Comments on: Amazon Offers Sizable Pre, Pixi Discounts
Amazon.com has just lowered its price on webOS phones this week. Bargain hunters can now find the Palm Pre and the less than a week old Palm Pixi smartphones on deep discount from the etailer. Both deals require customers sign up for a new Sprint service plan through the site.
The Pre is currently going for $79.99 with a two year service agreement, while the Pixi is being promoted with a $24.99 price point representing a near 75% discount. Both offers also include free activation, which is usually at least another $25 clams. The current MSRP asking prices from Sprint remain unchanged at $149 and $99.
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RE: The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
-Better/more comfortable keyboard
-"Candybar" formfactor--no slider to break/wobble
-Thinner/lighter and POSSIBLY slightly better battery life than Pre due to slower CPU and smaller, lower res. screen
That's IT. Otherwise, the Pre blows the Pixi away. If Palm could address the performance woes (unlikely), then the Pixi would be an attractive "free" or "30" phone. Otherwise, I see it as a short-lived stopgap device.
I still maintain that the Treo Pro was a superb piece of hardware kit (decent keyboard, nice battery capacity, microSD slot etc). Palm really needs to rework that design a bit to accomodate a 320x480 screen and introduce a proper next-gen Treo.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
RE: The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
SeldomVisitor wrote:
Now the Pre is $79 at Amazon.BTW - Amazon has dropped the activation fee, too.
It's not at ALL clear to me why someone would buy a castrated Pixi rather than the Pre since both require the same carrier plan and the price difference is, relatively speaking, noise level.
Thinner form factor, no slider/keyboard always visible, don't need wifi, like the artsy back covers, are teenage girls who actually like the "Pixi" name....
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/
RE: The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
I'll have to ask my preteen what she thinks of the Pixi - we were sitting together watching some DUHmb Nickelodeon show last night when - tada! - the Pixi ad showed up.
RE: The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
The Kidlet just came home from school and I put up the Youtube Pixi ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIxk14xysFg
let her watch it, and asked what she thought.
She said (semi-paraphrase - but totally unprompted):
== "The background was kinda confusing but they did show you what the
== phone could do"
I asked:
== "Oh? What could the phone do?"
and she replied:
== "I can't really remember".
and I asked:
== "Would you buy the phone?"
and she replied:
== "No, because even though it showed what the phone could do, it went by
== so fast that you can't remember anything; you would have to look online"
RE: The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
Pat Horne
RE: The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
It seems like a bad idea to cut the price so low on the Pre that people will start seeing Pres as a cut-rate brand. I'm surprised that Palm isn't following the Apple model on this--keep the price points the same and add incremental bumps in features to justify the price. In Apple's case it means their stuff is often priced above market, but you really can't wait for a big sale because you know that none is coming.
RE: The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
Have they even sold 1 million webos devices yet?
There was so much speculation that Palm was going to sell 2 million webos devices by the end of 2009...tick tock.
RE: The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
Palm sold a boatload of Pres and Pixis to Sprint. =I= can guess that those FIRST sales made Palm a boatload of unsubsidized bucks. We do NOT know, however, if Palm will be able to sell Pres and Pixis both to Sprint again (followon sales) and to other carriers at the same price - I personally would doubt that they can.
Are the CURRENT discounts partially subsidized by Palm? Hmmm...maybe. But they EASILY could be partially subsidized by Sprint (since Sprint is the distributor - remember, all these venues got their devices from Sprint, not Palm (thus they're already counted as sell-through before they sell them to the end-consumer! Different thread...)).
When Palm discusses "gross margins" for this quarter or maybe next we'll get a small inkling about where those subsidies are coming from. A quarter or two ago (on the launch of the Pre) Palm actually had gross margins that were about half what they wanted (16% rather than 30% - if an unexpected purchase of already-discounted devices (800s?) had not taken place). Palm's device mix at the time was legacy phones like Centro and the first batch of Pres. That gross margin screamed out "subsidies from Palm! Or dramatic price drops (same thing)!".
