Best Buy to Have Limited Palm Pres on June 7th: Report

I've said before that releasing the Pre after WWDC, which takes place starting June 8th, would be a big mistake. Reinforcing a prior rumor that the Palm Pre would launch on June 7th is a new one, which states that Best Buy will have stock on June 7th.

However, accoding to BGR, what Best Buy, Palm, and Sprint may call "stock" may be as few as one Pre per store, also known as "whoopee!"

According to the report, Best Buy will be a limited set of Pre handsets for a "trial launch." There will be 4,500 units spread across the country in Best Buy Mobile locations. Of course, these will be in addition to the Sprint locations who will be shipped the bulk of Pre devices.

Pricing is reportedly still being discussed but the pricing given to BGR is pretty much what we've heard before: new customers with a 2-year contract, $199.99, existing customer upgrades, $299.99, no contract $999.99.

Yes, you read that right, $1,000 without contract. On the other hand, at least you can buy the darn thing without a contract at launch; Apple waits until it's time to dump the old model before doing so. However, recently, Buy.com sold $799 "never-locked" iPhones, a much better deal than a $1,000 Palm Pre that can only be used on Sprint's CDMA network.