Sprint Announces Pricing Plans for Palm Pre

— -- It's still not clear when the highly anticipated Palm Pre smartphone will ship or how much it'll cost, but at least we know a bit more about its wireless plans. During Tuesday's promotional Webcast for the so-called iPhone killer, Sprint and Palm dribbled out a few additional Pre factoids, but they were mum on the phone's ship date. As it stands, the Pre should appear in the first half of this year.

According to Gizmodo, the Pre feature Sprint's Everything price plans, which break down as follows:

· Individuals can choose from 450-minute ($69.99), 900-minute ($89.99) or unlimited plans ($99.99).

· Families can choose from 1500 minutes ($129.99), 3000 minutes ($169.99) or unlimited plans ($189.99).

· Business customers will be able to pool their minutes using 5 (or so) plans.

At first glance, the Pre's plans appear competitive, and the unlimited-use options should prove popular with heavy web users. Sprint has been very aggressive lately with its all-you-can-use deals; its Boost Mobile subsidiary even offers a $50 plan with unlimited voice, messaging, and text.

Unfortunately, beyond the price-plan specifics, the Sprint/Palm webcast was mostly a big tease. In addition to the murky ship date, the world wants to know what the handset will cost, and whether the Pre will live up to its pre-release hype. If Sprint and Palm stick to their original ship date, we should know soon enough.