Sprint and Palm today hosted a 40-minute Palm Pre webinar for the media. We twittered the event and will break down the main takeaways from today’s event. To answer the question on everyone’s minds, there is no release date or pricing available for the Palm Pre. That being said, the Pre is still on target for the first half of 2009, which is what both companies have been saying since CES.
- The Palm Pre will require an unlimited data plan with pricing starting at $69.99. Here is an outline of Sprint plans for the Palm Pre.
- Included with the Pre will be NFL and Nascar applications.
- Palm confirmed at CES that the Pre would have it’s own very distinct ringtone that is specific to the Pre. Today was the first time we heard it. You’ll know when a Palm Pre is ringing.
- There will be a limit to the amount of ‘cards’ you can have open, but the company isn’t putting a specific number on this. Cards essentially means applications or web sites you can have open at one time.
- webOS 1.0 will not be about 3D gaming, but rather "casual games" like Sudoku.
- Flash for the Palm Pre is in the works, but will not be available at launch.
- Sprint will use Ready Now to help educate new Palm Pre users before they leave the store. The company believes this program in conjunction with the Palm Pre device will result in less returns.
There were demonstrations of Palm Synergy, universal search, web browsing and what Palm calls "unobtrusive notifications". Alerts on the Pre appear at the bottom of the screen, so as not to interfere with your productivity. Nothing terribly new for those who attended CES, but we expect more information to become available as we get closer to the release date.
Speak Your Mind