We just got to witness history, folks: Alfredo Rodriguez waited an hour in the miserable New York rain for the privilege of snapping up his Sprint store's very first retail Pre at this evening's
invite-only Premier customers event. The man paid in cold hard cash, and after a tedious 40 minute purchase process that involved a bit of activation, some nice tutorials, a quick address book sideload from his old Touch Diamond and whole lot of peripheral upsell, Alfredo was one of the world's first satisfied Pre customers. The last time we saw him Alfredo was still playing with his new phone, and gives the device two thumbs up. He's particularly digging the keyboard -- what Touch Diamond user wouldn't? -- and the flip-up mirror. Word on the street was that there were about 80 units available at the store, but while we couldn't squeeze an official number out of Sprint, they did confirm that they'll have units available for the launch tomorrow as well. Be sure to let us know how your own local launch treats you!
Update: We've swung by the Chicago launch on LaSalle Street to scope out the scene -- follow the break for the eye candy!
Update 2: There's now also a video from the New York store after the break.
6PM rolled around in Chicago's scenic Loop district without a lot of fanfare -- just the usual array of suits shuffling off for another beer thirty after five days of hittin' hit hard in the city's law offices and trading floors. There were probably three to four Sprint sales reps and other miscellaneous company employees for every individual waiting in line when the flag dropped.
Shortly before 6, employees lined up the few soon-to-be Pre owners for a photo op -- we wouldn't necessarily call it a "staged line," but it was made clear on no uncertain terms that Sprint wanted a picture of people lined up for the phone. There was a noticeable dearth of what we'd call "Sprint" or "Palm fanboys" -- just young, business-casual men and women patiently waiting to pick up a new phone.
Inside, the store was very low-key, and Sprint spokespeople told us they didn't expect it to pick up. Apparently, only about a thousand invites were sent out across all ten stores running special hours this evening, so if you figure 30 percent of those folks show up, that's only 30 per store. Sprint's saying that they consider tonight a dress rehearsal -- they're using the Premier event to make sure that they've got their I's dotted, their T's crossed, and everything is working smoothly.
The "celebrities" advertised for this evening's event were a pair of Bears players, Richard Dent and Matt Forte. Unfortunately for Sprint, Mr. Forte
pulled a Michael Bay, throwing out a little jab in the carrier's direction: "I would get this but, you know, Sprint network." He was quick to compare the Pre to the iPhone, too; actually, he said it was "just like the iPhone," which we'd say is a bit of a stretch. Just check out that card interface, Matt! And the keyboard!
All Sprint stores have been upgraded to get ready for the Pre's launch -- every single one -- with new kiosks, LCD displays, and specially-designed anti-theft holsters with Touchstone bases. Very cool, especially since it'd be difficult to show off the Touchstone any other way in-store.
Naturally, Engadget came packing with... well, phones. Lots of them. One of the valets (yes, Sprint was valeting cars) approached us while we were using a G1 and asked whether that was the device the event was for; we explained it wasn't, pulled out our Pre, and his eyes popped. He'd never seen either device before, and was instantly taken aback by how beautiful the Pre was, both inside and out, compared to T-Mobile's headline offering. It was a pretty telling moment for us -- a promising sign for Palm, and an early warning for HTC and T-Mobile that they'll have to step up their design game if they want to continue to play in this rare air.
posted Jun 5th 2009 7:20PM
I'd hit it.
Is it a mannequin or a real lady?
Who cares? I'd still hit it.
@Mark: That seriously just made me shoot tea across the living room from my nose!
Real person apparently: http://www.engadget.com/photos/palm-pre-goes-on-sale-to-a-select-drenched-few/2063590/
"So uh babe, you work here? Never seen you around before. Wanna hang out tonight? You can play with my Pre if you know what I mean." *wink*
Agreed.
Pre-Mature launch ehhh?
Looks like she's there to serve drinks and stuff. Most likely not a Sprint employee. And in that area of NYC, you can find similar "looks" in abundance in 9 out of 10 bars.
That's awesome after all the pics here, I was still thinking the same thing....They got strippers for this? What a study in human observance! We all decided to comment on the chick.
Really, who cares? We want more iPhone news.
DNFTT.
Go to an iPhone post then....
See news post below. It literally is an iPhone post. Read to your heart's desire. Repeat as necessary.
Alfredo sure looks happy there.
/sarcasm
"Oh no he didn't just call me a bitch"
dude, it's raining hard as hell outside. If you were outside for that long, you'd look pissed off too :P
Didn't you know? Sprint workers look miserable when in reality, they are really happy!
