Nope, it’s not over yet. More Pre news is coming down the pipes and this time it comes from rumorsville. The two biggest pieces of the puzzle omitted from the Palm hoopla yesterday were pricing info and timing for the GSM version. Many have speculated that Pre pricing would fall in line with the iPhone 3G to create the best fighting chance Palm and Sprint have of competing. If Eldar Murtazin of Mobile-review is to be believed however, that sentiment is out the door. How does double sound? According to Murtazin’s sources, the Pre will launch with a steep price tag of $399. Wow. Of course the original price of Apple’s base iPhone was $399 but plenty has changed since then and the Pre isn’t quite the jaw-dropper Apple’s handset was when it first saw daylight. We have no reason to doubt Murtazin but we do hope his sources are wrong about this one, especially considering the fact that we will almost certainly see a new iPhone released before Sprint can drop the Pre price down to mass-attainability level.
As far as the GSM version of the Pre is concerned, Murtazin’s sources state an early 2H release in Europe with pricing in the neighborhood of $500 – $550 USD. While carriers are still unknown at this point, the pricing certainly sounds about right if we’re looking at $400 from Sprint. Of course the release of a GSM / WCDMA-compatible Pre was never really a question but it’s nice to have a possible time frame, for Europe at least. Looks like it’s time to dust off the phone number of your favorite mobile importer.
[Via Unwired View]
