Best Buy retail Pre price: $849.99. Ouch. 43
Thu, 21 May 2009 9:32 am EDT 
It hurts to look. That’s a $300 premium over Sprint’s retail price. Sure, you can get a new in-contract Palm Pre from Best Buy for $199.99 out the door without having to fuss with the mail-in rebates like those buying at Sprint stores (and probably the select Radio Shack and Wal-Mart locations), but if you’re not eligible to renew your contract for another two years, they are listing it at $849.99. It is worth noting that (as of this posting) the Best Buy overview does say the following under Product Features: “Built-in 3.0MP digital camera - With LED flash and extended depth of field lets you take still photos and short videos.” Whether that’s a mistake on Best Buy’s part, or a glimpse into the gilded future of the Pre, well, we’ll just have to wait and see.
It's worth noting Best Buy list the Sprint Treo Pro at $699.99 initially before they brought it down to a more reasonable $599.99 - so maybe there's no need to panic.
Thanks to scottp1 and everybody else who sent this in!
43 Comments
I'd rather take it with contract. Thank you very much.
My upgrade is in July...so I'll be buying this at Radioshack instead, thanks.
Except that once you cancel your Sprint contract you can't open a new account for 6 months.
Its the same as when the iPhone first came out. That phone was a high price at first then they lowered it. I am sure they will do the same with the Pre... lets hope
Waiting for Anonymous troll.
LOL
Well done, sir.
sleepy
Indeed.
Uh enough! $199 is a great price and so is the full retail 549 compared to iPhone.
They're not screwing themselves. If the Storm and G1 can do great so can the Pre.
It's econ 101, folks. Supply and demand. Limited release, high price. If you want to buy it at "worst buy" you'll have to pony up!
That is crazy, considering the price to manufacture this thing ..$138. Even sprints $550 price is outrages.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Palm-Pre-to-Cost-138-to-Manufacture-11051...
a) the cost to manufacture figure is just a "guess" based on the price of components
b) it doesn't the cost of R&D into consideration
c) basic law of supply and demand shows that what you pay for something is not always related to what it costs to produce it.
Yeah, but companies will pay the lowest price possible because its about making money ..so $170 at the most. STILL OUTRAGES!!
http://palmwebos.org/2009/04/29/palm-pre-costs-138-to-build-estimate/
My point is that those estimates are "guesses" based on the cost of the components. That is not the only thing one considers when pricing a product. Let me ask you this.
If it cost you $100 dollars to build something after you've spent $300M (million) in R&D, what price would you use for your product? Add in the cost of ongoing maintenance, advertising, the fact that you want to make a profit rather than just break even, blah, balh, blah... Would you accept it if someone says "It costs you $100 to build, so you should not charge more than $110 for it?"
I'm just saying that judging the price of something base solely on it's build cost is very limited.
Now is $500+ for the Pre off contract outrageous in this economy? Well, that's for the individual to answer. But is it outrageous simply because it is more than what it cost to build the product? I think not.
RadioShack hasn't done mail in rebates for a while.
Even if you are with sprint, if you do not qualify for the upgrades, then you will have to pay retail price-- $850 at BB or $550 at sprint.
Any one read the review they have with it? Not good.
"Best" Buy. Ha hahahahahaha...
Seriously. With Blackberries going for $50 with contract, even $200 with contract for the Pre is pushing it. I guess it's all marketing, put a ridiculously high price just to establish a fantasy value and then bring the price down to something reasonable. Bully for them.