webOS Palm Pre to be released April 30? Battery life, pricing details

Sunday, 29 March 2009 Andrew Young

According to a Twitter from an apparent beta tester for the Palm Pre, The new webOS handset is set to launch on April 30:

This could be big news, as the new smartphone was predicted to have a June release date, and only a "first half of 2009" target has been set officially. His twitter updates have since been protected, but here's what we know so far:

The source looks legit. "Jim Van" is CEO of Logicomm, an IT services firm for small businesses. Providence Business News previously interviewed him about the company, and his bio can be found here.
Although we haven't seen any proof he is a beta tester (Palm almost certainly has an NDA in effect), he claims he took a couple shots of the device with firmware info on display.
Palm is under pressure to release the new handset sooner than later; especially with Apple's WWDC on June 8th and upcoming iPhone 3.0 software (see articles).
He clarified and restated the date in a follow-up twitter, in response to an inquiry into how sure he was of the release date.

His previous twitter activity also includes the following:

Got Pre to work on Twitter, but it’s a tad cludgy…
UI is VERY clean, well thought out, made for fingers. Somebody used their brains on the design. Palm’s always been cool like that
Just used browser to remote in and play on our doc server..almost like computing w/out kbd…loaded word doc quickly..nice
The Palm Pre should be interesting...a bunch of us are getting models to do a final test this week...I'm psyched!

Looks like Jim Van has been busy talking about the Pre! Previously in twitters, he also stated the battery is "going strong after 8 hours of mixed use", and Facebook "works so well" on the Pre. Also, the price will be $299 on a two-year contract, he reports from an unnamed source. It also will have tethering support, which was previously removed from the Sprint specifications.

So do you think we'll see the Palm Pre in April? And would a $299 price tag affect your buying decision? The Pre was recently missing from Sprint's April roadmap, which may suggest a later date. But this rumor could have some beef to it; as a beta tester he would probably know more than the rest of us, and he has released quite a few Pre bits so far. An update will be posted when new information comes in.

Sources: PalmWebOS, PreThinking, jkOnTheRun

UPDATE (03/30): Jim Van recently responded to the rumors in a follow-up twitter and e-mail. Read more.

6 Comments

Feed

james makes this comment

Sunday, 29 March 2009

299 is a little steep... I'd like 199, or even 250 better. Maybe thats with a mail-in rebate. Sprint like doing those for some reason.
davidm makes this comment

Sunday, 29 March 2009

I think there's a good chance it will come next month (or at least the optimistic side of me thinks so). Apple is putting a lot of pressure on them and it'd be good to get it out before iPhone 3.0 software or new hardware comes along. Hopefully they'll be able to do $199 or even $150 would be pretty sweet. It's worth at least as much as an iPhone for what you're getting.
PreFly makes this comment

Monday, 30 March 2009

I'd be happy with 250...after all I need the extra $$ for the touchstone. The 8+ hour battery life would be great if it holds up. It will beat the iPhone hands down - tethering, multitasking, removable battery (opens the door for a 16+ hour extended battery for trips). Now all we need is confirmation on video recording.
Shaun makes this comment

Wednesday, 01 April 2009

tethering and a strong battery? SOLD.
Greywethr makes this comment

Wednesday, 01 April 2009

$200 isn't too bad, but $300 is more than most people are willing to pay for a phone. The Centro was only $100 and the Pre will not do 3x as much or be 3x better. 2x? Definitely. Palm & Sprint will be shooting themselves in the foot if they try to charge that much, guaranteed.
FTWorld makes this comment

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

I AM NOT PAYING $300 FOR THIS OR ANY PHONE !!!

it looks like i'll be switching to verizon, at&t or t-mobile

thanks alot sprint $:\$

Add Comment