Palm Pre on Sale for $99 at Best Buy

Posted By: Ryan Kairer Sunday, July 26, 2009 10:53:09 AM

UPDATED Best Buy retail stores are now selling the Palm Pre for $99 with the usual 2 year service agreement and activation discounts, according to various reports. This marks a $100 price drop less than two months into its life cycle. The deal may be especially attractive to customers as it also drops the mail in rebate, yet retains the same instant discount.

It is unclear at this time if this is a limited time promotion or permanent reduction. Some sales flyers also show a reduced (contract free) regular price of $749.99, down from $849. It's also uncertain whether all locations will offer the special pricing as Best Buy sales pricing can sometimes vary regionally.

UPDATE
A Best Buy rep has confirmed that this particular pricing information was in error. The Best Buy price continues to be the standard $199.

Image courtesy of PreThinking.

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Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

SeldomVisitor @ 7/26/2009 11:30:55 AM #

That's why they dropped the price by half - companies always drop prices of hots-selling items.

Like Nintendo did with the Wii.

WAITAMINUTE!

Belay that...

RE: Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

jca666us @ 7/26/2009 12:11:03 PM #

Agreed - guess palm's profit margin is gonna tank.

Definitely not a good sign.

RE: Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

SeldomVisitor @ 7/26/2009 2:11:35 PM #

There is no sign that Palm sold BestBuy particularly cheap Pres (though they certainly could have and that would affect Palm's margins). The only REAL right-in-yer-face factual datapoint we have out of this is that BestBuy cut their Pre price in half.

It is unlikely, according to just about every prior external example since humans have existed, that the price was dropped because BestBuy was selling out.

RE: Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

jca666us @ 7/26/2009 3:10:20 PM #

sorry, you're right - meant to say bb's profits on the pre are going to be pretty light.

How long until other retailers follow suit?

RE: Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

freakout @ 7/26/2009 5:38:34 PM #

^^ Leave the FUD spreading to SV, jca666us. At least he's good at it.

RE: Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

twrock @ 7/26/2009 9:52:06 PM #

jca666us wrote:
sorry, you're right - meant to say bb's profits on the pre are going to be pretty light.

Whatever! You know jolly well you meant to say what you did the first time. You're just being full of the stinky brown stuff. Stand up and own it like a man!

Hey Palm! Where's my PDA with Wifi and phone capabilities?

RE: Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

jca666us @ 7/27/2009 7:17:12 AM #

whatever twrock - we'll see how man pre's palm can dump out on the market. Are they still on target to sell two million by the end of the year?

Last I read, sales are tanking, and returns are pretty high.

RE: Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

LiveFaith @ 7/27/2009 7:27:52 AM #

Saw this at BB last night and was taken back a bit. But, I noticed their promo flyer in the store had a major focus on the Pre and it was listed at $199. I thought it was a misplaced product tag.

Still the iPhone had the focal point display with 2 working devices, while the Pre and the rest of the herd from VZW, ATT, Tmob were all just non-working demos,
Pat Horne

RE: Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

LiveFaith @ 7/27/2009 7:30:33 AM #

http://www.precentral.net/best-buy-selling-pre-99-2-year-contract

Yep, looks like it was an error, Strange, Chattanooga had this same tag. Did anyone get a deal at $99?
Pat Horne

RE: Obviously BestBuy is selling as many as they can get in, eh?

CFreymarc @ 7/27/2009 2:36:16 PM #

IMO, this is one of the best "my bad" backpedalling pieces of marketing and PR I have seen in electronics retail in a long time. Any major retailer has a very tight control over signs getting posted in stores - especially if it is showing a price.

That sign did not get to the stores by mistake. IMO, this was done to create a rush in sales and some press from this "accident" and a few execs are patting each others backs getting out of the lull that that late summer sales have become this year. You event used Twitter. Bravo!

Price match for iPhone 3G

pontif @ 7/26/2009 3:19:30 PM #

I've been expecting this. They have to match the iPhone 3G price, because that is the version with the specs (8gb, etc.)

RE: Price match for iPhone 3G

SeldomVisitor @ 7/26/2009 3:26:34 PM #

The refurbished 8G is $49 now - see Boy Genius.

RE: Price match for iPhone 3G

pontif @ 7/27/2009 8:40:52 AM #

Yeah, but the NEW 8gb iPhone is $99, and it makes the most sense for palm to try to meet that with the Pre, since it is also an 8gb phone.