RE: The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
Droid
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Droid-by-Motorola-and-Google-Chrome-OS/
RE: Droid
All the "N thousand Droids Sold!" are pretty much single-sourced, then repeated far and wide...any N.
For that matter, all "N Thousand Xs Sold!" for all N and all X are single-sourced as well.
BTW - the Droid has been price-reduced to $120
Let's see ANY phone manufacturer introduce new devices above $150 ever again.
Price wars are fun.
But...oooooooohhhhh...those MARGINS!
Palm has ceded the enterprise market
i was just thinking - Palm has ceded the enterprise market. there's no way any company IT department is ever going to choose Pre or Pixi or webOS for an enterprise roll out - big or small. the hardware is too cheap and fragile and gimmicky along with a buggy gimmicky non-supported OS. imagine the support costs and nightmares. long gone are the days when a company would buy thousands of Treos for their employees. how does this affect sales? how important was it for the success of the Treo?
agreed?
RE: Palm has ceded the enterprise market
It is really hard to see palm sticking around for much longer when you look at the competition. So sad to think about what they could have been.
I for one am with Alltel, now verizon which is currently offering zero phones from Palm. That is zero with a big 0. Not even the lowly centro or the Treo Pro is offered. How could Palm let that happen. I guess for that matter no one but Sprint is offering any of their phones.
RE: Palm has ceded the enterprise market
Still, the problem seems real to me. The competition is getting stronger quite rapidly, and Palm doesn't appear to have anything new to offer until late next year, right? This seems a very bad time to be on the sidelines.
RE: Palm has ceded the enterprise market
iPhone Enterprise Outlook Rocks RIM
on 02 November 2009, 12:17
by Red Herring Staff
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion's ownership of the enterprise market has just been challenged.
Deutsche Bank on Monday released a report saying that Apple's iPhone is gaining acceptance among IT departments and is on track to make gains in enterprise usage, likely at the expense of RIM's popular smart phone.
"We expect it (iPhone) to gain considerable share in the enterprise over the next several years, possibly driving upside to our unit estimates," Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore wrote in a report.
Those gains would likely put a dent in sales of of RIM- and Windows-based phones in corporations. RIM, the report said, has over 60 percent of the enterprise market for smart phones while Microsoft has over 20 percent.
Shares of RIM plummeted $4.24, or 7 percent, at $54.50 in afternoon trading.
Deutsche Bank said it expects to see about 2 million iPhones in the enterprise market for 2009, taking roughly 7 percent of the corporate smart phone market. The analyst firm says that's up from 2 percent of the market in 2008 for Apple. What's driving the increase, in part, is the belief that it is not true that physical keyboards are a necessity in corporate use.
Also, the analyst report said Apple's enormous gains in the apps market show the "accelerating utility of the platform." Microsoft and RIM, on the other hand, are "years behind Apple" and are losing out in developer support and application development.
Deutsche Bank, which makes a market in Apple securities, reiterated its "buy" rating and $250 price target on Apple. Apple shares edged upward $0.71 to $189.21 in late trading.
http://www.redherring.com/Home/26217
RE: Palm has ceded the enterprise market
My hospital has a Blackberry enterprise server and were supporting executives and some physicians. They were pretty militant about Windows and BBs before. Now our CIO has a iphone. I see most of the new smart phones having adequate security and outlook compatibility to be acceptable. I personally don't want IT to have the ability to control or wipe my phone remotely. My work phone was a blackberry and it was a pain to deal with IT. I understand the Pre has a remote wipe and adequate security. Android seems to have some Outlook compatibility which is what most business users need.
RE: Palm has ceded the enterprise market
Essentially, says that Pre has the best messaging system currently available (IMO, true), and that the currently bare-bones implementation of Palm Profiles will make for an excellent IT management tool.
webOS is first-gen, and the Pre and the Pixi are first-gen hardware. They were never gonna be perfect right outta the gate. Nothing is.
RE: Palm has ceded the enterprise market
article from June? don't hold your breath. i have yet to even see even one Pre in the wild yet.
RE: Palm has ceded the enterprise market
The best software won't help if the crowd is moving in the other direction.
