If there is one thing that the economic downturn has taught us is that failure is an option. Bigger fish than Palm have gone down the tubes because of their own mismanagement. Palm is in last gasp mode and although I agree with you Jon that the Pre looks fantastic, it may be too little too late. Palm and Elevation Partners have become students of the iPhone and have set out to correct everything that they feel that Apple did wrong and copy a few things of the things that Apple got right. They have a flashy device, with a flashier OS and a bunch of developers on board and, with Sprint, a much better network than AT&T offers iPhone users. However, do they have enough cachet to beet Apple at its own game? Especially with the potential of a new iPhone on the way? I don’t buy it. Sure there will be many buyers of the Pre and lineups on launch day, but I don’t think that the Pre buzz will last long and it won’t push itself into popular culture and corporate circles like the iPhone has managed to do. I think that WebOs will go on the long list of operating systems that Palm has abandoned and the Pre will be another choice in the already crowded Smartphone market that will continue to be dominated by Apple and RIM and increasingly Google. And that’s if they do well. If the device is glitchy and the software is buggy prepare yourself for an EPIC FAIL. Elevation Partners recognizes this and are starting to get their money out already, a good return because they bought in below $2/share and all that they have created so far is hype.
Palm is trading at around $8/share today, my advice is to play it safe and get your money out today.

Full disclosure: I bought Palm shares they day they went public but subsiquently sold them for small profit at $65/share before splits). I lost faith in Palm a long time ago.