Pre drops to $79.99 at Walmart
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Sep 26th 2009 1:09PM
posted Sep 26th 2009 1:09PM
[Via everythingpre]
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walmart is terrible
. . . and yet, people still go there. Or shop there online. Can anyone guess why?
I'm off to walmart now to buy some crap...
wal mart is terrible.
but I shop there. I just judge all the other shoppers to feel better.
Ever been to peopleofwalmart.com?
Walmart is not as terrible as the Pre. Palm can't give that Pre dog away! Another iPhone wannabe bites the dust.
Despite how much I shop there for the prices, I also find myself hating walmart. I think the source of all the hatred towards this company is not the great deals, but the long lines, lack of service or friendlyness from 97.9% of the company working there, and the massive amount of people always crowding in the store. Walmart brings the worst of people in all ways, shapes, and forms.
And yet, we can't find ourselves stopping, due to the damn prices.
Agreed with everything that's been said (except for the Apple fanboy): Walmart=pit of Hell, but we're broke-a$$-broke, so we shop there anyway. I'm intrigued by peopleofwalmart . . . will have to check that out.
Back on topic . . . I looked up the $80 Pre deal . . .
$80 gets you the Pre, car charger, screen protector, BT headset, clear case
$99/mo Sprint Simply Everything is unlimited voice, data, and stuff like NFL and NASCAR coverage
Sounds pretty good to me. If Sprint coverage in my area didn't suck so much, I'd be all over this b1tch.
If you don't call landline numbers, you're better off with the $70 Everything Data 450 plan which also gives you unlimited calling to all mobile numbers in addition to 450 minutes for landlines.
Walmart may be terrible but LetsTalk.com, the place ACTUALLY selling the Pre (in Walmart's name), is just fine by me. Their rebate terms are kinda odious in this case but that price is fine (I've bought fro them in the past and would not hesitate to do so again...albeit not a Pre...maybe a Cliq or Motoorla's NEXT cool Android phone coming soon).
The most important thing is the fact that walmart can afford to sell the phone for $80, aka not make any money on it, because what they lack in profit margin, they make up in volume. They're putting every other company out of business. If they haven't already, they plan to.
Walmart aims to Destroy its Remaining Competition:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/omni-pr/993372-walmart-aims-destroy-its-remaining-competition.html
Then the Pre fits right in there :-P
Not really, I'm just glad I bought a 3GS instead.
Damn that capitalism making things cheaper via competition....schucks we should all have just one cellphone from the govt.
Yes, because comparing Health Care to a cellphone is a totally valid comparison.
@ DOLT, I mean Dolphz..
You want dirt cheap prices AND Service? Who the fack do you think you are?
You want people to cater to your every whim go and buy your items at a boutique and pay $89 for a T-shirt, $5 for a can of peas and $100 for baked bread...
If you are too stupid to know what the fack to buy then you need to die... There is too much service in this world... Use the facking internet to research the product, go in Wal-Mart, scan the price, go to the cash, give your credit card and go home and STFU...
You people are stupid beyond belief...
I'll have to agree. Not until Palm returns the stolen USB vendor id.
woof, woof.
$79??! That's sort of expensive. Some guy on my block was selling Palm Pres out of his garage for $50.
So, are early Palm Pre buyers up in arms about being cheated that they over-paid for their cellphones. I doubt it. That's just called the bragging rights tax for being the first to show off how cool they are.
The price drop pales in comparison to what the iPhone went through.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_the_economy,_stupid
so? i still don't want one
What exactly is Palm thinking allowing this? Not a good idea in my opinion, $99 was already too low. Isn't the Pre supposed to be their top tier phone?
Obviously they're desperate and hurting for sales. If they just emulated the Apple stores and had around 4-8 activated units on display in all their stores, they'd probably be flying off the shelves. They're acting just like they're embarrassed of their product, and people will just as soon get a Blackberry Storm as one of these unless they get a chance to see the difference firsthand.
