David Carnoy at CNet offers up his take on Palm’s pricing strategy and offers his opinion. Assuming the Pre is matched at the iPhone 3G’s $199 price point, Carnoy notes that Sprint’s advertising claims that you save money only applies to the Simply Everything Plan for $99 a month, $50 below the AT&T equivalent. It appears that Carnoy forgets that AT&T charges another $20 for unlimited texting, as he cites Sprint only being $30 cheaper on the unlimited plan. The Palm Pre plans from Sprint will include unlimited data and texting.  Every plan on Sprint is still at LEAST $20 cheaper than the AT&T alternative.

That being said, Carnoy still brings up valuable advice to Sprint. Why would any Sprint customer, or potential Pre consumer, buy a first generation device when a possible third iPhone is waiting to be released with a well established App store and developer community. This is where Palm must consider pricing the Pre at $149.  There are carrier differences, and plan pricing costs to consider, but in the end, the game changing aspect is going to be experience with the device. The initial cost of purchasing the device is part of the customer experience, and so is the monthly plan. As long as Palm can pull out all the stops with webOS and build up a reputable application store and developer community, that customer experience will match or exceed the iPhone’s, all simply because of the initial price of the device.

Palm and Sprint need to consider their pricing for the Pre long and hard. They can’t price too low, or they risk cannibalizing their other device sales, but too high and they’ll lose the market to the rumored next iPhone.  $149 would be ideal, but personally, I’m still hoping for under $250. I know Palm and Sprint will make the best choice for the consumer in the end, however, and my gut is telling me $199 will likely be the final decision.

[Via CNet]