Comments on: Verizon Reduces Pre, Pixi Plus Pricing Again

Verizon is running yet another promotional price drop on its line of webOS devices. Surf on over to vzw.com for a freshly discounted $49 Palm Pre Plus or a $29 Pixi Plus. In addition to this sale, the devices still qualify for Verizon's buy one, get one free offer.

At this point it is unclear if this promotion represents the new permanent price points or is a temporary sale. This also marks the third price drop for the devices in less than two months of availability on Verizon. The Pre and Pixi Pluses originally debuted at $149 and $99 after mail-in rebates, which have also been dropped along the way.

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Death Spiral?

mikecane @ 4/1/2010 1:24:58 PM #

A Pixi at $29?! Man, that's like Tracfone pre-pay territory! That's what gets you a crap Moto or Nokia NON-smartphone. If Palm could get just the Pixi on MetroPCS, they'd have a good chance of making some dough.

RE: Death Spiral?

SeldomVisitor @ 4/1/2010 2:28:45 PM #

They'll give you fifty bucks to take a Pixi Plus at Walmart Online.

And the Pre Plus is free.

RE: Death Spiral?

jca666us @ 4/1/2010 3:28:45 PM #

Ryan,

You should retitle this article:

Verizon fire sale of Palm Pre and Pixi

RE: Death Spiral?

LiveFaith @ 4/1/2010 7:30:39 PM #

No. Say it like Palm would. "Palm Pre & Pixi Now Hotter Than Ever".
Pat Horne

RE: Death Spiral?

patti30 @ 4/1/2010 9:53:26 PM #

It seems to me the palm/webos ship is sinking inch by inch. best thing to do...ship out sell to a bigger company

RE: Death Spiral?

jca666us @ 4/2/2010 4:22:45 AM #

It's probably too late for Palm to be bought out; the world is moving past them.

The ipad's not even out yet and it already has a ton of native apps.

RE: Death Spiral?

hkklife @ 4/2/2010 9:20:04 AM #

Mike;

Hardware pricing has become completely irrelevant over the past few months. It all boils down to the TCO over 2 years (ie the monthly service charges). At MINIMUM you are looking at $70/month for VZW (basic voice plan + $30 data). And that doesn't include texting or navigation. HOWEVER, since it does now include tethering, a VZW WebOS device suddenly becomes the hottest deal in town.

In fact, I am possibly going to recommend we pick one up for the office to have for a "just in case" situation or while traveling. If nothing else, it's good to see VZW offering a bit more value nowadays. Free nav on their Android offerings and free tethering on their WebOS devices. Only problem is that in 6 months, there won't BE any more Palm or WebOS devices on VZW!

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->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro

RE: Death Spiral?

mikecane @ 4/2/2010 9:48:41 AM #

Listen, MetroPCS could slap a $149 price on that sucker. That would cover at least half the TCO, with the rest being picked over time by people who pay monthly. You can't make me believe the Pixi costs so much to manufacture that Palm couldn't make at least *some* money this way. And MetroPCS is one of those things that would help with marketing. "Yo, what's that phone?" "Pixi." "Pixi?! LMAO!" "Yo, check out what it can do." "Dahyum, gotta get me one of those."

RE: Death Spiral?

bsquare @ 4/2/2010 1:04:33 PM #

If Palm wants to stay afloat, they need to convince Sprint and Verizon to allow users to activate these on legacy plans with included data. It's become pretty obvious that the masses aren't willing to pay iPhone-like plan prices for these phones. Give users the option to get a WebOS phone and add it to their existing plan without forcing them to a $80/mo plan.

RE: Death Spiral?

hkklife @ 4/2/2010 2:19:36 PM #

Good recommendations, guys. Palm can stil muscle into the prepaid sector *BUT* the the carriers will need to be more generous with data allowances. Every time you bling, an Android or WebOS device is accessing the cloud for *something*. You'd burn up a pile of $ in no time with a contemporary cloud-based prepaid smartphone.

Also, since Palm refuses to release a
"touch" non-phone WebOS device, they at least need to patch WebOS *PRONTO* that makes these things functional out of the box without an initial carrier signal/activation. This has, and shall continue to be, a huge issue for users in other countries that want to purchase one of these guys without service for development/experimental purposes. And they also need to continue to function as wi-fi PDAs once data services have been terminated.
Yes, yes, yes, I know there are all kinds of hacks/patches to enable this but this should be a basic, standard feature.

Finally, address performance & PIM shortcomings in future WebOS updates! Palm's done little to nothing to address WebOS' PIM shortcomings compared to Garnet since its release.
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->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro

RE: Death Spiral?

mikecane @ 4/2/2010 4:44:21 PM #

In this economy, prepay like MetroPCS would be Palm's best damned friend. Better people should get a Palm there than an Android phone and have that become the low-end standard. And MetroPCS is allegedly *unlimited* data and voice for $60/month.

