Palm Pre is coming out on June 6 for $199 after mail-in rebate

Finally, the day you've been waiting for is coming soon. And this has been a big day for the Palm Pre. Palm Pre is really ready soon. Sprint and Palm has confirmed the launch date -- Palm's innovative Pre handset will go on sale nationwide(US-only for the moment) from Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Walmart stores, and even online at Sprint.com starting Saturday, June 6.

 

There is no surprise of the official price at $199.99 with a two-year contract—in line with its competitors—but with $100 mail-in rebate. This pricing is competitive with the iPhone and Blackberry Storm, but the $100 mail-in rebate seems like an unnecessary anachronism to make customers jump through.

 

Sprint will be the exclusive carrier for the Pre in the US. And this is the phone Sprint may actually have a shot at challenging AT&T and RIM after seeing a significant loss of subscribers to other carriers recently.

 

And it's also Palm's best bet to breathe new life into the company's ageing handset line. With its PalmOS-based Treo line, Palm was once ranked top among smartphones. But the company has witnessed significant share lost over the last year or two to both iPhone and BlackBerry.

 

With number of innovations of Pre, such as its Linux-based webOS and accompanying JavaScript-based Mojo SDK, Palm Synergy data syncing, and the hardware itself with a slide-out hardware keyboard instead of relying solely on touch input, would Pre overtake Apple's iPhone or the Blackberry Storm this time? This will be not an easy battle. And Palm still has uphill battle ahead of it.