When we got wind of Sprint Employee training for the Palm Pre, we knew that the launch was right around the corner. And it would have to be considering that the window of “1st Half of 2009″ only has 2.5 months left. But according to internal memos circulating in Sprint Retail Stores the company has set TWO launch dates.

May 17th
The first date targets a late April shipment of the Palm Pre for stores, allowing for a preliminary launch date of May 17th. So if shipments to Sprint retail stores begin on April 30th, does that mean our dear friend Jim Van was right? I’d say so… even if May 17th DOESN’T see the device’s official launch.

June 29th
Sprint has set a second window in late June as a contingency plan. It seems they would LIKE to launch on May 17th but there is a chance that supply levels will not be adequate to fulfill demand for the Palm Pre. If this happens, launch would supposedly be postponed from the earlier May 17th date to June 29th.

We haven’t seen these internal memos so we can’t really comment on what percentage of the above is based on cold hard facts in the memo or what is speculation based on verbage included in the memo. Are there any other scenarios that could play out BESIDES the one mentioned above even if this “double release date” theory is true?

• Could Sprint offer the Palm Pre to current customers first, giving outsiders the chance a month later?
• Could Sprint be purposefully planning a May shortage creating a iPhone-like wait-over-night-and-camp-out frenzy in front of stores, knowing that if they don’t get their device on May 17th they’ll have over a month to wait?
• What do you think is the most likely scenario?

Anyway you look at it, we’ve got our fingers crossed repeating “the earlier the better” over and over.