That is happy in NYC.
I think it's a really lady. She was definitely paid to be there!
who's gonna volunteer to do that?
If I had to choose to use a Palm Pre or Apple Iphone.. I'm gonna go with the Pre hands down, but I won't get both anytime soon unless Engadget want's to get me one for my birthday :D
...your poor! you opinion doesn't count BECAUSE you can't get either! I would like Porsche to offer Camouflage paint schemes on their 911 but I could never afford one so i keep my 2 cents to myself about it... I do have the iPhone 3G and I WILL get the newest iPhone!!!!
Im with you vanquish, I have no money either, but I still have a right to say which phone I like best, iTrolls can kiss my
poor-hairy-smelly-proverbial-ass!!
The Pre looks like a thick-ass rock next to the Diamond.
whatever .... lines are for chumps .... i've got mine from eBay
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/05/palm-pre-hits-ebay-prior-to-official-launch-just-900-and-a-fis/
yea too bad you are overpaying about 350 dollars, also it is expected there won't be nearly as many long lines as the iphone had.
Hey ... you gotta spend money to make money .....
so.... how much have you made?
@Andir3.0
+1
I Pre came.
I see what you did there...
God damn I want this phone even more now. But I must have GSM for traveling.
Is that why Best Buy appears to have been provided with such ridiculously crappy stock? Because Sprint wants to hog all the customers?
Not it wants people to not turn in the mail-in-rebate. All the sprint stores around me said they would have enough to get through the day.
The only reason to really wait in line is to keep 100 dollars from disappearing from my bank account for a few months.
Well who do you think is going to get more stock? The actual company's first party stores or some third party retailer?
Nice! A phone that can finally compete with the iPhone 1st gen! Oh crap, wait, its 2009, never mind.
The keyboard itself takes iPhone out of the competition.
Wow, I guess every other phone with a keyboard takes the iPhone out of the competition then. Why didn't someone think to release a phone with a keyboard back in 2007, maybe they could have killed the iPhone in it's infancy... oh wait.
Name a feature that was added between 1st and 2nd gen iPhones that doesn't exist on the Pre.
That's what I thought.
Huh, the Pre has 40,000 apps?
C'mon, maybe he was being a dick about it but he got you USE. The App Store was added between the 2 generations and its somewhere that the Pre is lacking.
I still think the Pre is the only real iPhone competition in terms of usability. I mean I love my N95 but some usability would be nice. They need to hurry up and get this stuff to Canada quicker. We just recently got the G1 & Ion. Too damn long.
I should have just said "games," but I guess the harder truth, that Apple has an astonishing 40,000 apps, is too much for people to swallow. When you put it in those terms, the future just looks so bleak for PALM.
Of course, the Pre is a great phone, but they're just a little too late.
@Paul
So you're saying that because the Pre doesn't have as many apps as the iPhone, Palm should just stop trying? Wow. How on earth would anyone ever release a product if another similar product outdid them on ONE aspect?
In that case, the iPhone shouldn't have even been released on account of the fact that Palm and Windows Mobile had SO MANY more apps than the iPhone at that time.
Seriously, troll more please. It's fun to make you look stupid.
I hate to break it to all you iHumpers, but I find the app store on my iPhone to suck beyond belief. Crappy app after crappy app that I would never pay for. Keep holding it to your heart that the app store is a big deal, but until good useful stuff comes to it, it's all just a way to make money off of idiots.
Oh, and it's only 38,826 apps. I counted.
@shaunisadirty, who said: "I hate to break it to all you iHumpers, but I find the app store on my iPhone to suck beyond belief. Crappy app after crappy app that I would never pay for."
The quality issues are true of any platform, whether it's a game console, music, television, or movies. 97 percent of anything is usually crap, but it's better to have thousands of crappy apps than none at all. Just ask Windows users.
@Mike10010100
Actually, the app count is 49,127 now. See below.
http://www.148apps.com/10000/
yeah Paul, thats more than 49,000 quality issues;)
Sorry, not wanting to be a troll or anything, but the main reasons I got the iPhone are the following (in order):
1. Apps
2. Wifi
3. Big screen for occasional movie on the plane
I bought it when the Pre, N97 and some other high-end phones like this were announced, but I went with the iPhone and can't see myself switching. And that is after 10 years of Nokia (tried almost every single high-end Nokia).
For the first time in years a sprint store has more than two customers in the store at once.