VZW slashes Palm prices

Well, you can’t blame its carrier partners for not trying to help out Palm Inc.
The latest bone thrown to the struggling smartphone maker was from Verizon Wireless, which today drastically slashed the price of the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus to $50 and $30 respectively for new customers and is offering those ever popular “Buy One Get One Free” promotions on both devices. Result: two Palm Pre Plus’ for $50, or two Palm Pixi Plus’ for $30, with the requisite two-year contract and a data plan beginning at $30 per month for both devices.
The price cut comes just a few months after Verizon Wireless started offering the enhanced “Plus” version of the devices at $150 for the Pre and $100 for the Pixi. Both devices were initially available exclusively at Sprint Nextel Corp., with the Pre originally selling for $200 after rebates. The Pixi launched at the carrier late last year. Sprint Nextel is currently selling the non-Plus versions of the Palm devices for $150 for the Pre and $50 for the Pixi.
In addition to the price cuts, Verizon Wireless also is now including the previously $30 per month charge for the Mobile Hotspot feature in the data price for the Pre Plus. This feature allows up to five devices to access the devices CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A data capabilities using a built-in Wi-Fi connection.
Palm posted disappointing quarterly results last month that sank the device makers stock more than 18%.