It's still mail in rebate, but really there is no reason to drop the Pre to $99 (or $79). Even to $150 is enough of a drop. This is too much price pressure for the Pixi and all it does is devalue the Pre. Maybe the sales really are dismal, I mean even t-mobile is sticking to their pricing for the myTouch and that phone has worst hardware.
dohnuts: Apple has way more $$$ to push their stores. Palm needs the cash to stay alive, not to push Palm stores. Although, I agree with you, if they put the Pre on a pedestal, put up sacred demo units in new Palm stores in the mall, they would certainly fly off the shelves. It's bad enough they can't get demo units in their own stores, and popular stores like Best Buy.
My guess: They're seeing a drop off in sales in the US, and are worried that the next quarter's sales will look worse than last quarter, even with Pixi. That would expose their real presence of WebOS hardware.
Yeah, they have smaller retail area available (and less funds), so you're right, having 4-8 on display really isn't all that feasible. It's killing me to see a good product be ruined by ancient cell phone sales policies though... just one or two on display would work much better than price cuts.
@ Donuts and Levi: Even one powered and active in the stores would do the job! It looks cool sitting there with the little sticker covering the screen, but watching demos on youtube really makes you say, damn! i want one! I just don't think they're doing enough in store to sell these.
This is not a price drop!
The Palm Pre is priced at $149.99. Walmart and others get $300 for every Palm Pre they sell. If they offer the phone for $79.99, they will make $180 profit. They are getting a lot of free advertising for this offer, so their marketing cost for a lot of the sales they get is $0. Walmart is competing against BestBuy, Amazon, and others.
I own a Palm Pre and I think this offer is great. The Phone is currently selling great and more people will buy the phone at this price. This is good for all owners of the Pre since the increased sales will attract more buyers and developers to this platform.
Palm is thinking "Survive!". They CANNOT resist this train barreling down the track. They must match "its speed". Can Palm survive on 15% or lower margins on their devices? Today, no, a year down the line, maybe. Right now Palm is losing money hand over fist. If it were not for literally massive infusions of "free" money they would already be out of business. But those massive infusions have given Palm something more precious than a gee-whiz device - they have given Palm time. Maybe within that time - a year or more - they can come up with a device that CAN make them money with 15% margins - or, unlikely, come up with a device that will bring in 30% margins again.
But when the competition offers, say, a Cliq for free, Palm =has= to price match it.
I expect the Pre to be free by January latest - given the dramatic multiple drops since the not long ago introduction of the device, it may be free by November.
hopefully the prices drops are an indicator of a larger capacity pre, from 8gig to 16gig
palm likely does not care. Palm makes the profit as dictated by their agreement with walmart which dictates how much walmart would subsize. Walmart may be willing to subsidize a large % of the phone in order to take their percentage of the deal with sprint. Palm may have agreed to a wide range of possible pricings from $299 on down to free. And most of the time a cell company won't mind if a carrier or a reseller agrees to front all the price of the phone. it just means they make more profit. Especially if its and expensive phone that's moving off of shelves like the Pre is. The answer to why they allow it is assuming they are fronting the added rebate it's profitable for Palm.
That's because a 16gb and 32gb Pre is going to drop and NOV
Palm has to compete. If they were selling well at $200 they would not have dropped the price. The comparable low end iPhone model (8GB) is $99 and can be found at $49 often. Palm can't really justify a $100+ premium for the Pre. It's a pretty good competitor to the iPhone but it's not $100 better. You could argue the total cost of ownership is lower on a 2 year contract with the Pre and that's probably true but up front price is what most people look at. I don't know why they haven't released a 16GB and/or 32GB model -- probably because Palm doesn't really accept or understand that people want to use SmartPhones as media players. A lot of people simply wouldn't consider an 8GB non-expandable media player at this point -- at 16 or 32GB expandability isn't quite as important. (although a whole set of people would disagree with that too -- again Palm offers them no product to buy)
firesale.
next question?
If only it would come to Verizon.
I couldn't agree more.
What is going to happen with the Pixi then? $79.99 for a Pre? That puts the Pixi at.... Free?!
Free on $1200 contract.
one day...people will discover it's all about the monthly plans..
Exactly. The initial price in the store is irrelevant. What's a saving of $20 when the monthly plan is $75-90 x 24 mos? Are we that dumb? This may well be the prelude to a 16 GB version but you cut prices when that device hits stores, not before..... (and then we'll get people whining about having just bought an 8Gb phone and its already outta date).
