everybody will be running pre vs. iphone comparison stories. If they're confident (as they probably should be) that the pre will win those comparisons on the merits, it'll amount to a hell of a lot of free advertising for the pre, and given how much money Palm and Sprint have on hand right now, that's very valuable.

It's certainly a ballsy move, but it could pay off.

They also supposedly wanted Apple to sue them over multitouch, so they'd get free advertising from the ensuing patent war.