No this isn’t some post April Fools joke that someone left up (which was my first suspicion). Apparently HP is giving away Palm Pre 2′s for free when “ordered” through their website.

Not to surprisingly, this deal is only available to Verizon customers who are willing to sign a new 2 year contract with the carrier.

HP will also reportedly ship Palm Pre 2 to your house for free (provided you live in the US), although if you are trying to replace your broken Palm Pre 2 then HP will charge you not only for shipping, but $500 for the phone as well.

Truthfully the only time companies give away smartphones for nothing (or in most cases for $0.01) is due to low demand (as well as a way to clear out warehouses for new devices).

Although Palm Pre 2 is an impressive device, Apple may have killed off the smartphone with the Verizon iPhone earlier this year.

While HP is scheduled to unveil the Palm Pre 3 soon, the company will need to present something innovative as well as compelling in order to compete against the belated iPhone 5 (not to mention a slew of Android devices).

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