Palm's Pixi, a less-expensive sibling of the Pre smartphone released last June, isn't really less expensive at all.
Starting November 15, the Palm Pixi will sell exclusively from Sprint for $100 with a two-year service contract and a $50 mail-in rebate. That's just $50 less than the Palm Pre through most retailers, but Amazon has been selling the Pre for $100 since September.
Even with a $50 price difference at other retailers, Palm and Sprint are in a tough spot with the Pixi, which is seen by the tech world as a step down from the Pre. Sprint and Palm will certainly downplay that angle, with Sprint's senior product development vice president Kevin Packingham stressing the phone's "fantastic new form factor" that still offers many of the Pre's features.
To be fair, the Pre and the Pixi actually aren't much different. Both run Palm's WebOS operating system and have multi-touch displays. The Pixi's screen is 2.63 inches, compared to the 3.1-inch screen of the Pre. They both have 8 GB of internal storage and the same 3.7 V 1150 Ah battery, but the Pixi's 2-megapixel camera with LED flash is inferior to the Pre's 3.2-megapixel offering.
The big difference is the form factor, and I could see how an avid text messenger or Facebook user would prefer to have buttons right on the face. Indeed, one of the main criticisms of the Pre was that its slide-out panel felt a bit flimsy.
Still, I think Amazon's selling the Pre for what it's worth at $100. The Pixi should be $50 cheaper, but Sprint doesn't list Amazon as one of the phone's retailers, so it's not clear whether we'll see a price that low.
