what the real iphone was suppose to. I AM AN APPLE FANBOY..but im not ignorant!!
I would be first in line for this if it wasn't for the fact that it's on Sprint. Not that I have anything against Sprint, but Spring runs off CDMA making the 1st iteration of the Pre completely incompatible with networks abroad; being a freshman college student, I plan to do study abroad my junior year where I'd then have to buy a whole new phone. Soon as the Pre comes to a GSM network in the US though, I'm totally onboard - people will be unlocking this by software just like they unlocked the iPhone, and I can pay an ETF ($175?) easier than I can for a new Pre ($300 - $350 depending on if they drop the price for the ATT version considering it would have been out for a year).
@wickedphoenix
Just buy a Pre while abroad. A GSM Europe phone will work on T-Mobile/AT&T here. That's what I'll be doing.
my wallet is opened wide
$349
Shank, unless you have knwoledge that no one else has, including Palm perhaps, we'd sure love to know. Until then, STOP THE FUD.
*knowledge
Excuse my typo.
I just gotta say this
Thats what She said
This thing needs to launch before WWDC 09, otherwise a lot of its thunder is gonna be stolen. In fact April would have been the perfect time for the launch (just enough time to make some head way), I can't help but feel that Palm may have waited too long to launch the pre.
Shouldve launched June 28 2007
i agree. all implications are that Apple is going to launch another iPhone sometime VERY soon. all they have to do is announce it to really steal alot of thunder from Palm. i'll definitely be getting a Pre but i'm not sure about others. Palm shouldn't have announced the Pre if they weren't going to release it anytime soon.
I was real excited about the pre but I don't even know if I want it anymore.. now I want a james bond style watch phone with a surgically installed earpiece and mic
Man pre should have come out on
June 27 2007
wait...what?
looking at your comment history, you are quite possibly the most confusing (or confused) commenter i've ever seen on this site.
Switched my whole family from T-Mobile so I could get the Pre!
I approach you ever so humbly, Sprint-bearing Philly-area Engadgeteers, and I need some information.
My Verizon contract is finally up in May, which coincides with my return to Killadelphia, and appears to coincide with the Pre release.
How's your Sprint service in the city and the surrounding suburbs? If I make the switch, am I going to find more interesting ways to string together obscenities or will I walk in triumph?
I live in Trenton, and have sprint service, and the service is excellent. i don't use my phone much, about 5 min / 5 texts a day, and i've never had a dropped call or any troubles. It's been great ever since the merge of sprint and nextel.
Hey, Mr. Party...
My service has been great in the Philadelphia area. (I've only ever been on Sprint network with the Palm Centro; I'm not sure if this makes a difference.) I may have had three or four dropped calls in a year.
First of all, Shank, shut up!
Secondly, I really like this comeback by Palm, and I'd put my money where my mouth is when it comes out in the UK, if it's affordable and gets good reviews/first impressions from unbiased sources.
Bono wouldn't drop $100 Million into Palm if this phone was not the 'shiznit'.
http://gigaom.com/2008/12/22/another-100-million-for-palm-from-bono-pals/
I agree with some of you here, I'm gonna get the Pre regardless of what Apple is going to do with it's 3rd gen iPhone.
the only way I'll go back and buy the iphone is if it has the new nvidia tegra, multi-tasking and a hard keyboard
The survey of adults, conducted in mid-March by ChangeWave Research, showed a similar pattern, but at a significantly higher level of interest. Among the 4,292 relatively well-heeled cell phone owners who responded, 37% planned to buy a BlackBerry in the next six months, 30% planned to buy an iPhone and 4% planned to buy a Palm.
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/04/07/16-of-teens-30-of-professionals-plan-to-buy-iphones/
That survey is sooo misleading. Pre reallyhasn't had any advertising as of yet.Unless you are following the tech news on phone you wouldn't really much know about the Palm Pre. Only the few friends I have mentioned it too know anything about it,all the rest have never even heard of it so how would we expect the guys surveyed to know any better. Stupid Survey...Wildtaco your agenda is well knowm and it stinks!!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By the time iphone 3.0 is released it will be old news!!!! No one will care anymore!
And with an expected price of $199, it will make the iphone crap look like, well .... overpriced crap !
HAHA! Bye bye iphone. You just got pawned crApple! Go team Palm go! Rubinstein will show Jobs how it's done!
right, except. The Mobile OS X 3.0 is already out. You can get it on BT if you want right now.
And Apple has passed it to the Devs long ago... you know.. the er... new SDK?
Palm has Web Apps right? Web Apps. Cool.
I seem to remember Apple getting torn to shreds by the Engadget Apple haters back then. Hmm.. Seems you're now very intrigued by a Cell Phone that can get Internet Access.
By the way, Good luck listening to music on a Palm pre. I'm sure it will be a real seamless experience. ;)
i cant wait!
Getting my lawn chair, sleeping bag, dried food for that first place in line...
Palm has a tougher challenge, he says. Not only are BlackBerry and iPhone owners remarkably loyal to their providers (only 4% of RIM customers and 1% of Apple customers said they were likely to switch to a Palm), but Palm has tied its fate to Sprint, a carrier that only 1% of respondents want to switch to.
http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/04/07/16-of-teens-30-of-professionals-plan-to-buy-iphones/
I don't care what "MARKET RESEARCH SAYs"....
I am Roger McNamee and SUper cOOl friends with BONO and i Stick by my Quote
“Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later. Think about it — if you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market. Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy.”
Hey listin uP i am still Roger McNamee and so bad they call me Rad... And "South PARK" was right about BONO i'm the one who told them he was made of Cr#*... P .....
Roger McNamee is back and badder than ALL..... Even if "PALM/SPRINT" are Entering bankruptcy... You should still by a Palm PRE.... Stay away from the Profitable Company's SUCH as APPLE & RIM... Take A risk ROll the DICE buying a Palm PRe is safer than playing roulette...
Roger McNamee is out!!!!
@RogerMcNamee
I bow to your words of wisdom!
Hopefully it doesn't suck! I'm still using the pos Moto Q9c... been tempting to switch to AT&T for over a year now but can't let go of SERO :)
You would be a fool to switch from SERO to ATT... $100+ a month for less serivce then you currently get for $30 a month? Yeah i don't think you seriously even thought about it. I have the Motorola Q regular one and it's not that bad.Hardly the fastest or feature rich phone but it gets the job done and is great for internet(the reason i bought it for). Never have gone over my minutes and for my frist year I paid ony $20 a month and got credits and rebates that actually more then paid the first year ;p.. in that same time you would have paid over $1200 on an iphone while i made money. Sprint is GREAT!!! Let's just see if we can get some good rebates and credits this go around. Moto Q paid $99 got rebates of $325 got credits of $150 within the first few months then also another $10 a month credit for the next 12 month period and recently another $70 credit...hmm let's see $325 + $150 + $120 + $70 = $665 credits/rebates on service costing $30 a month so total is $720 pus taxes which everyone pays + $99 for Moto Q = $819 total before taxes - $665 rebates/credits = $154 for 2 years service taxes equal another $5 a month average WOW $154 for 2 years whie the average iphone cost you $2400 for 2 years plus the cost of the phone even at $199 thats $2599 compared to $154 Sorry the $70 credit was after the 2 years so $224 total for my 2 years ...Gotta love those smart Iphone buyers
Its bought on day one! Im tired of my iPhone.
iPhone's admirable feat was with a worldwide launch. The Pre is launching only in the US. It took the first iPhone 3 months to reach the 1 million mark.