Palm Pre drops to $99 at Best Buy (update: "error is being corrected," says Best Buy)

Interesting -- just a couple days after Sprint CEO Dan Hesse told a conference that "it's too early to tell" if the Pre's a hit while talking about Android, the latest Best Buy ad shows Palm's baby on sale for just $99 on a two-year contract. That ought to spike some sales, but we'll see if its just a one-week special or a permanent drop before we start trying to read any tea leaves here -- anyone running out to grab one?

Update: Best Buy marketing manager John Bernier has chimed in via his Twitter account to say that the Pre is $199 and that the "error is being corrected." It'll be interesting to see if any lucky customers managed to nab the device for less than a Benjamin.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - Hesse's comments
Read - $99 Pre at Best Buy

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 6:28PM]

Actually, if you check Sprint's website, they've now changed the Pre to $200 with a $100 mail-in rebate, so it's effectively a complete price drop.

[TheAvatar Posted Jul 26th 2009 6:34PM]

To clarify $199 AFTER $100 rebate. That means they are selling'em for $299.

[Jordan Posted Jul 26th 2009 6:35PM]

And just like that all the Apple tools who were on here saying Palm is desperate dropping the price to $99 and praising Apple have all been proved to be blind fanbois making factless claims to try and put another company down. Best Buy admits the pricing was an error.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 6:41PM]

Best Buy on cobb parkway in marietta, GA has them for $99 get them while they're hot.

[periks19 Posted Jul 26th 2009 6:42PM]

damn it like i have posted earlier my gf and her sister were gonna get 2 but now i guess HTC snap it is

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 7:17PM]

As soon I read about the price drop I went to Bestbuy. I got $121 back for Bestbuy price match and upgraded my other sprint phone to a Pre for $99.

[kaznai Posted Jul 26th 2009 7:17PM]

I managed to snag it for less than a benjamin! Best "error" ever made!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 7:26PM]

I went there and picked one up for $99, and then told the guy I thought I saw an ad for the touchstone at $49. He didn't even ask for proof, he just price matched it down to $49. So, I got the Pre + the $69 touchstone for a total of $159.73 with tax.

[EUPORIC Posted Jul 26th 2009 7:47PM]

This blows I was excited all day expecting to go to BB right after work and pick up two of em.

[Jacob1 Posted Jul 26th 2009 8:25PM]

i love reading the iPhone fanboy remarks before engadget updated the post. "Oh Palm is getting desperate HURRRRR Apple is the best HURRR"

[spin cycle Posted Jul 26th 2009 9:40PM]

What are you going to say when it's $99 again? When other places start selling it this way?

It'll be $99 in another place within 3 weeks, bet on it.

[Jacob1 Posted Jul 26th 2009 9:57PM]

ok Mr Crystal ball, why don't you tell me when the next Palm device is coming out?

[spin cycle Posted Jul 27th 2009 1:48AM]

Do you mean the GSM Pre? I know someone who has been using one for months, she had it with her on Memorial Day weekend. I figure it'll be out within two months, but not in the US, as Sprint has a six month exclusive in the US.

As to the actual "next Pre" all I know is the design was started even before the Pre was released. I don't know if it would come out on a six month-ish or 1 year cycle though.

But that's beside the point, the (current CDMA) Pre will be $99 within 3 weeks at a retailer near you. Count on it.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 8:38PM]

@Cy Starkman: you are joking right? Palm never made hardware? Handspring made them then Palm bought them? Huh? Palm original creators jumped shipped and created Handspring and essentially made their own Palm all over again. Yes Palm bought Handspring but the move was mostly to get Hawkins and them back.

Palm was a division of US Robotics. The dropped the 1st 2 Palm Pilots in 1996. The Palm Pilot Personal and the professional. I still own them and they cost 400 and 500 or so when I bought them in 96.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 10:00PM]

So let me get this straight. News breaks on a few of the major electronic blogs at about the (mysteriously) same time of this weird price drop at the largest national electronics retailer on a sunday morning when most people will be catching up on news and also have the time to shop.

Until two weeks ago Best Buy didn't have great stock. Now that they do and now that Palm has Mojo out and about to open up things a little more in August they have been able to pick up quite a few more customers, Best Buy moves some more units, and sprint also gets a few more subscribers.

With all that said a few of the less enlightened shoppers find out they don't have to deal with an MIR if they want another phone soon or if they know someone who does.

Very well played.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 9:21PM]

Haha, I just nabbed one for $99.

[spin cycle Posted Jul 26th 2009 9:36PM]

Haha, the retraction is funnier than anything else. Palm or Sprint somehow cowed BestBuy into calling their own sale a mistake?

This baby will be $99 at other places soon, just you watch. Once prices start dropping, no one wants to be last to do it.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 9:47PM]

I got one today at the sale price w/ no rebates!!! Woot for me!! XD

[periks19 Posted Jul 26th 2009 10:46PM]

So I ended up going to best buy here in avondale,AZ and got 2 pres for 99.99 for my gf and her sis

[egloskerry Posted Jul 26th 2009 10:07PM]

Lol, I sold two Pres to customers today, both at $99. Guess they got lucky.

