The Pre advantage: $1,200 cheaper

The Pre has three significant advantages over iPhone 3.0 [1].

1. PIM. Palm is far more committed to productivity (PIM) apps (calendar, contacts, tasks, notes) than Apple. To a first approximation Apple despises this entire domain.
2. Sprint. AT&T leads the League of Evil with cramming, rebate scams, SMS spam, overselling network capacity, and other low class trickery. Sprint is merely wicked, but AT&T is the Microsoft of phone companies.
3. Price.

The last is a biggie ...

We know the iPhone isn't cheap, but Billshrink shows the numbers

... , the cheapest phone to own over a two-year period is the Palm Pre, which clocks in at $2,400. The cost calculated is based off of a service plan with two years of unlimited voice, data, and messaging services. The Android G1 follows with $3,240 and finally the iPhone 3G S at $3,600...

I hope these are enough advantages to either make Palm viable or get a committed buyer for the company.

[1] I think limited battery life will make Palm multitasking a modest improvement over iPhone 3 notifications.