Palm Pixi – Worth The Price?

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Now that the waiting game around Palm Pixi release date is over, the next question doing the rounds in mobile enthusiast circles is - At $99 (considering the rebates), is it a deal worth opting for a 2 year service agreement? It's not the most attractive pricing strategy by Palm primarily because Palm Pre is available at nearly the same price (or even the same price at Amazon). What's more - Pre has a larger screen, faster processor, and WiFi.

No doubt the release is well-timed to take advantage of the year-end holiday season. The pricing could have been slightly more aggressive to make it more appealing. This is especially true considering the competitive pricing in the cell phone market where you can get an iPhone 3G for the same price. It's well known that margins and volumes are deeply inter-connected in the smartphone market so discounts/additional rebates can't be entirely ruled out depending on how the Palm Pixi fares over the next quarter or so. When it launched the Pre, Palm managed to snatch a share of Apple's devoted iPhone customers and convert them to Pre loyalists. With Palm Pixi, Palm is hoping for an encore.

While we are disappointed in the pricing, we believe that it is fair considering Palm Pixi 's skinny form-factor and artistic appeal. The artistic appeal alone is a new selling point in the smartphone market. The candy bar form-factor is another plus point which tends to more or less tends to justify the price. A smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard, GPS, touchscreen and a 2 MP camera for less than hundred dollars sounds pretty exciting. However, the moment you know that the phone is Palm Pixi, comparisons to Palm Pre are bound to happen and tend to raise some questions on the pricing.

All in all, the mobile world has expressed mixed reactions over the pricing of Palm Pixi. My guess is that it does fairly well with teen and early 20-something women. Will that audience want a smartphone and is it big enough for Palm to steal customers from their rivals? The big day - November 15th is not too far and we'll find out then.

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