For many buyers, the purchase of a Pre with its new WebOS, was a good investment in an exciting new smartphone, but also a way to and even wireless carrier Sprint.

"As an original Palm Pilot user, I want to support Palm and see them make it, but this Pre is also just a bloody cool device," said Skip Tannen of Upton, Mass. He said he liked the way it felt in his hands, and was especially impressed with the QWERTY keyboard, instead of the touchsreen on the iPhone, which he also uses.

Tannen, an IT operations engineer at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., waved his arms in victory holding his newly purchased Pre high as he left a Sprint store in Framingham, Mass, about 20 miles west of Boston. He was the first in line at 8 a.m. when the store opened, having left his home three hours earlier.

A Sprint spokesman characterized the launch in East Coast cities as "a nice flow of customers," with some stores attracting crowds of 40 to 50 people waiting to get in at 8 a.m. when many stores opened.

"Our service reps have been able to spend time with customers to set up the new Palm Pre and make sure they know how to ... use the features," said spokesman Mark Elliott.