RE: Death Spiral?

hkklife @ 4/2/2010 7:16:51 PM #

There's also that Verizon-backed prepay MVNO available through Wal-Mart? Straight Talk? That would be a good one for Palm as well. Heck, maybe VZW can dump some of their warehouse full of Pixi & Pre Pluses that way. Sell 'em for $175ish (Pre Plus) and $125(Pixi Plus) at Wally World in the Straight Talk section (it's usually on an endcap--perhaps Gekko remembers from his Wal-Mart trip a few months ago!) and they'd absolutely blow away the current offerings:

http://www.walmart.com/cp/Straight-Talk-Brand-Shop/1045119

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->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro

just wondering

linds @ 4/2/2010 9:31:57 AM #

So you all think this is a fire sale for Verizon to get rid of their Palm's or do you think they will eventually offer free wifi tethering for all of their wifi enabled phones?

I was hoping the last was correct as that would force all the other carriers to do the same.

It seems like a bad way of getting rid of Phones to give people a $40 a month discount. I mean I realize that it doesn't actually cost that $40 a month to give us tethering but for those who already were paying for it.

RE: just wondering

hkklife @ 4/2/2010 7:24:19 PM #

Fire sale. I honestly had assumed we had seen the FINAL Palm Inc. product on VZW when the Centro made its belated appearance in mid-'08. Had there not been the huge WebOS buzz/response after CES '09, VZW likely would have passed on any future Palm products. But they took a gamble and lost big-time with the Pre Plus & Pixi Plus. So I definitely would put $ on there never being another Palm product on VZW shelves ever again, especially after Ruby's finger-pointing at Big Red for a lackluster launch. No matter how hard VZW polished (ie subsidized & promoted) those turds, they weren't going to sell, especially with the huge push Verizon is giving Android these days.

Now, what if the original Pre had launched on VZW simultaneous to the Sprint Pre last June? They'd have sold a s**tload of 'em, because that time there were NO--I reapeat, *NO*--decent smartphone offerings on VZW. I would have been there on launch to buy one, as would have many of my friends and colleagues. Back then, VZW power users were chomping at the bit for WM 6.5 devices and the BB Tour. They'd have been all over the Pre, early adopter bugs and all! Things have changed a LOT in the past 10 months. The Sprint exclusivity was the biggest non-technical reason for the Pre's lack of success IMO.
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->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro

Attention KMart Stalkers!

mikecane @ 4/2/2010 5:39:16 PM #

Because I just know this is going to wind up here sooner or later, I might as well DIY:

My iPad Decision
http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/my-ipad-decision/

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

hkklife @ 4/2/2010 7:18:41 PM #

Good move. I just hope that the sagging backbone of the AT&T network doesn't break completely under the iPad strain. WHY didn't they at least offer it in T-Mob & AT&T flavors??
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->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

abosco @ 4/2/2010 7:32:43 PM #

Same old story. You won't end up buying one at all, citing some strange spec that annoys you, claiming you'll buy Gen2. Then in six months, some Asian company will announce something else and you'll chase after that for four months like a dog to a car.

We know the drill by now, Mike. I could have written that blog entry for you.

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

abosco @ 4/3/2010 3:40:52 PM #

I picked up a 32 GB iPad. Freakin' slick.

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

mikecane @ 4/3/2010 5:12:14 PM #

Abosco: STFU. I am in pain!

The Pain Of No iPad
http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/the-pain-of-no-ipad/

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

mikecane @ 4/3/2010 5:13:29 PM #

And wait, what? *32GB*? 32?! Real men buy 64GBs! At least I had that sucker Reserved!

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

mikecane @ 4/3/2010 5:25:26 PM #

And now this:

Attention KMart Stalkers!
http://ipadtest.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/attention-kmart-stalkers

Bite me.

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

jca666us @ 4/3/2010 5:46:32 PM #

Bosco, I picked up a 64 gig. - amazing device!

Good that it runs the old iphone apps, but native apps are definitely the way to go...

That marvel comic book app is incredible!

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

gmayhak @ 4/3/2010 7:13:41 PM #

Mine's a measly 16gb but I only have about 8gb of 'stuff' so I'm loving it! It's great to be able to see my iPad apps on an actual device, it's a little scary to put apps on the market that you've only been able to run on the simulator.

Tech Center Labs

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

LiveFaith @ 4/3/2010 9:37:32 PM #

More people on here have iPads than WebOS devices I think.
Pat Horne

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

jca666us @ 4/4/2010 4:13:58 AM #

A sad testament to the webos economy.

Most ppl here are gadget freaks - unfortunately Palm doesn't make a worthy gadget.

RE: Attention KMart Stalkers!

mikecane @ 4/4/2010 9:01:49 AM #

>>>More people on here have iPads than WebOS devices I think.

OUCH! That might be the truth too.

And if guesstimates are correct that first-day sales were 600,000-700,000, are there more people *everywhere* who own iPads over webOS devices?

I've yet to see a webOS device in the wild. I just saw another damned Kindle 2 yesterday too. That says something when you wind up seeing more *reading* devices than a *communications* device that has a market of just about *everyone*.