Sprint has announced pricing and nationwide availability for the Palm Pre phone on June 6 in Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and online at Sprint.com.

The Palm Pre's price point is set at $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate. Running on the new Palm webOS mobile platform, the Pre will go head to head with popular smartphones such as Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry and the T-Mobile G1, and will most likely make or break Palm.

"For Sprint it is key, because they've been lacking an iconic device, and the Pre will fit well with its emphasis on the enterprise space and high-end consumer space -- it should go nicely with their high-end data plans," said Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, senior analyst for Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA.

"It's been key for them to get this as an exclusive," she said.

Many analysts believe that the Pre lives up to the hype, and has a chance to hold its own against competing smartphones.

"I think it will be quite successful, especially among Sprint's existing base, and it will help alleviate some of the losses to Verizon and AT&T, and will probably persuade some customers not set on the iPhone to switch to Sprint," said Roger Entner, Boston-based head of telecom research for Nielsen.

"It's a very nice device -- it's as close to the iPhone as I have seen any device," he said. "What sets it apart is a carousel allowing you to run several applications at the same time."

Palm does need to encourage more developers to develop applications for the Pre.

"It's still a little lacking in applications -- the Pre's app store still has to be filled with applications," Mr. Entner said. "From a consumer perspective, I would say it's a better device than a lot of the BlackBerry devices.

"We'll have to see about email integration, but that didn't hurt the iPhone, did it?"

Some analysts believe that limiting the Pre to a single carrier could hold Palm back.

For example, competitor Research In Motion has had the most success with the BlackBerry devices such as the Curve that are available for all of the major carriers in the U.S.

"I've been reading a lot of hype about the Pre, and it could do really well, but the question is, is Sprint enough of an audience?" said Neil Strother, Kirkland, WA-based analyst for Forrester Research.

"With Verizon and AT&T, that's a bigger pool of subscribers to sell to, but early reports on the Pre have been positive, so Sprint could win over subscribers from other carriers," he said.

Sprint Nextel operates two wireless networks serving more than 49 million customers at the end of the first quarter of 2009, making it the No. 3 carrier in the U.S.

Palm is positioning the Pre as a new wireless crossover standard, with business features for the enterprise segment and entertainment features designed to appeal to consumers.

"The argument that you need one phone for work and another phone for play, or that you have to make compromises between business and lifestyle productivity, is over," said Dan Hesse, president/CEO of Sprint, Overland Park, KS, in a statement. "With Pre, compromises of the past are history."

Palm Pre will come with Everything Data plans, which Sprint claims offer savings of up to $1,430 over two years versus comparable AT&T and Verizon plans for smartphones and PDAs.

The Pre has been expressly designed for multitasking among multiple Web pages and applications.

The device also builds on Palm's heritage in PDAs by managing consumers' digital information, whether it is on a corporate server or on the Web.

"From an enterprise perspective, it plays directly to the consumerization of enterprise mobility," said Philippe Winthrop, research director of business mobility solutions for Strategy Analytics. "People want an intuitive interface, and with the iPhone making such a big spalsh, even with enterprise users, the browsing experience is important.

"This will be a great device for the mobile professional, because it natively has active sync, and unlike the iPhone, it can handle background applications and processes, which is critical to mobile device management," he said.

The new webOS platform introduces Palm Synergy, a feature that brings together consumers' personal and professional calendar, contacts and e-mail into one centralized view, designed to ease the transitions between work and personal life.

For example, if consumers have the same contact listed in their Outlook, Google and Facebook accounts, Synergy recognizes that they are the same person and links the information, presenting it to each consumer as one listing.

Calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view, combining work, family, friends, sports teams or other interests. Consumers can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.

Synergy lets consumers see all of their conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, even if it started in IM and they want to reply with text messaging.

Consumers can also see who is active in a buddy list from contacts or e-mail and start a new conversation with one touch.

Palm webOS lets consumers keep multiple activities open and move between them using the touch screen.

Consumers can move back and forth between text messaging and e-mail or search the Web while they listen to music.

They can rearrange items by dragging them, and when they are done with something, they can throw it away by flicking it off the top of the screen.

The Pre also features universal search. As consumers type what they are looking for, webOS narrows their search and offers results from both their device and the Web.

Pre comes with a charger in the box, but for anyone tired of plugging a cord into their wireless phone, Palm has introduced the Touchstone charging dock, an inductive charging product for phones available exclusively for the Pre.

Consumers can set Pre down on top of the dock. Pre is active while charging, so consumers can access the touch screen, watch movies or video, or use the speakerphone.

Consumers can set the Pre on the charging dock when they are on a call and the speakerphone automatically turns on. When they take a ringing Pre off the dock, the handset automatically answers the call.

"The addition of the Palm Pre expands our already large assortment of smartphones," said Scott Anderson, director of merchandising at Best Buy Mobile, Minneapolis, MN. "We are excited about the opportunity to present consumers with many choices and solutions as they look to meet their individual mobile technology needs."

Other mobile operating systems allow multitasking, but Palm has developed an intuitive method of switching between "cards," which resemble clicking different tabs on a Web browser.

New applications can be launched using the "Launcher" software button at the bottom of the home screen, letting users navigate between different applications.

"With social networking and messaging being so important to consumers, the device's new ?Palm Synergy' functionality -- which gives Pre the ability to automatically pull friends' contact details, messaging addresses and personal calendars from different applications online and on the phone -- will greatly simplify people's ability to communicate with their friends and colleagues the way they want," said Andy Castonguay, director of mobile and access devices research for Yankee Group, in a statement.

The Pre also enables access content on the Sprint Now Network, including exclusive applications such as Sprint Navigation, Sprint TV and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile Live.

Various accessories also will be available for Pre, including the Palm Touchstone charging dock.

The Touchstone Charging Kit, which includes the Touchstone charging dock and Touchstone back cover for Pre, will be available June 6 for $69.99.

The Touchstone charging dock and Touchstone back cover also are available separately from Palm for $49.99 and $19.99, respectively.

"Pre is truly a new phone for a new Web-centric age," said Ed Colligan, president/CEO of Palm, Sunnyvale, CA, in a statement. "We're a mobile society, and we want our people, calendars and information to move with us.

"With Pre's exquisite design and the unique webOS software, running on Sprint's fast broadband network, we're changing the perception of what a wireless phone can be," he said.