Sure it is, as long as it's not a premium product. The Pre's materials costs alone are $170. Going mostly with a subsidy spread out over the life of a 2-year contract is not a good way to make that money back. Palm's next earnings report is going to make the recent RIM report look like a straight-A student's report card.
Yeah, right... because what other companies sell the Pre for really affects Palm's bottom line. I've got news for you, Palm sells the device to stores for $400 or so, regardless of what the store prices it at.
Right, and Sprint has the cheapest plans of any national carrier. See Anymobile, Anytime.
I pay about $50/month (not counting fees/taxes) for my cable Internet. For that I get a BUNCH of email addresses, webmail, SMTP/POP mail, USENET (does anyone use USENET anymore really?), high-bandwidth extreme-high-caps data AND I have multiple devices connected on that pipe.
Right now, I have a couple featurephones with NO plan data, NO plan email, no plan NUTHIN' except 500 minutes and it costs me about $70/month (WITH fees and taxes).
When wireless carriers give me everything that cable provider gives me for a similar price maybe I'll get a smartphone or two.
Maybe next year?
BTW - I paid full price for each one of the devices that hooks into my $50/month "plan" - I wouldn't mind doing THAT with phones, either, if the plan cost $50/month for as many devices as I could connect.
Remember all the outrage when Apple dropped the price of the 2G iPhone? And the subsequent drama when the 3GS came out? Yea...
yeah. somehow these palm pre owners arent freaking out. apparently only apple is held to this arbitrary standard. such utter s**t
I think we're dealing with an entirely different set of expectations with the two phones.
The iPhone was hotly anticipated by a much larger crowd, and it was still viewed as a premium, must-have phone at the time of its price cut.
The Pre, on the other hand, is viewed as a small step towards Palm's recovery, and WebOS is what's being touted as the greatest thing. The thing is, people don't have a real great grasp on the value of software, or at least don't think of it as something to spend hundreds of dollars on.
The difference is you have a lot of zealous followers with the iPhone who believe in Apple like a religion. A lot of the people who complained about the price drop were the early adopters who trusted Apple. With the Pre, they treat it just as another phone. Also this price drop isn't nearly as severe as the iPhone one and it isn't done by the original store; it is still $150 at Sprint.
@Jake: So you classify all people who love their iPhones zealots who follow Apple religiously? You can't explain it's popularity because everyone should think like you ... So if they don't they must be mindless zealots?
I have never owned an Apple product, nor have I ever followed the company. I love mobile phones and fell in love with the apps on iPhone. Both productive and entertainment. So just because I happen to love my iPhone 3Gs I'm a religious Apple zealot?
Apple isn't like a religion. Apple is a religion. Maybe better than a religion because you don't have to die to get your eternal reward since you can use your Apple devices right here on Earth. No WinMo or Symbian cellphone will ever be considered a Jesus phone. They would be more like a Satan phone.
Our father (Steve Jobs), who art in Cupertino, hallowed be thy name. I'm on my way to church tomorrow. Early service at Apple Cube Store on 5th Ave to receive some Apple sacraments, you know, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, etc.
Kneel and cross yourself before entering: http://www.apple.com/retail/fifthavenue/
St. Peter's Basilica never looked that grand and definitely out of fashion.
i'll take two
No wonder Verizon does not want it.
maybe palm has a surprise high ended phone plus pixi , and they wont to make the prices
the surprise phone 179.99
pre 79.99
pixi free
I'd love a phone that surprises!
I don't care about the price drop. I still would have bought it even if I knew. I couldn't have waited almost four months.
Some of got ours just last week. So seeing a $99 is a bit tough (As for walmart- I haven't shopped there in 10 years, thankfully).
Good phone. It won over my 2 month old 3GS.
I'd still pay what I did on 6/6. My HTC Touch Pro was a pain and way too laggy. The Pre has been great since day 1, and I have no regrets.
Palm should probably not doing this while most pre owners are still waiting for their mail in rebate on that $299 pre, I'm one of them. FML
... Really? I got my rebate check almost two months ago.
