There were no long lines or excited campers but a few early birds still rushed in to snag a Palm Pre as the much-anticipated device went on sale at select Sprint stores Friday night.

"It's awesome, dude," said Ken Fitzgerald, a mobile phone developer, proudly holding one of the first Pre phones sold at Sprint's Palo Alto, California store. Fitzgerald broke his contract with Verizon to get the Pre. Sprint has an exclusive deal with Palm for the Pre at least till the end of the year.

"I have been reading everything on the internet about the Pre for the last few months and I knew it was going to be a revolutionary device," said Fitzgerald.

About ten Sprint stores nationwide opened their doors, a day early, to offer the Pre to buyers. The $200 phone, after a $100 mail-in rebate, will be available at all Sprint, Best Buy and RadioShack stores starting June 6.

Despite a few visibly excited buyers, Sprint's Palo Alto location lacked the long lines that the Apple store, just a few blocks away, had seen before the launch of the first generation iPhone or the iPhone 3G.

"What we have here is the pre-Pre launch," said Steve Elfman, president of network and wholesale at Sprint. "We invited a select few customers to get the Pre. Tomorrow, when the stores open to all we expect to see some lines."

One of the select few customers to get in early was Scott Hutton, an engineer for Cisco. Hutton said he's not a Palm fanboy but other phones such as the T-Mobile HTC G1 or even the iPhone have left him unimpressed.

"The iPhone, um, is missing that little thing called the keyboard," said Hutton who bought two Pres and a wireless Touchstone charger.

Drawbacks such as the device's ostensibly poor battery life, the lack of apps and even the cramped keyboard pointed out in reviews of the Palm Pre did not faze him or Fitzgerald. Both say they have had Palm devices in the past and have been happy. After a brief fling with other devices, they are back into the Palm fold.

With the launch of the Pre, Palm is reeling its old loyalists in.

More photos from the Pre launch at the Sprint Palo Alto store