In the best sort of tradition, Best Buy Mobile has gone for a repeat of its Palm Pre offering and is offering a $299 phone, the Motorola DROID, in this case, at $199 thanks to the automation of a mail-in rebate you'd have to actually "mail in" if you were to purchase the handset straight from the carrier. Best Buy also seems to be the first place to offer pre-orders of the phone, so if you're worried about a sell out or just generally averse to affixing stamps to things, Best Buy appears to have you covered.

It's a limited time offer, and the handset is currently out of stock -- you'll have to wait a few days for delivery -- but cutesy online phone retailer LetsTalk is offering the Pre for a mere $99 after a $100 rebate and a $100 instant discount. This sort of price flexibility bodes well for the truly budget conscious eying this phone, though as demonstrated time and time again: you're saving a lot more in the long run with a cheap plan than a cheap phone, something that's been a lock since day one with the Pre.

[Via SlashGear]

Hey, it's hot out there. While you could lather-up into a deep dish of epidural man-gravy by trucking on over to the nearest brick-and-mortar, why not kick back on-line with Sprint for that new Palm Pre purchase? Sure, you'll still have to mail-in the $100 rebate, but last we checked, licking a stamp won't break a sweat.

Best Buy may not be launching the Pre exclusively, but it's probably the place to go if you're scouting one come June 6th. Why? Pretty simple, really -- you'll leave the joint with an extra Benjamin in your purse. You see, those who waltz into a Sprint store will be forced to pay $299.99 up front (with a two-year contract) and wait eons for a $100 mail-in rebate to return. Over at Best Buy Mobile, you'll pay $199.99 free and clear, sign your contract and proceed to send us loads of personal hands-on shots. Be honest -- which scenario sounds superior to you?

[Via Brighthand]

We've had bits and pieces of this for days now, but it's finally starting to come together. Right in the midst of the year's craziest cellphone show, Verizon Wireless has outed its latest rebate form, which sheds some overly legitimate light on four presumably forthcoming handsets. Casio's Exilim C721, which we've already seen pictured, should arrive mighty soon alongside the LG Versa, Nokia 7205 Intrigue and Samsung's Smooth. Obviously, there's no definitive ship dates and prices listed, but considering that the offers are valid from February 15th through March 28th, we'd say your wild imagination can probably handle it from here.

[Via phoneArena]

If this were literally any other phone, talk of a rebate and/or instant discount at the time of purchase with a new contract would be a foregone conclusion; in fact, customers wouldn't tolerate it any other way. But this is the iPhone, after all -- and according to an analyst with American Technology Research, Apple is just now getting around to considering such a deal. Word on the street has Atlanta and Cupertino considering a rebate in the $50 to $150 range (presumably based on the model purchased) which could definitely make the 8GB version's $600 price point just a touch easier to swallow. Did Apple determine through extensive market research that consumers like it (gasp!) when things cost less? From its perspective, it may not matter either way because the same analyst is reporting that the company will be paid a "bounty" for each and every new AT&T customer it signs up in its brick and online stores. A good deal for Apple? Indeed.

[Thanks, Raphael D.]

Cingular rebate forms circulating over the past couple days are indicating the presence of three devices -- HP's hw6920 / hw6925 and HTC's Star Trek, offered here as the 3125 -- and while too much time has passed for us to get too worked up at the thought of putting our hands on any of these, they're worth noting nonetheless. Now, the popular rumor says that since these puppies have shown up with rebates, they're in the pipeline for delivery next week. While we're hoping that's true, we're not betting on it. Cingular has a reputation for placing rebates on phones ages before their retail availability -- heck, it's not even unheard of for rebates to expire before the phone even drops. So if next week comes and goes and one, two, or all three of these handsets are nowhere to be found, just remember: a pessimist is never disappointed.