Walmart chopping down its Verizon Palm handsets – Pre Plus for $30 & Pixi Plus for free

In a way, Walmart’s recent price chop to its Verizon Wireless Palm smartphones really highlights the battle handset manufacturers have to endure in order to stay afloat. Almost 9 months ago when Sprint launched the Palm Pre to an awaiting audience eager to test drive Palm’s WebOS platform, the long time smartphone maker has seen its highs and lows. Walmart is now giving away two of the latest Palm devices, the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, at the ridiculously low prices of $29.99 and free respectively with your signature on a contract. Yeah, just about anyone can get their hands on a decent smartphone without having to fork over a penny, but Palm’s fate is hanging in the balance as it tries to turn things around. It wasn’t too long ago when a just released $99 smartphone was considered a bargain, which of course is where the Palm Centro placed itself, but now the notion of free smartphones feels like a surreal thing. Although the Palm Pre Plus will still require you to fork out some cash, it could very well meet the same fate bestowed upon the Pixi Plus in due time.
source: Walmart via Mobileburn