In addition to the internal email that was sent out by Sprint, there is now word that Sprint is instituting a vacation freeze in May preparing for a preliminary launch of the Palm Pre on May 17th.  There are generally no vacation freezes in May according to Sprint sources, so this lends credence to the information.

The “preliminary” term is applied because of the initial stocks of the Pre. If the stock is deemed too low for demand, Sprint will then postpone the launch to June 29th. That would not be good. So in essence, the excitement we have over the Pre might in fact doom it to a late launch AFTER the Apple WWDC and potentially hurt the sales of the Pre. Oops.

The source seems to be genuine, but the dates are still target dates, and are no doubt subject to change. Though the 17th is a Sunday, which is the normal day for Sprint to launch products. Here’s to hoping that stocks are high enough on the 17th to prevent a June launch.

[Via PhoneNews]