The long-awaited Palm Pre was officially launched on Saturday, though without much fanfare - there were no meandering queues in front of the Pre stores, with only 'small' crowds reported in New York, Chicago and San Friancisco!

Probably, the low-profile launch was what Palm had planned for its much-hyped high-end smartphone, which has received rave reviews and is expected to breathe a fresh lease of life into both Palm and the exclusive Pre carrier Sprint Nextel. While Sprint is depending heavily on Pre to help regain subscribers from rivals like AT&T and Verizon Wireless; Palm is at snatching market share from Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry.

Earlier this week, Sprint spokesman Mark Elliott had told The New York Times that the company expected as well as desired small crowds on the occasion of the Pre's launch in its 1,100 stores. Nonetheless, the company had reportedly sold out of Pre phones at quite a few locations around the country and was looking at restocking the stores.

Though the number of people at the Pre launch was comparatively less than that for the Apple iPhone launch two years back, the first day for the Pre was by and large a good one, with enthusiasm abound among the buyers to lay their hands on the potential 'iPhone-killer' Pre being more than obvious!