Palm Pre for $849 @ BestBuy (Ouch!)

Wasn’t the Palm Pre supposed to be available for $549 without a contract? Not according to Best Buy. In anticipation of the (engineered?) shortage, BestBuy is setting the price at $849.99, so that you’ll have a hard time choosing between a laptop, an iPhone+accessories or any Blackberry – and the Palm Pre.

There are Palm fans out there, but a $849 price is just crazy. We suspect that BestBuy gets a commission from Sprint on 2-yr contracts, so the goal is to funnel buyers to sign those.