NYT: The summer of the smartphone; Release Date First Week of June?

A new piece in the New York Times is out to lay the foundation of what they say “could be potentially the most exciting time in [the mobile phone] market.” This summer is indeed shaping up to be an interesting one in the smartphone market, with at the very least a new iPhone, a handful of Android phones, probably a few new BlackBerries, and of course, the Palm Pre, set to land in the hands of users between Memorial Day (next Monday) and Labor Day (September 7).

While much of the article goes over things that we already know (Palm’s losing buckets of money every quarter, Sprint’s not in a great position either, the smartphone market is ripe for expansion, etc), they did lend some credence to the current strongest release date rumor:

"But the season’s most compelling phone drama will start the first week in June, when Sprint will begin selling the Palm Pre, people briefed on the company’s plans said."

As in June 5th or 7th, the two dates we've been hearing fairly consistently lately. Hopefully we’ll be getting some sort of confirmation from Sprint and Palm on that very soon...