Comments on: Palm Pre: $199 After a $100 Rebate We Hope You Lose

By: Exercise in Futility? Palm Pre Plus, Pixi Plus Headed to AT&T - Virtual Techs

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:34:13 +0000

[...] two phones will be sold for $150 and $50 respectively, with a two-year contract and after an annoying $100 mail-in rebate. No word yet on availability. Palm says only that the devices are coming [...]

By: Palm Pre Plus, Pixi Plus to Go Head to Head Against iPhone on AT&T: | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:08:57 +0000

[...] The two phones will be sold for $150 and $50 respectively, with a two-year contract and after an annoying $100 mail-in rebate. No word yet on availability. Palm says only that the devices are coming [...]

By: Palm Pixi Launches Nov. 15 For $99 (After Rebates) | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:07:09 +0000

[...] Palm Pre: $199 After a $100 Rebate We Hope You Lose Print Sharevar obj = SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Palm Pixi Launches Nov. 15 For $99 (After Rebates)", url: "http://digitaldaily.allthingsd....." },{button:false});var elem = document.getElementById("share-27459-0.44184900 1256569628");obj.attachButton(elem); Comment Tagged: Digital Daily, Palm, Pixi, Sprint | permalink [...]

By: This Year’s Pre? Or Last Year’s iPhone? | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:23:15 +0000

[...] And that may bode ill for a hard-to-come-by upstart handset that’ll set you back $199 after a $100 rebate. [...]

By: Eric Welch

Eric Welch — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:12:20 +0000

Rebates are S.O.P. for the industry, just a little bit more ethical than bait-and-switch.

Still, Best Buy is bypassing the annoyance by offering the rebate up front. So buyers can walk out of the store having paid $199.

OTOH, any Palm fans who think this is a challenge to the iPhone are fooling themselves. They keep saying Pres are superior to the iPhone when they haven’t even held the devices in their hands.

I’ve owned two Palm devices. The software was grossly overpriced, so I never bought many apps for them, and what I did use was a major pain to deal with compared to what it should have been.

Mark my words, the only way there is going to be a shortage of these devices a month after launch is if Palm restricts manufacturing.

There’s marketing and there’s manufactured shortages, but I repeat myself.

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:38:18 +0000

It's not only a matter of forgetting to send in the rebate: a lot of rebate processes are designed like an obstacle course, causing customers to fail criteria. Others simply don't send the money. And don't think it's just shady retailes... Palm still owes me $100 from 7 years and several Treo models ago :-(

By: The $199 Palm Pre that’s Really $299 for Some | CloudAve

The $199 Palm Pre that’s Really $299 for Some | CloudAve — Wed, 20 May 2009 16:33:48 +0000

[...] It’s nice to see others are waking up to the fact the rebate scheme is really a scam:Palm Pre: $199 After a $100 Rebate We Hope You Lose (Digital Daily)Rebates Suck: The Palm Pre’s Real Price (Gizmodo)Palm Pre’s Irritating $100 Rebate [...]

By: Andrew Swift

Andrew Swift — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:18:57 +0000

Rebates are a form of hurdle — customers who are price sensitive get the benefit, and customers who are not won’t care. The point being that Palm has a choice between offering a rebate for $100 that only half the people will send in and selling a phone for $50 less.

This way, they get a lot of customers that are really price-sensitive and will send in the rebate (who would not have bought the phone for $50 more), while losing a comparatively small percentage that don’t like rebates for the reasons you allude to.

For a great article on the subject, search for hurdle discount (1st result).

By: alex shepard

alex shepard — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:03:29 +0000

Hmm, having looked at the rest of your work I suppose my conclusion should instead have been a given, haha.

By: alex shepard

alex shepard — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:55:06 +0000

I agree with you that rebates are a scam, and I think the Pre is unlikely to be a huge success.

However, when I read your claim that your own headlines and ledes are being taken out of context, ie that the actual articles don’t represent the position taken in the headlines or ledes, then I have to arrive at the conclusion that you’ve a strong sensationalist bent.

By: Steven Thomas

Steven Thomas — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:10:31 +0000

I don’t think the Pre is going to catch Apple or anyone else by surprise. The problem is that it’s being offered by a crippled company (Palm) on a crippled network (Sprint), such that they will have a lot of water-treading to do before they can even think about beginning to gain on the market leaders, RIM and Apple.

By: Steven Thomas

Steven Thomas — Wed, 20 May 2009 04:05:50 +0000

I’m sure the original idea was based on the assumption that redemption rates would be near 100%. I can imagine this being the initial pitch: think about the millions of dollars that a company could sit on for 6-8 weeks before having to return it to the customer. A competent investor could do a lot with that amount of money in that period of time. Also, as long as the company keeps selling the product in sufficient numbers, they have massive cash flow to do with what they want. This was how they initially intended to benefit from the deal.

I doubt it ever occurred to anyone that a large percentage of their customers would not even bother to ask for their money back, cumbersome rebate procedures not withstanding. That’s just gravy on top of gravy! So this ends up being a total disincentive for companies to sell the product for a reasonable introductory price – just offer a rebate and see how much of that money you can end up keeping.

By: Justin Horn

Justin Horn — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:31:03 +0000

I’ve always hated rebates. I think the $299 is a stretch for them, but they want to stay competitive with iPhone. Then throw in the rebate so they can waive around a $199 price on all their ads and promos.

By: Mac Beach

Mac Beach — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:05:17 +0000

I can’t think of any reason for anyone to be down on Palm. After all I purchased at least 5 sequential models of the device back when it didn’t even have phone capabilities, paying up to $600 each for them. And bought most of the accessories to boot.

In fact with the windfall the company had back when they were the only game in town you have to wonder how they got caught naping by the iPhone in the first place. Oh, you say they didn’t spend any of that money on R&D? Changed their minds three times about the future of the OS while leaving app developers to hang out to dry? Tsk Tsk.

To Palm fans: The device will benefit from lowered expectations. If it is as super-duper as you say it is then it will take off and catch Apple by surprise. We’ll all get a chuckle out of that too.

Otherwise the fewer people holding their breath for one of these the better. This may be the last chance we get to make fun of Palm. Please allow us to enjoy it.

By: ??????? presata.com» Blog Archive » Rebates Suck: The Palm Pre’s Real Price [Palm Pretense]

Tue, 19 May 2009 20:30:31 +0000

[...] On the other hand, this opens Sprint up to protests from Rush Limbaugh that they’re practicing socialist re-distribution by letting their wealthier Pre customers pay for their less fortunate customers, so maybe this isn’t the worst thing in the world. Really people, remember your damn rebates. [Hat Tip AllThingsD] [...]