RE: Palm has ceded the enterprise market
Dropping the Palm OS 5 API with only a legacy simulator support created a huge Exodus of Palm developers moving to other platforms. They could have easily released a transition path of glue API to make Palm OS 5 app work "WebOS-like" with a native compiler if someone cared about the established developer base. Instead some went iPhone, some Blackberry, some Android and others back to their freaky, bare-metal, embedded systems world.
Palm was hoping that the "traditional web developers" could make up for this abandonment and neglect so they could hit the big time. In short, these "city folk" web developers were not tolerant to Palm's hand-held / mobile quirks and the dance card was empty.
I'm sure the download counts on the Palm developer web site says more than anything else. I doubt that data will ever see the light of day.
RE: Palm has ceded the enterprise market
I do agree that the enterprise market has been abandoned. That's why I'm now looking at another platform. High powered feature phones do not interest me, especially with cheap hardware.
Pat Horne
Pre/Pixi Discounts
I fondled the Pixi
Also smaller.
Keys too small and glossy for me to use comfortably or accurately.
Live connection, so I called up Twitter with the web broswer, signed in (not an easy task since my password is long and has letters AND numbers!), typed a tweet...
http://twitter.com/mikecane/statuses/5919748496
... hit Update -- and then had the frikkin Twitter page give me an error msg I could not get out of!! Nor could I sign off Twitter! So I made sure to clear the damned browser history, cache, cookies, before I left the phone.
I played with the camera and some other things.
If this was as recent as two years ago, I'd have been very impressed. Sad to say, I was not.
While webOS is more polished than Android, Palm going with drop-down menus just feels so damned NINETEEN-EIGHTIES that I can't frikkin stand it.
I think my farewell to Palm is coming.
A shame for them. If they had gone with a mini web tablet -- like an Archos 5 Internet Tablet -- I think they would have cleaned up. Right now, they are fending off iPhone and Android in the phone space -- and will probably get slaughtered. Eve n a web tablet *now* would be too late for them.
RE: I fondled the Pixi
>... hit Update -- and then had the frikkin Twitter page give me an error msg I could not get out of!! Nor could I sign off Twitter! So I made sure to clear the damned browser history, cache, cookies, before I left the phone.
ha! you really think you can wipe webOS clear of your tracks?
http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre/186212-cautionary-tale-when-returning-pre.html
RE: I fondled the Pixi
Sheesh.
Glad I logged into only *one* thing.
RE: I fondled the Pixi
well at least your twitter impostor(s) will sound more sane and less offensive than your own ramblings.
RE: I fondled the Pixi
You are sooooo sad.
RE: I fondled the Pixi
don't flatter yourself. i just followed your posted link.
your rants about microwave pizza, bad tv shows, and America's impending doom doesn't interest me.
RE: I fondled the Pixi
RE: I fondled the Pixi
I think it's really sad that so many Palm loyalists are missing out on the technology Apple has delivered. The old Palm is gone, RIP.
Gary
Tech Center Labs
RE: I fondled the Pixi
What is the utility of Twitter?
People in the media love it because it fits their style. Sensationalized headline, no content, no research, and nobody actually listening. Thus, it sounds like everybody is using it. But nobody actually is.
RE: I fondled the Pixi
On a related note, I'm quite disappointed with Android 2.0. While I'm far from a fanboy and I certainly wish the hardware was a bit more compelling, I appreciate more and more what stunning work Apple did to revolutionize the mobile device sector with the initial iPhone in '07. Android makes WebOS look positively mature and polished in comparison!
Also, after playing with a Zune HD and being very pleasantly surprised, I am still going to go out on a limb and predict that Microsoft is still better-positioned for the future than most people currently think they are. I wouldn't be too terribly surprised to see them from out of nowhere sometime in late 2010/early 2011 with WM 7 and be the sleeper hit of the year. It'll probably be too little, way too late, but at least the Zune HD & Windows 7 show that M$ can still produce SOMETHING decent that's not Xbox-related!
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
RE: I fondled the Pixi
hkk -
1. are you keeping the Droid?
2. will you buy an iPhone in June 2010 if it comes to VZW?
