As you are probably aware by now, Sprint and Palm have officially announced that the long awaited Palm Pre will make its debut on June 6, and will be available for $199 after a tedious $100 mail-in rebate process - which means it's really $299 for a lot of people. After all, in the excitement of purchasing a new and shiny gadget, it's sometimes easy to forget about following through that last step.


If you go to Best Buy, however, you'll be able to get it for the advertised $199 price without the hassle. The consumer electronics retailer has announced that it will offer the Palm Pre with an instant rebate, not a mail-in one, in its 1,067 Best Buy Mobile locations throughout the country. You will, of course, have to sign a two-year contract with Sprint nonetheless - but this is still the best deal around. The question is how many will many will be in stock? Especially since Palm's CEO is already talking about a shortage of Pre handsets at launch.