The $30 Palm Pixi should make you seriously consider webOS
By Will Park on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 12:37 PM PST In Hottest Hardware, Palm, Sprint, Web OS
The Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pixi is due to hit market on Sunday, November 15th. Following on the slider-style Palm Pre, the Palm Pixi will launch as Sprint (NYSE: S)’s second webOS-powered smartphone. It’ll feature the same touchscreen and gesture-support we first saw on the Palm Pre, but trades screen size for a slate-style QWERTY keyboard and does away with WiFi. Big Yellow will be asking $100 for the Pixi when purchased with new 2-year contract, but savvy webOS fans like you won’t have to pay full retail. LetsTalk.com is offering the Palm Pixi (with new contract) for just $30 on pre-order. If you’re willing to put up the money on pre-order and wait for the Pixi to ship to your door, this is one hot deal.
There’s a lot competition in the smartphone space right now. Android phones abound, and the iPhone is still going strong. webOS has yet to really hit it big in the US, but at just $30, the Palm Pixi makes a strong case for picking the webOS as your next smartphone platform of choice.
The Palm Pixi features a 2.6-inch capacitive touchscreen, 2-megapixel camera, GPS, 3G data, 3.5mm headphone jack, and 8GB of onboard storage. You don’t get WiFi, but as long as you’re within reach of Sprint’s network, you’ll get 3G data speeds. It’s a tradeoff that might be worth the discounted $30 entry fee.
Pre-order your Palm Pixi for $30 here.
[Via: Brighthand]
But it’s not $30, is $30 with two year contract, and if a better phone comes along, you can’t buy that new phone for its discounted price and an additional two years.
So buying the pixi (or any phone) has a huge opportunity cost.
I’d definitely buy it if it was priced on a 6 month contract. And I’d consider buying it if it was priced on a 1 year contract.
But your phone better be damn good to get me to buy it on a 2 year contract.
(And then g-d forbid it goes to Verizon where the ETF will be $375 — I sure hope Sprint doesn’t go that way!)
Without a strong app catalog, why would anyone get the Pre/Pixi? If you want an iPhone alternative, I’d look at any of the growing number of Android offerings…
Except you can’t actually take home ANY webOS device, as Sprint’s Pre/Pixi provisioning service has been down since 10:30 am CT on Saturday.
Not that I’m bitter or anything.
$30 or even $100 and a six month contract would be winner for consumers, but that will never happen. No carrier can get their money back from those terms. Two year contracts just plain suck with new cellphones coming out every year.
You realize that the bill of materials on an iPhone 3GS or a Pre is about $175, right? Add manuals, packaging, and shipping and you’re getting close to $200. Add 25% for Palm’s recoupment of investment, marketing and profitfollowed by a brick-and-mortar store’s normal 50% markup and you’re up to around $375.
At best you can hope to get something online with only a 10% markup for $275.
It’s real simple: either spend several hundred dollars for an unlocked smartphone like in Europe or suck down a contract.