Remember when the Samsung Instinct for Sprint was available only at BestBuy in terms of 3rd party retailers? Well, we may be looking at the same exact situation for the Palm Pre if rumors prove true. At this point, these are only rumors from a supposed “credible source” but given that Sprint’s biggest phone last year was the Instinct, we think this is certainly possible.

Is this best for Palm, though? You have to wonder what the financial terms of this deal are… was this something that Sprint negotiated themselves, after having the Palm Pre in their stable of offerings? Or was Palm equally responsible for putting this effort together?

Some (including me) would say that Palm going exclusively with Sprint may not have been the best idea, especially considering the company’s current negative stigma. So you limit by carrier and now you limit by retailer? For a phone that Palm needs to FLY off the shelves, why put so many limitations on it?

Maybe the financial package and subsidies included in the deal were too darn good for Palm and/or Sprint to pass up. And you have to admit, BestBuy has been doing a stellar job of amping up its mobile offerings in the past 12 months. This would be another big win for the big box retailer.