Sprint launched a new advertisement promoting the Palm Pre smartphone which features an eaten piece of apple with the Pre smartphone leaning up against it. Sprint's brief ad claims "The Palm Pre does things the iPhone can't."
Pitting both the original iPhone and Palm Pre head-to-head on a spec-by-spec comparison is probably unfair because the original iPhone is two years old now. For the last week many web sites have been testing the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and Pre against one another.
Depending on which test you're looking at, the iPhone 3GS edges out the Pre most of the time, but not by much. Remember that reviews are often based upon a reviewers previous phones and personal usage patterns. A great phone for one person, might not be the best option for another. Some might be annoyed at Apple's default limitations - after all, the boss of this site returned his iPhone because of "feature shortfall" [yes, I used Ron-speak - Ron Dennis, ex-head of McLaren Mercedes F1 team, Ed.].
The advertisement also highlights the fact that Pre owners can save around $1200 USD on service charges over a two year contract. A two year contract is normally what the North American wireless carriers want from a new customer [in Europe its 18 or 24 months, not missing out on anything, Ed.].
The Sprint Palm Pre website's regular pricing for the Palm Pre is $549.99, marked down by $250 instant savings, and a $100 mail-in rebate [MIR], bringing your cost down to $199 until September 7. [The $100 rebate is instantaneous if you purchase the Pre and activate it at Best Buy.] Sprint requires a new line, or eligible upgrade, and a 2 year contract. Sprint has additional "weasel worded" requirements listed on their website.
We bet that Sprint will think up additional cost "must have options", just like every other mobile carrier does over the life of a contract. Bear in mind that this is the network that likes to advertise themselves as the provider of 4G services, even though those 4G services are actually nothing else but WiMAX service. We won't go into the whole 4G and its proper standard, 3GPP Long Term Evolution or 4G LTE versus the WiMAX
Question: Would you switch to the Palm Pre to save $1200 in 24 months from your wireless bill or would you rather pay those $1200 and have the iPhone?