This is really good. It's about time retailers (and/or carriers) got a little more competitive in the cellphone space... you know, instead of fixing prices and conspiring to keep all the companies involved as wealthy as possible while raping the consumer (really, couldn't texting be incorporated into the data plans in this day and age, or even the other way around). But yeah, I'm hoping to see European-style pricing by 2020.
Euro-style pricing?
So..
No mobile to mobile minutes, no night and weekend minutes, just big blocks of minutes, texts, and data..
their rate plans are cheaper because they include less.
I, like you, are in favor of euro style pricing, but not because I think it is "better." I think it would be good for the American consumer to actually see what they are buying.. this whole "I deserve everything for free because I pay my bill on time!" attitude is revolting.
I'm also in favor of unlocked, unsubsidized, contract-free phones as well, for much the same reason.
Does this mean the Pixi's gonna be free on contract?
Walmart must be getting tired of the unsold Pre taking up their shelf space.
Engadget must be tired of useless Macindouches and their stupid comments.
This is why it is so important to introduce your phone on a quality service provider. I have wanted the Palm Pre since it was first announced, but even if Sprint offered it for FREE I wouldn't go from Verizon Wireless to Sprint. No way in Hell!!!!
I'll bet my left testicle that if they had released the Pre on Verizon's network like they did with the Palm Treo 700 series, sales would have been at least double. Just stupid leadership.
I know people think Sprint bashing is popular, but if you want the cheapest plan with the best features and fastest internet, then you want Sprint.
Sounds like you're happy to pay more for less... must be nice to waste money like that.
Maybe he likes to throw away money?? Put the extra money you save with Sprint into stocks or a savings account.
I'd so get a Pixi over a new iPhone when my current iphone contract expires...if the damn thing had wifi. A decision that will cost them a lot of new customers in my opinion
$79.99 is cheap,for us British people anyways,in the UK just about every phone we get on contract is free!the n97 in the uk is free with a £30 per month for 1 year.just about the only phone we have to pay for on contract is the iphone,why do u americans have to pay soo much? lol hahahhaa thats funny.
Same thing here. The difference is that people don't think that these phones actually are free. You always end up paying almost the same for the phone to the operator than to cheapest retailer. For example N900 is "free" and you have to pay 23,90€/month for two years. There's no SMS packs or nothing and your subscription fee is 0,90€ so you are paying 23€x24=552€ for the phone. That's far from free, it's tiny bit cheaper than directly from Nokia or normal retail unit, though. If you want SMS pack and data packs you have to pay more for for operator but that phone cost doesn't change. It's surprising that some people really think that their iPhone (or any other contract phone for that matter) costs $99.
The web os is cool, but man, the pre screen size and resolution is just plain out too small. I have setup a few on exchange and you can only preview about four or five emails. If palm want to win, they need to come out with at web os devices with at least vga resolution or higher. Otherwise, the pre to is like a "My First Smartphone" device.
Just my thoughts.
There's like 10 smartphones total that have VGA resolution.
320x480, like the Pre has, is standard. How come you consider this to be an issue for the Pre when it's not for any other device out there?
its because to some smartphone life began with the iphone.
I really enjoy my Pre, but this price drop seems desperate. If they're trying to overtake the iPhone, I think they should stop, refocus, and work on develop a new brand image that attracts the new age of smartphone buyers.
$79 on a two year contract in the USA, $199 on a THREE year contract in Canada.
Yes, it's clear we're still being hosed north of the border.
Why are people so dumb about price drops in phones. Why do I want to be paying $199 for a phone just to boast to my friends I can afford it. I don't care how cheap the phone is as long as it serves the purpose I bought it for. I bought my Pre for the original $199 and wish I had waited cause I could have saved over $100.
Just because the iPhone retails for $199 doesn't mean its better. Its the same problem that got us in this financial mess. People are more concerned about how much they can afford rather then if they actually need it. Get over it already.
Nobody is saying they don't care about the price drop because they can afford it.
They're saying price drops in phones for one, don't matter in the long run, because you're paying a lot more over the price of the contract.
Secondly, many people such as myself, would rather have the device for the 4 months we've had it than save $100 for it. Having had it for 4 months more than makes up for the $100 with how useful it's been for me.
