Sprint plans for tri-mode WiMAX, WiFi, CDMA Palm handset?

According to reports at BGR and SmartTrend, SmarTrend is reporting that an unnamed Sprint/Nextel employee stated they will offer a tri-mode phone compatible with CDMA, WiFi and WiMAX and may expand 4G coverage to cities not previously disclosed, a spokesperson told Unstrung. She said the company has not announced specific timing or other details, but they should have a 4G phone on their map for 2009-2010. It is not clear on which device as it does mention Android, but my guess would be a Palm Pre verison 2 with all of the goodies rolled into one mix or another Palm device running WebOS.

Palm Pre To Show Off Cool Features Not Yet Speculated; Possible 4G?

 

Jon Rubinstein, who was instrumental in creating the iPod and Sugar Daddy investor, Roger McNamee, are going to reveal some new information about the Palm Pre. According To Walt and Kara's highlights:

Walt: "And they [Palm] are not only are going to come and talk in more detail about the Palm Pre than you have seen before, but they're actually going to introduce some things that haven't even been speculated, uhh, that the Palm Pre's going to be about to do that haven't even been speculated on the blogs, and they're going to show some cool features."

Watch the some of the D7 Video here.

Rumors and Speculation have been floating around the Pre since it's announcement about some additional features. Could this be the surprise hardware announcement like the Palm Pre first 4G device? Sprint is ahead of the game in the LTE Wimax department with deployments already in a few cities. According to this news release, Sprint intends to roll out more Cities; will Experience Turbo-Charged Mobile Broadband in 2009: Atlanta, Honolulu, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Portland, Fort Worth and Seattle. Also, all of the Sprint Now commercials have been touting the “America’s most dependable 3G network, bringing you the first wireless 4G network. Sprint, the Now Network.” Sprint may have something up it's sleeve to blow the doors off of the iPhone and that could be a 4G chip being shipped inside the Palm Pre.

Palm Pre avalible for Pre-order one month before its launch, 5/17 not the release date?

I don't know how much of this is true, but according to an email from a Sprint Customer Service Specialist, we'll see promotional campaigns related to the release date one month before the offical launch of the Palm Pre. Not only that, "Once launch date is fixed, you will also be able to Pre-order this handset online." In other words, when the release date ads starts rolling out a month before the offical launch date, at about the same time we should be able to pre-order a Pre online(Maybe with its price tag?). That doesn't give anything solid as to when the Pre'll be released, but it does beg the question -- will rumored 5/17 make it to be the Pre launch date? Counting today we only have 22 days till we reach the 17th of May. Either way, only time will tell.