Sprint CEO Expecting Palm Pre Shortages From Day One

Sprint's CEO, Dan Hesse, believes that the new Palm Pre, which hits the market next month, will be a huge hit and believes that they will "have shortages for a while" during the launch of the new device. During a news conference on Tuesday Hesse also said that Sprint is not planning any large advertising campaigns for the Palm Pre, at least early on, because he believes the demand is already out there - enough so, to sell out of the new Palm based smart phone.

The Palm Pre "stacks up extremely well" Hesse said when talking about competition for the Palm Pre - with his finger pointing towards Apple's iPhone I would assume. Hesse went on and stated that the Pre is both "a consumer and business device." which arguably puts egg on Apple's face since the iPhone is more geared towards a consumer device rather than a business device like the Palm Pre.

Palm's Treo devices were a bit hit as a business device but not so much as a consumer device. The Palm Pre looks like it's ready to battle both fronts - but it's really too soon to tell if it will succeed and win over both consumers and businesses.

Hesse also discussed apps for the Palm Pre and said that both Palm and Sprint would be making available a massive store of applications in order to compete with Apple's iPhone apps. He understands the importance of apps and I believe he also understands that they need a successful app store to be competition and successful with the Palm Pre.

Palm Pre Pricing & Availability
The Palm Pre will be available on June 6th and will cost $199 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a 2 year contract. We've heard that the Palm Pre will be available from Best Buy as well for $199 but without having to do a mail-in rebate - you'll also need to sign a 2 year contract. More information on the Palm Pre specification and features can be found here.