The prices leaked across the internet for the recently announced Palm pre, around $499 according to one source, have apparently been taken out of context, with the real price ending up at less than half that.
The cost that will be seen with contract appears to be up to $199 with American operator Sprint, and if the AT&T / O2 licenses from Apple are anything to go by, the UK price will be around £150 if / when it debuts over here.
Unconfirmed
Palm has yet to confirm the official price of the pre when it ships in July of this year, in a move that probably means it wants to react to the efforts of RIM and Apple should they decide to drop the cost of their high end handsets before the Palm debuts, or even release new handsets.
However, the phone pricing market has been far from kinetic in recent months, with Apple holding firm on its pricing strategy and the success of RIM's Storm negating the need for a new price plan to entice customers.
The clarification of the price plan on Mobile Review also contains some interesting information on the likely availability of the handset, with the initial product run being limited to only 200,000 units due to the special production methods needed to create the pre's displays.
However, it's likely that the production run will be ramped up towards the end of the year, as Palm looks to take advantage of the holiday season.