Second that notion. The phone is more than worth having for the past 4 months. I've been thinking about the iPhone for years but coming from a Treo 650 I just couldn't make the switch. The Pre has been fantastic(with help from the home-brew community). No regrets at all and anyways, there's no way we could have seen this price drop coming so soon.
ive had my Pre with the $70 Everything Data 450 plan for 2 months and have 0 complaints so far, its a great phone and im glad i chose it for my first cell ever
Let's Talk had the same deal. Plus they let you turn in your old phone for a discount
sign up for the Wal-Mart credit card ($100 minimum purchase the day you sign up) and knock another $20 off any phone purchase.
Tha fact that the Pre is now cheaper shouldn't be a bad thing, I mean, water is cheaper and still good. I'll get a Pre now and I won't be considering my purchase as a bad one, not at all...
Apparently they finally realized the Palm Pre sucks
Will Best Buy price match this? I was just about to head out and get a new contract with Sprint and will only have the phone I buy until the 11th, then I'll be returning it in exchange for the Hero.
Fuck you Sprint, for not allowing the Pre on SERO. I'd have bought three Pres if I could activate them on my SERO plan.
If you can sell a TP2 on SERO then you can sell a Pre on SERO, IMO.
@Mark I was wondering how long it would take before a SERO cry baby would show up in here. I was on SERO and I dropped it for a Pre and it was a great decision. Get over yourself you cheap SOB.
yeah fuck sprint for wanting to turn a profit and putting the survival of the company and it's employees first. shame on them. how foolish. It's a business.
ditto to what wmurch3 said. I dropped SERO plans that were getting a 27% discount on top of the only $30, because they set it up wrong. I knew I made the right choice within the first 5 minutes of having the Pre.
Sprint still has the best rates and I'm paying $120 for 3 lines, with taxes/fees and insurance included. Worth every penny.
299 if you renew. Most people getting pre's are renewals, not new customers.
This low pricing in mind is not a good idea, they could have marketed the device in another way.
Such as keeping the pre at 199, but offering to pay ETFs for people to switch to switch.
A plan at, say, $100/month results in $2400 for a 2 year contract. More than enough to pay for the phone and service plus you are locked in. I'll stick with buying unlocked phones and a pre-paid account with T-Mobile.
Good move, especially with the HTC Hero coming to Sprint. This makes me wonder if the pixie would be free.
... and here in Germany is no Pre at all. :'(
Wal-Mart is making some good deals.
I strongly suggest you buying from Amazon rather than Walmart/Letstalk. Read their return/exchange policy. Its just horrible.
I bought the phone from letstalk on August. The phone wasn't functioning properly. So I had to return/exchange it. I called them (there is about 30mins wait) and they said according to their policy, I have to ship it back. They won't pay for it. So, I ended up shipping the phone back. I didn't see any status update for about 4 days. Apparently, it takes them about 48hrs to check whether everything is returned properly and create a new order. After that, they take their own sweet time to ship it back. Only new orders have priority and ship within a day. My order was lying there for a week. Everytime I called (oh, 30 min wait time), they would just say, we can't guarantee anything, it will ship only when its ready. After 2 weeks, I got fed up and cancelled the order.
I went to Sprint store and picked up the phone from there. Trust me, the experience was horrible.
I hope Palm doesn't treat its homebrew/ROM modder community like Google does!
Ever heard of iTunes syncing?
Palm are bunch of hacks, they ARE a homebrew club.
"Look! I got it to work with iTunes... !"
"Steve's not gonna like this...!"
As for any serious company supporting the proliferation of WAREZ, and SNES emulators...dude get serious. There are laws, and those big companies have way more money than you. When they find out you and your friends spent 6 months trying to get FF7 to work on the Pre and are distributing the ROM online, they're going to bend you over.
I think you misunderstood me, I wasn't referring to game ROMs. I meant the modified versions of the phone's operating system from people who tweak it to make it faster/lighter/better looking. For example, check out the XDA Developers forum: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=448
I will wait for it to hit 1 cent then I might buy... LOL
I will wait for the 1 last iPrick to die then I might buy an iPhone... LOL
Why did Palm have to do this? Now I dont know what I want :( The Hero or the Pre??????? Someone help!