No sooner than working Pre phones finally went on sale to the public this morning, leave it to someone to take them apart. Rapid Repair took it unto themselves to carefully dissect Palm's new webOS handset and create a repair guide; although if your handset is having trouble we wouldn't recommend it for would-be home mechanics, as it would surely void the warranty (plus the phone is exchange-only according to the launch guide, so you would likely get a new one anyway).
After 10 steps of disassembly, all the parts were out on the table. The company estimated the hardware cost to be about $170, which lines up pretty well to previous estimates by iSupply, that pegged the build cost of the Pre at $138, or about $170 after licensing fees. Not bad for $199 after rebates to the end user. Just remember to send out for your $100 rebate before it expires on July 11th.
UPDATE: The Touchstone was next on the cutting board, and iFixit priced the raw materials at just $5, including the plastic, metal and electrical components. Seems like a pretty high markup, but doesn't include any of the other costs, such as development or marketing. The technology itself is unique to a cellphone, so as long as you enjoy it as much as your Nike shoes, or use it as much as your electric toothbrush for that matter, who's to complain? Although you would think they would have more than a few per store available at launch.
Although Verizon and AT&T may be getting the Pre after Sprint, we still don't know when that will be. So the gloves are off as long as Sprint has the Pre and they don't. Along the same lines of AT&T's anti-Palm Pre training chart, which compares Palm's new webOS handset unfavorably to the iPhone, Verizon has released their own internal document smackdown, comparing the Storm in select features against the Pre. And not surprisingly, the Storm has all the right features, while the Pre doesn't.
Global Phone, expandable memory, visual voicemail, and hundreds of apps in the App Market are a few of the Storm features being pushed in the Sales & Marketing memo, while the Pre lacks all of these features...at least for now. Could this sales pitch change how you, or someone you know feels about the Pre, or convince them to buy a Storm for that matter?
While the Pre stock may be holding up for now, the Touchstone stock may not be faring quite as well. MyPre reports that according to feedback from early shoppers, the $69.99 Touchstone inductive charger kit is in short supply. Palm's accessory department may have really underestimated the demand for the nifty inductive charger. "Got the last Touchstone, they only had 3", Kevin Tofel of jkOnTheRun states on Twitter. By comparison, the same store had 25 handsets for sale.
Also, in one of the more interesting stories we've seen so far, NBC Chicago reports that a woman drove her car right into a Sprint store that was preparing to sell the new webOS device. "An elderly woman apparently couldn't wait to get her Palm Pre from a Calumet Park cell phone store", reads the article.
The woman smashed through the front window, before coming to a complete stop inside. Employees Jesus Leal Jr. and Rich Kelly "got the surprise of their lives", knocking down an oversized Pre cutout in the scramble. We couldn't help it, but was that a Pre he's using to call 911? Unfortunately, she may have forgot to submit her application to the WWYD for a Palm Pre contest over at Precentral, for which winners did things such as getting a Tattoo of a Pre, risking their career by dressing up, and eating the spiciest curry in America.
The day has finally arrived for which Sprint stores have been preparing (and opening early for), and for which the everyman can finally get their hands on Palm's first webOS device, for $199 after a $100 mail-in rebate. Reports are already streaming in from excited owners:
"I have been reading everything on the internet about the Pre for the last few months and I knew it was going to be a revolutionary device", states Ken Fitzgerald via Wired, a mobile phone developer who broke his Verizon contract to get the Pre. However, the Palo Alto Sprint store lacked the long lines that the nearby Apple store had seen for the iPhone or iPhone 3G. Meanwhile Doug Chapalow, a web and multimedia developer, had about 10 people in line at a VA store before they opened the doors.
Previously, ten Sprint stores offered the device to Sprint Premier customers at launch parties last night, and comedians Jerry Seinfeld and Jason Alexander hammed it up over the Pre at a Hollywood benefit this past Wednesday.
Got a Pre yet? Send your photos to , or share your experiences in the Palm Pre forum. Developers can also discuss webOS in our Mojo Developer's Forum.
Check back with us for the latest launch day news!
The Sprint store close to my home here in VA has just opened. We had about 10 people in line before I arrived, but one of the store employees has told us that there is enough for everyone to get one today.
Of course, just after that someone asked what was the maximum amount of phones one person could get. One employee told us there was no limit, but one more important employees told us there was a limit of 5.
P.S. I've been busted for blogging in the store..."HEY! He's blogging this!!"
