We had an inkling that the Palm Pre was not doing well on Bell in Canada after third party reseller dropped the smartphone down to $0.00. But at that time, Bell was still charging $100 for the Pre. But there’s nothing like a vote of no confidence like dropping a flagship smartphone to free on contract just five months after it hit your network. Of course, it’ll still take a three-year contract to get it for free. If you’re not interested in shacking up with Bell for three full years, you can still get a Pre for $99.95 on a two year contract, $199.95 for a one year contract, and just $349.95 with no contract at all.

So what’s going on here? For one, it seems clear they’re having trouble selling the Pre. But two is the hope/fear that the Pre (or Pre Plus) may very well be available on another network – like Telus – in the very near future. If you’ll think back to late August when the Pre finally launched in Canada, Bell admitted that they had a six-month exclusive on the Pre, and that soon will expire. Do they have excess inventory to clear, or is this just a ploy to secure more smartphone subscriber customers before webOS becomes available on other Canadian carriers? Hard to say.

[via: Mobile Syrup]

Thanks to Bryan for the tip!