File this under unexpected. According to webOS Nation, Best Buy has begun selling HP’s short-lived Pre 2 as a pay-as-you-go phone for Verizon. It appears that for a mere $45 to 55, you can nail a bit of smartphone history at no contract charge. The Pre 2 is very much a 3G phone in a 4G world, which is a deal breaker for many at this point in the game. However, the no-contract cellphone market is largely a 3G one. At under a hundred dollars, the Pre 2 would certainly be a worthwhile purchase for anyone looking for a robust (though dated) smartphone OS
Enough people seem to agree, as the phone has already sold out online.
The most interesting question is where these Pre 2s came from. WebOS hardware was shelved back in August of 2011. HP held a fire-sale during which the goal was to churn through all existing stock. It’s unlikely that HP decided to quietly start manufacturing Pres again. Have these been sitting in a warehouse somewhere, pre-sold to Verizon and languishing? If so, can we expect to see similar use of the likely countless Pre 2, Pre 3, and HP Veers that didn’t sell on AT&T? You can already get the low-powered Palm Pixi Plus from Best Buy, unlocked, for $60. That’s not as good of a value, but a Veer would absolutely be worth that.
A pity HP has no plans to upgrade these devices to open webOS. That’d be fun to watch.
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