Palm Pixi price and Sprint launch date coming later today
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Oct 26th 2009 6:44AM
posted Oct 26th 2009 6:44AM
And here we go: at 9AM CT, or 10AM in New York City where the real Americans live, Sprint will be making public its plans for the Palm Pixi. You know, Palm's 2nd smartphone to run its lauded WebOS platform. The announcement should bring pricing and availability so check back then ya hear. If you're lucky, we even might get some Verizon news too. [Thanks, Jocelyn]
If it ain't "free", will it sell?
Yes...i know 3 ppl that are actually waiting for it.
Not to me and you, but definitely to a few female friends I know who had the Centro. It's a familiar design and simpler than the Pre (if that was even possible). I think it will be priced at 79.99 after $20 MIR. After Christmas, looking at how fast the the Pre cut price, the Pixi will drop to $29.99 after $50 MIR.
I want a #$%@ing WebOS phone on AT&T and I want it YESTERDAY.
Why did you hitch your wagon to a dying horse, Palm? I mean, AT&T's no racehorse, but it's certainly not Sprint.
But will it sync to iTunes?!
$100 - let's see how many they sell.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Palm-Pixi-Available-Nov-15-bw-1932840449.html?x=0&.v=1
Excuse me - the Pixi is =$200= to walk out the door with, then wait for a rebate.
Oh yeah, they're gonna sell a gajillion of these, alrightee!
@Ryan: I hope not!
I love webOS, but it really needs a "cloudy" iTunes alternative. The rest of the OS is wireless and web-oriented, iTunes sync feels old-fashioned by comparison.
the real americans live in nyc? i thought the real americans have been pushed back to some indian reservations ;)
No, those are "Early Americans" - no longer incorrectly labeled as "Native Americans".
Eventually they'll be labeled "Selected-against Americans".
Not all Native Americans live on reservations....
Why were the Native Americans here first?
They had... reservations! HA!
LOL... Im assuming you'll hear crap for the "real Americans" comment... even though thats the truth....
i don't live in NYC...... but im fat as i don't know what and live on the east coast so time revolves around me
do i count as "real american"
What a childish and unnecessary dig on the vast majority of your readers.
I heard they are called "American Indians"
All this comment bickering about the "real americans" comment means you are missing the real news in the post -- oh wait, we are talking about the Pixi. Move along, no real news in that.
ooh you almost got on my good side with"all this comment bickering" you sneaky little troll you!
My guess at the price - somewhere between $49 - 79 on two-year after rebates. By undercutting the iPhone 3G, Palm and Sprint will be offering the cheapest true smartphone in America and aiming directly at the tween, teen, and college-age demographics that A) influence the rest of their family's spending habits, and B) are more easily converted into lifelong customers of a brand. While such a low price likely won't be too terribly profitable in the short-term, it will provide the webOS platform with a massive increase in install base, encouraging more developers to come onboard and offer compelling applications, leading to a greater chance of long-term success for the platform.
While Palm is still having financial issues, I sincerely hope they take a risk here and price this device extremely competitively, because at this point they need to knock this one out of the park to really solidify their future existence. I love my Pre, but against a $99 iPhone 3G and a $199 3GS, it just isn't competitive on a mass-market scale. Take a chance Palm, and I think you'll be richly rewarded.
Palm tried cheap before - the Centro sold gajillions.
And apparently made Palm no money - maybe even ended up costing Palm money. Palm can't afford that again.
Butttttttttttttttttttttt... now there apps to make $$
@ Freaking Ijit: On the contrary, the Centro saved the company. It wasn't a profitable venture by any means, but it sold like gangbusters and reassured the stockholders and investors that the Palm brand could still be successful as a going concern. If the Centro had not succeeded sales-wise, I highly doubt Elevation would have continued pouring money into the development of webOS - they likely would have cut their losses and sold the company off to someone else and bailed.
However, that was in the Palm OS days, and the Centro's biggest problem wasn't that it was unprofitable for Palm, but that it fed a platform that would garner little to no post-sale revenue for Palm. With webOS and the App Catalog, Palm can sell a device near or at-cost and hope to garner additional revenue through app sales. While it's obviously far from making a killing, it will be enough to sustain Palm, and moreover it will help build a solid platform for future, higher-margin devices to launch with greater success.
> ...It wasn't a profitable venture by any means...
That was my point - Palm cannot afford unprofitable but highly successful devices anymore.
Elevation Partners has been a nice backer of Palm (a necessary backer, as a matter of fact) but even THEY have limited refunding ability.
Palm needs profitable devices.
@Freakin Ijit "And apparently made Palm no money - maybe even ended up costing Palm money. Palm can't afford that again" - then again maybe the Centro is the only thing that kept them afloat this long?
Guys, it's a reference (random, random reference) to a comment, made by republicans during the presidential elections, in which they called ppl living in republican-heavy states (i.e., not NY) "real Americans.'
And I, for one, hope that this sells just well enough to encourage discounts on the Pre.
Real Americans know no specific time zone. ;^)
I think WebOS might actually do something if they ever get around to whacking it on something GSM-bound. It's far from perfect but still looks like someone was thinking about people use phones today. Should Palm get away from Sprint, they could see some movement into the soon-to-be robot dominated space.
"whacking it on something GSM-bound"
They better make it in pink, cause I don't think too many guys are going to but a phone called a Palm Pixi.
The name is such a death stroke.
Still, amazing device. It would be better with a larger screen and resolution, but fantastic work nonetheless.
Real Americans..? All people in Central Time enable AdBlock Plus for Engadget.
Is this touch screen? If so, just by looking at the picture, niice
Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced Nov. 15 as the first day of nationwide
availability for Palm® Pixi, exclusively available on America`s most dependable
3G network1 from Sprint2. It will cost just $99.99 with a two-year service
agreement, after a $50 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate and be available
at Sprint stores, online at www.sprint.com, through telesales at 1-800-SPRINT1,
and at Best Buy, RadioShack and select Wal-Mart stores.
Weak palm, MAYBE for $50 out the door I would get this phone but $250 hahahah
$100 after rebate is twice what this thing should cost. It has a small screen, no WiFi and potentially the build quality of the Pre. This should be no more than $49 on all US carriers simultaneously if they really want to compete in the US.
"Potentially the build quality of the Pre" - yeah thats a good reason to price it to the point that its unprofitable. Its small, compact and no sliding parts. The build quality will be much better. Its got the full WebOS experience on the phone. Why would you want to price it as a dumbphone?
$100 is perfectly fine for this device.
This is clearly a base model smartphone. $100 is too high at this point for a base model. With the Pre at $150 and the iPhone 3G at $99, the Pixi, with less major features than both (namely screen size and WiFi) needs to be less than both. I think the ceiling for the price on this phone is $79. I think at $49 on all major US carriers puts WebOS back in the game and really sets up the next high-end WebOS phone for success. At $100, this phone doesn't register a blip in the ultra-competitive smartphone market.