The long-anticipated public Palm Mojo SDK is "very close to launch", stated Palm VP of Global Sales, Dave Whalen, at a press event this morning. Although a firm date was not set, it is still a glimmer of hope, as many hope to start developing third party apps for the Pre as soon as possible. In any case, the sooner the public SDK is released, the better. PreDevCamp, the worldwide webOS developer event, has already been postponed due to the uncertainty surrounding the SDK availability, among other factors.
However, only those in the Mojo SDK early access program have had access to the developer kit so far. "We've always said as we get closer to availability, we'd share more details on when the SDK would be public," Leslie Letts, a representative from Palm, stated previously. And with the Pre coming in less han a day, let's hope we can hold them to that.
Despite a spokesperson confirming a six-month Pre exclusive in response to Verizon saying they were getting the webOS handset in six months, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse stated that "they need to check their facts". In an interview at a press event today, he stated in response to the six-month timeline:
First of all, that's not a true statement...That just is not the case. Both Palm and Sprint have agreed not to discuss the length of the exclusivity deal. But I can tell you it's not six months.
This suggests that Sprint could have an exclusive deal for longer than the half-a-year rumors that have been floating around, notes Precentral. By comparison, AT&T has had the iPhone as an exclusive over three years and is pushing to extend it to 2011. In the interview, Hesse also talks about the suitability of the Pre for business use, as well as plans for app availability and more. Video after the break.
Recently a few early reviews started trickling in, including three mini-reviews and most notably, a review by NYTimes' David Pogue. Now the floodgates have finally burst, and the Pre reviewers seem to have all come streaming out of hiding at once. Detailed reviews of Palm's new webOS handset were posted within the span of a day by the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, USA Today, CNET, Gizmodo, Engadget, PCWorld, Precentral and more.
So what is the verdict on the Palm Pre? For the most part, fears of scathing reviews can be put aside, as overall the Pre is considered a worthy iPhone rival. iPhone killer, maybe not - there tended to be ongoing gripes with the battery life and so-so QWERTY keypad. But every reviewer had good things to say about the device as well, especially the new webOS platform. Below are a few points from each of the major reviews, including some of what each reviewer liked and disliked. What are your expecations of the Pre?
I consider the Pre to be potentially the strongest rival to the iPhone to date...whether the Pre is better than the iPhone depends on your personal preferences.
The Pre's biggest advantage over the iPhone is that, in addition to sporting an elegant touch-screen interface that matches or exceeds Apple's, the new Palm device has a real physical keyboard that slides out from its curved body...the Pre delivers.
It is thoughtfully designed, works well and could give the iPhone and BlackBerry strong competition -- but only if it fixes its app store and can attract third-party developers.
Move over, iPhone. You've had two years on top of the smart phone world. Now there's a touch-screen phone with better software: the Palm Pre...now, webOS comes along and does multitasking right.
The Pre is well put together, but not exceptional...less screen space means it's harder to hit the right area with your finger, but the Pre makes up for this a bit by making the surface just below the screen touch-sensitive.
Whether you get a Pre or not, its brilliant software will leave its mark on the phones you buy in the future, just like the iPhone did after its debut.
The Application Manager is a specific service that provides all application services to Mojo applications. Application services are services that involve launching other applications, whether they be core webOS applications or other third party applications.
The application manager, through one or both of its service methods Open and Launch, provides access to most of the application services. We'll look at each of these in more detail.
Open
This method is best used to display content when you don't know the specified type of content or best application available to handle it. In this case, the application manager will automatically launch the application most appropriate for that content type. This method accepts a single argument, a formatted URI for the content to display. The mime type of the referenced URI is used to identify the appropriate application to launch to handle the content indicated.
While the Pre stock may be holding up for now, the Touchstone stock may not be faring quite as well. 
The long-anticipated public Palm Mojo SDK is "very close to launch", stated Palm VP of Global Sales, Dave Whalen, at a press event this morning. Although a firm date was not set, it is still a glimmer of hope, as many hope to start developing third party apps for the Pre as soon as possible. In any case, the sooner the public SDK is released, the better. PreDevCamp, the worldwide webOS developer event, has already 
Despite a spokesperson confirming a 
Recently a few early reviews started trickling in, including 
I consider the Pre to be potentially the strongest rival to the iPhone to date...whether the Pre is better than the iPhone depends on your personal preferences.
Move over, iPhone. You've had two years on top of the smart phone world. Now there's a touch-screen phone with better software: the Palm Pre...now, webOS comes along and does multitasking right.
