Palm Pre Release Date Update

Launch Date For Palm Pre May Be Set For June 5–7th

A highly placed senior source tells me that a _definitive_ Palm Pre launch date is still “a little bit up in the air” BUT one thing we know for sure is that whatever happens Palm will under no circumstances miss its stated target release window of “within first half of 2009”.  This means that we basically have four possible launch dates for Palm to keep to its promise – June 7th, 14th, 21st or 28th (as Sprint typically introduces new devices on a Sunday).

The date most frequently rumoured has thus far been June 7th and thanks to a leaked Palm meeting schedule (image above) posted on BGR it appears that the company is preparing a series of internal meetings starting on Wednesday, June 3rd that will culminate with a “[Palm Pre] LAUNCH LUNCH!” on Friday, June 5th.

Additionally, another unconfirmed BGR rumour points to Best Buy receiving a limited inventory of Palm Pre smartphones for a “trial launch” on June 7th as well.  Only 4,500 units will be spread across hundreds of Best Buy Mobile locations across the country and this low number would seem to indicate that the units will be primarily used for in-store hands-on demos and not (yet) for actual sale.

Overall, if the June 7th release date holds up it would mean that future Preonauts will only have a short four more weeks to wait before finally getting their hands on this fabulous next-generation smartphone…  I don’t know about you but I’m certainly counting the days!

Sources:
Internal Palm memo may reveal Pre launch timing [via BGR]
Best Buy to trial launch Palm Pre on June 7th [via BGR]

Preonauts are always ready to launch…