RE: I fondled the Pixi
You people are INSATIABLE!!! I bought a used LifeDrive off eBay that I had brought back to life (heh) via CF storage.
That was like ... um, 3-4 years ago?
So what's the rush?
RE: I fondled the Pixi
abosco wrote:
What is the utility of Twitter?
People in the media love it because it fits their style. Sensationalized headline, no content, no research, and nobody actually listening. Thus, it sounds like everybody is using it. But nobody actually is.
Heh. Too true.
I did find one new use for it recently, though - virtual TV-watching buddies. There's a political panel show I like to zone out on Sunday mornings( Insiders - http://tinyurl.com/c9o73m). Did a Twitter hashtag search, and lo and behold, came across a sizeable group of fellow politco-nerds hurling virtual abuse at the panellists. The show's much more fun now I've got others to watch it with...
RE: I fondled the Pixi
SeldomVisitor wrote:
What is the utility of Twitter?
Well, if you can think of a better way to tell the world that you're in can after a bad Thai meal, I'd like to hear it.
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/
RE: I fondled the Pixi
A LifeDrive can NEVER be brought back to life b/c it never had any life to begin with! The best you can do is reanimate that undead pig of a device via a speedy CF card.
Y'know, I'd love to hear the inside scoop from some anonymous ex-Palm insider sometime of how the stillborn LD was conceptualized & then given the green light. Even in mid-2005, the Microdrive was going the way of the dodo in favor of flash storage. I'd rather have had a T|T5x with 1 or 2 gigs of internal flash instead of that horrible LifeDrive.
P.S. Have you fondled a Droid yet? You will HOWL in rage at the finger-numbing misery that is its keyboard!
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
RE: I fondled the Pixi
1. Undecided. I am going to first exchange this week 39 production/launch day unit for a newer one in the next few days in hopes of getting one with less flaky reception. Also, people keep reporting trouble hearing me clearly even though I can hear them flawlessly. If the replacement unit is a pig, then I'll return it and go back to funbling with my trusty pair of devices (Treo 755p + Moto V9m). I intend to give the Droid the FULL 30 day evaluation possible. I'll have had it 3 weeks as of this Friday.
2. Can't say for sure but I'd at least take a very hard look at a VZW iPhone. That is assuming they don't do what one rumor said and release a version with a smaller screen than the current GSM version. A lot also depends on how the PIM functionality of the iPhone continues to improve. I also hope VZW do not raise their data plans any higher than they are currently. Finally, I remain very nervous about having a fixed internal battery. I've been through that aggravation enough times with my various Palm PDAs and it's no fun when the battery starts to crap out.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
RE: I fondled the Pixi
Just love it when I reset it and it takes like five frikkin minutes to complete.
And I sorta fondled the Droid. See elsewhere.
OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analyst
Jay Yarow|Nov. 22, 2009, 11:15 AM
Here's another big believer in the iPhone to Verizon hype. Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall, was on Bloomberg Friday night, talking about why Apple will join Verizon.
Here's his key points:
* Apple's contract with AT&T is finished in June 2010.
* Moving to Verizon brings 14 million additional iPhone sales.
* Apple receives $450 per phone subsidy from AT&T.
* When it drops AT&T it will be a $300 subsidy from Verizon and others around the world.
* 4% of iPhone users take up 40% of AT&T's bandwidth.
* Even if AT&T tried to keep Apple by upping the subsidy, it's still not in Apple's favor to stay with AT&T. Also, the government might step in to break up the exclusivity.
http://www.businessinsider.com/apples-contract-with-att-is-done-in-june-analyst-2009-11
RE: OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analy
Also, I understand the U.S. Government has a lot of Democrats in office, but breaking up a cell phone exclusivity agreement? Silly. That is not the role of government.
I think they'll release it on AT&T and Verizon. Especially since they hired a bunch of CDMA engineers last year. And in 2011, they'll release a keyboard model for much the same reason. There is demand for it, and a lot of revenue and profit would follow.
RE: OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analy
RE: OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analyst
no that's not what they're saying and no it doesn't sound like that.
they would be adding VZW and others in addition to AT&T.
