where did you hear about the saving $1,200 a year over an iPhone? I didn’t get that, or didn’t relate it to a particular provider’s service.

I’ve been so close to purchasing a pre for me and a pixi for my lovely wife on the $129.99/mo plan with sprint. The reason I haven’t gone bb or iPhone on VZW or ATT is the extra $30/mo they require for the data plans. I refuse to pay it, call me cheap. That being said, how can I beat the sprint deal with the Palm devices? …. Radio Shack and Amazon both have the pre available for $80 or so, Pixi for $25-30…

I want the plus models with wifi routing availability, who doesn’t, but what is the cost through VZW and when will ATT have it all?

wireforum :If Apple didn’t have anything new for the iPhone this CES 2010 week, then iPhone already lost. Let’s start with battery life, initially Palm Pre’s battery lasted about as long as the iPhone 3Gs. However, the latest webOS update to the Pre has improved the battery life on the Pre by over 40%…iPhone now loses. The Palm Pre Plus now automatically includes the Wireless Charger, iPhone doesn’t..so iPhone loses again. The Palm Pre Plus permits the ability to work as a WiFi Router/Hotspot, the iPhone doesn’t..so iPhone again loses. And with support for embedded Flash for the Palm Pre, iPhone definitely loses. iPhone doesn’t give big incentives for Developers, Palm Pre is now granting $1 million dollars to developer contest winners…bye bye iPhone developers and support..hello to Palm Pre. To top it off, Palm Pre will now be available to the top 3 major carrier network players: Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T. And you save over $1200 on a 2 yr contract with a Palm Pre compared to the iPhone. iPhone 3Gs has no chance at this point.

You are correct on every point except one. The Pre/Pixi Plus models do not come with the touchstone charger itself. They come with the replacement back cover that you need to use the touchstone. That cover is a $20 value. You still have to purchase the touchstone (~$50).

Still, that’s $20 less you have to spend.

The Pre is an amazing phone that just keeps getting better thanks to Palm and its over the air updates, and they are coming at a pace the other companies are going to find tough to follow.

Palm announced a Pre Plus for Verizon today. It doubles the RAM to 512MB, storage to 16GB and comes with the touchstone enabled back cover. They also updated WebOS to include video recording, editing and sharing, flash 10.1 and 3D games from EA and others.