[1bigkidd Posted Jul 26th 2009 10:09PM]

Oh my gosh, I just left Best Buy with $100 in my pocket, I went 10 minutes before closing time, I called my neighbor hood Best Buy;this after they made the correction that the price was a error. I felt so down that I would not be able to get in on the deal, but my instinct said call them anyway, and sure enough the sales clerk said just bring in your receipt and we will adjust the price, after getting her name I flew to Best Buy, I was so nervous but I had to try and it worked, this Best Buy's had not been told of the error yet...YEAH!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 10:10PM]

LOL at the Apple fanbois in damage control now? You got caught running your mouths about why the price dropped and were proven wrong so now it was a big conspiracy?

Just L O L.

I hope Jobs is paying you for all your hard work!

[solarhexagon Posted Jul 26th 2009 10:41PM]

IDK what the deal is, but i live in austin, and I have a relative who heard about this, went out, and bought one for 99
no error
anybody wanna help me out here?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 10:40PM]

Looks like it was a price mistake. Unfortunate, because the Pre really should be $99. It has been said by numerous people, but when the iPhone is $99, you don't want to go higher than that. Especially if the phone isn't significantly better. And the Pre isn't. It is good, a true competitor and has some good features that I hope become standard. But it isn't significantly better.

Of course, Sprint's plans are significantly better (and the Sprint network is significantly better) but I don't think people care about the price of the plan when they look at phones. At least not in the smart phone market. They don't care about the price as long as the network holds up. And by the time they notice how badly AT&T's network sucks they've already signed the contract and are stuck.

[periks19 Posted Jul 26th 2009 10:47PM]

everybody listen they are at $99.99 in some stores i guess the one by my house at Avondale, AZ did have them for $99.99 if there was an error and is getting corrected well you can try your luck and see if you can still get it at stores that still have them, like I said earlier my gf got for $99.99 and her sis also got one for $99 i guess ill be making $100 for the referral since right now is $50 for sprint.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 26th 2009 10:59PM]

How much tax did you pay for the $99 pre? I paid $99+ 56.79 tax(8.75%on $649 original price), does that sound right?

[periks19 Posted Jul 27th 2009 12:11AM]

that doesn't sound right my gf total was $108.79 for her pre they should of done ur state tax percentage on $99.99

[siaubas Posted Jul 27th 2009 11:40AM]

That's perfectly fine here in CA.
Elsewhere, they charge tax on the final price, not the original before all the discounts.

[Napsterking Posted Jul 26th 2009 11:12PM]

the way i see it is

if apple lowered iphone 3GS price: its okay they will get more customers. Good for them

if palm/bestbuy kepted the lowered palm pre price: OMG they are Cheap and desperate and Palm PHAILS. HAHAHAHAHAHAH

my gosh i think the apple fanboys are desparate themselves

[Zodiac Posted Jul 27th 2009 2:53AM]

Nope. Apple has 3 models. You will pay $299 for 32GB 3GS. Palm is done based on Sprint's CEO comments.

[Zodiac Posted Jul 27th 2009 2:48AM]

So the Sprint's CEO now admits Pre is a big flop? Palm is folding within a year if this is the case!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 27th 2009 3:29AM]

@ Paul


You're a douche.

[Pigs Posted Jul 27th 2009 3:33AM]

I bought my Pre on the 2nd and I took my receipt in to Best Buy and they gave me $108 back with no trouble. They were very nice about it.

[Morsil Posted Jul 27th 2009 9:27AM]

well while most of you guys where fighting and comparing the Iphone and Pre, i went ahead and got myself one...
Cheers!

[HotBBQ Posted Jul 27th 2009 10:11AM]

Holy shit. Really, all of this over a pair of phones!?

[tonyprince Posted Jul 27th 2009 11:45AM]

lol @ sprint network. GSM all the way.

[sbjohnny Posted Jul 27th 2009 12:13PM]

I GOT ONE!! $100! no other fees, nothing. I love this phone, and I know the OS and apps will just continue to get better.

[Rion Posted Jul 27th 2009 1:15PM]

I managed to get one today at the same price, they still had the tag up. But the price in the computer was changed back to the $199 price tag, so I was the last one at my local store.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 27th 2009 8:04PM]

I was lucky and got my Pre yesterday before all the hoopla about it on the net, i confirmed a few times with the BestBuy clerks before making the jump, They manually had to take the price down to $99 but i had zero problems. Went back today to return the stupid rocketfish case for the pre and noticed all the pre price signage has been removed.

[McVail Posted Jul 27th 2009 5:16PM]

Bought a Palm Pre at the Best Buy in Framingham, Mass for $99 earlier this afternoon. Whatever "correction" was supposed to go out hadn't reached these guys yet. They honored the $99 price that was posted but told me that it was an error.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:35AM]

Wow, a lot of you are really lucky! :] I'm very envious, as I really want the Pre myself but still not allowed to buy one due to being an employee :/

I work at a Best Buy Mobile here in Arizona and the tags were printing out at $99.99 for the Pre on Sunday morning but the rest of our pricing references still showed $199.99 so I didn't put the tags out (I figured it was a mistake at corporate, as it has happened before). We contacted Best Buy Corporate but didn't hear back for an hour or so and by that time, I had a couple come in and buy the Palm Pre and an aircard to go along with it. Sure enough, the pricing was $99.99 in our system around 11 am still, so the customers got it for half the price and were VERY ecstatic! Shortly after they left, corporate contacted our store via our system and said that there would be a price correction in our system around 1:30 pm. I guess they had taken the Pre's retail price down from $849.99 to $749.99 but the $100 drop was accidentally reflected in the contract pricing as well. I'm very surprised to see that all of these stores are still honoring it! Shame on them for leaving the tags up, but great for customers, of course :]