RE: OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analyst
Would the lure of a CDMA iPhone be enough to make you leave Sprint + Centro for VZ next year?
I'd honestly probably go with a CDMA iPhone even though I like having removable batteries, physical keyboards, and removable memory card slots in my devices. I still detest iTunes, especially under Windows, but I could probably live with doing the initial device setup with it and then trying to use it as little as possible...
I've simply given up on anything ever approaching FrankenGarnet's ease of use, ease of text input/editing/copy & pasting, or PIM perfection. So now that I've resigned myself to mobile mediocrity for PIMs, I'll attempt to refocus on web browsing and social networking like all of the hipsters & kids do nowadays. I should be much happier and efficient, right?
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
RE: OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analyst
i will stick with Sprint regardless. i just love my $99/month all you can eat unlimited voice, data, text, GPS etc. i refuse to get robbed by VZW or AT&T and pay 50% more. i will continue to bank/save/invest the $50+ difference every month.
my guess is though that the if the iPhone comes to VZW, it will probably come to Sprint at or around the same time.
RE: OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analy
Sprint and VZW use the same radio standard?
I'd probably want an iPhone on Sprint over VZW due to the $99 plan.
RE: OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analyst
both use CDMA.
if you make few landline calls, you should check out Sprint's new unlimited mobile-to-mobile plan -
$69/month unlimited mobile to mobile (any carrier) voice, unlimited data, text, GPS, etc. and you get 450 minutes/month for landline calls.
------------
Sprint introducing unlimited mobile-to-mobile plan
Sprint today plans to unveil a new calling plan – "Any Mobile, Anytime" -- that offers unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling to the USA's 250 million cellphone users.
Unlimited mobile data is also included. Cost: $69.99. That's about one-third less than Sprint's original flat-rate plan, "Simply Everything," which includes unlimited voice, data, text and all the rest.
The one thing you won't get with "Any Mobile": landline calls. Those will be deducted from monthly allotments of 450 or 900 minutes. The bigger plan costs $89.99. Both versions of the plan offer unlimited messaging (text, pictures, video), unlimited email and unlimited "GPS" navigation, assuming your device is GPS enabled.
RE: OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analyst
Total cost, $69/month.
When I get data, text, etc etc etc and 450 minutes on two lines for $69, I'll jump to whoever is offering it.
RE: OT: Apple's iPhone Contract With AT&T Is Done In June - Analy
Get the frikkin iPhone Sprint! Get it NAO!!!
It's not the price of the phone
RE: Droid Eris thirty bucks Walmart online
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
RE: Droid Eris thirty bucks Walmart online
My "problem", however, is an unwillingness to pay much more than I'm currently paying for my two dumb phones (maybe feature phone...) which is like $70/month. When I consider how much $70/month translates into "cost per call" I'm aghast - so much so that I'm trying to figure out how I can lower that cost by dumping a landline, landline long distance service, etc and just use cell phones.
But ya know what - that is VERY hard to do!
Right now I have a single landline connected to =4= phones throughout the house. How do I duplicate THAT with a cell-phone-only existence? How does The Kidlet get her calls and what happens if BOTH of the cell phones are out of the house at the time? At this point in time getting a THIRD cell phone is not the solution.
Etc etc etc.
It appears Google Voice might solve the "call for Kidlet" problem but it does NOT solve the "to what phone where?" problem.
Whenever this all gets resolved, I'll probably spring for some sort of enhanced communicator.
Til then...
Droid Eris free from Dell
https://mobility.dell.com/specialoffer.aspx?cenbd=1&cid=35693_4c79788e46b54c9ea60b83331ae391b4
Commodityville! Next stop is Commodityville!
WAITAMINUTE!
I think we already arrived.
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The plummeting prices continue...well...their plummet
BTW - Amazon has dropped the activation fee, too.
It's not at ALL clear to me why someone would buy a castrated Pixi rather than the Pre since both require the same carrier plan and the price difference is, relatively speaking, noise level.
Of course, there are other Sprint phones out there that might be "equally" more desirable...