PreCentral noticed that Verizon is now offering the Mobile Hotspot plan, which allows you to tether up to 5 devices, for free. Mobile Hotspot was one of the major differentiators between the Pre Plus and pretty much any phone on the market. With Mobile Hotspot, you can tether your laptop or the soon to be released iPad and connect to the Internet using your 3G connection. The plans were priced at $40, so we’re a bit skeptical upon seeing the price of free.
We’re not seeing any confirmation of price drops on the Palm Pre Plus. Verizon might be engaged in daily sales promotions or perhaps the promotional pricing is regional. As of this morning, we’re seeing $149.99 and BOGO is still in effect.
UPDATE: It look like it took some time for pricing to hit their entire ordering system. Prices on the Palm Pre Plus have been slashed to $49.99. The Palm Pixi Plus is now $29.99.
Before you fire up Mobile Hotspot or add it to your plan, we’d suggest a quick call to Verizon.
I just got the Pre Plus yesterday with Verizon, and I can confirm that the Mobile Hotspot feature is in fact FREE (you’re still limited to 5GB of data however). But the store reps were not aware of this when I got there, but while I was completing my upgrade, they got an e-mail stating that it will remaing free as long as the Palm Pre Plus is activated on your line.