Palm needs to get a 16gb Pre out to compete with the iPhone 3GS at the $199 price point.

Anyone who actually thinks it through, knows the real expense is the service that goes with the phone, but that doesn't change what the average person looks at when they go into a store, or read an advertisement.

The latest poop is...

SeldomVisitor @ 7/26/2009 3:25:51 PM #

...somehow a mistake was made and all those stores got their price mistakes printed out and updated in their computer systems as well at $99.

We'll see how this works out.

Certainly had to help Palm's sell-through numbers though, huh?

RE: The latest poop is...

WyreNut @ 7/26/2009 3:47:28 PM #

Can anyone actually verify this isn't some Photoshopped ad? I looked at preThinking's website and only one guy from Indianapolis stated he found a store that honored it. Nothing on BB's website confirms this.

The actual ad (without price change) is here:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9337595&st=9337595&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218087261903

RE: The latest poop is...

SeldomVisitor @ 7/26/2009 3:59:13 PM #

There are dozens of posts around the 'Net by people who (1) have bought the $99 Pres and (2) have gotten a hundred bucks back from previous $199 Pre purchases due to BestBuy's price guarantee. There also is a Twitter feed from BestBuy corporate saying it was a mistake that "is being corrected".

It MAY be that this will last out the week at those BestBuys who already started honoring it simply for legal liability reasons.

Here's one of Precentral's message threads about it:

http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre/194970-palm-pre-only-99-anybody-mad.html

RE: The latest poop is...

SeldomVisitor @ 7/27/2009 3:19:11 AM #

I wonder if the "mistake" was of the date, rather than the price.

I can't see a reason for someone to be touching the price if it's not changing; I can see someone touching the price AND date if it's gonna change and getting the date wrong. And it is totally believable that changes are automatically propagated around the country for automatic printout.

BB Pre Ad

WyreNut @ 7/26/2009 3:52:35 PM #

Well huh, that link wants to redirect. Try this one: http://www.bestbuy.com/site//olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat183100050005&type=category

commoditization

Gekko @ 7/26/2009 3:55:51 PM #

"A business fights against commoditization every day. You have to fight with product innovation, distribution innovation, process innovation, technology innovation and people innovation. If you're not fighting on those five fronts, the gravity of commoditization will get to you - it's only a matter of time." - Mike Fraizer

RE: commoditization

mikecane @ 7/26/2009 5:17:55 PM #

Who is that guy and where is that quote from?

RE: commoditization

Gekko @ 7/26/2009 5:27:19 PM #

Google is your friend. first result.

RE: commoditization

mikecane @ 7/27/2009 11:51:36 AM #

I asked specifically because I hoped you would READ what you posted. If you spelled his name correctly, WTF does some guy in CONSTRUCTION know about this?

Mike Fraizer
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mike-fraizer/8/47a/a43

Too bad

pontif @ 7/28/2009 12:07:29 PM #

It is a shame they aren't permanently dropping the price to $99. The Pre really needs to be at the $99 price point if that is what the iPhone 3G 8gb version is selling for new. Either that or Palm should upgrade the Pre to 16gb so it is more evenly matched with the iPhone 3GS 16gb at the $199 price point.

That one may have been a mistake but...

SeldomVisitor @ 8/1/2009 6:46:59 AM #

...the price is official at LetsTalk.com.

RE: That one may have been a mistake but...

jca666us @ 8/1/2009 7:10:00 AM #

Maybe the $99 price will make it a hit on Sprint? lol!

RE: That one may have been a mistake but...

SeldomVisitor @ 8/1/2009 7:31:55 AM #

Can't hurt!

Sploosh!

SeldomVisitor @ 8/2/2009 6:05:57 PM #

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/08/02/verizon-drops-pricing-on-almost-all-existing-smartphones-to-under-99/

RE: Sploosh!

twrock @ 8/3/2009 12:42:53 AM #

"There is no free lunch."

It doesn't matter what price any of the carriers sell a phone at. When talking money, it's TCO people should be looking at. But since the general public in the US is ignorant of that fact, I suspect there will be plenty of people terrible excited because they bought their phone for "only $99!"

Hey Palm! Where's my PDA with Wifi and phone capabilities?