Palm Pre to cost $149?

Just finished reading a interesting view from CNET about why the Palm Pre should cost $149 when launched by Sprint. David, the author of  the post, is basically saying that the Palm Pre needs to be introduced at a price point that can be enticing compared to the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1. The Apple iPhone from AT&T which goes for $199 and the T-Mobile G1 which is about $179 are both available for unlimited data plans. I would tend to agree that price wise it should be lower since the Palm Pre is going into the market with fairly new OS.

I think that the clincher is more on the available applications for the mobile phone. With both the iPhone and the Android already having their own app markets, Palm would be going into the market with less applications. Google/T-Mobile sort of solved this problem going into market by launching the $10 million dollar Android application contest to boost / fast track development efforts. Palm has not done such a thing.