Last night, Palm unveiled its new Pixi, a new, cheaper smartphone that runs on the Palm Pre OS. TechCrunch has more:
In a move akin to Herman’s Hermits opening for the Rolling Stones, Palm has decided to announce the new Palm Pixi, a phone akin to the Palm Centro of yore in price point and features, on the very day Apple will eat up the rest of the news cycle.
The Pixi is a non-slider with touchscreen and full keyboard. It will cost about $149 with two year contract and rebates on Sprint. You have 8GB of on board storage and it takes 2-megapixel pictures – down from the Pre’s 3-megapixels.
There is no Wi-Fi, a dealbreaker for many. The Pixi will be available in multiple “Artist Series” styles and will be available around the holidays.
Lots of people use smartphones without Wi-Fi, so I question whether the Pixi’s lack thereof is really a “dealbreaker.” More interesting is the fact that Palm chose to nestle its new product announcement on the day of a big Apple event. Has Palm fallen so far behind that it has to ride Apple’s PR coattails just to make a statement? Or is this just a really bad marketing strategy? I’m guessing the latter.
