In what I’d assume was some sort of Twitter follower-hording publicity stunt if it weren’t for the fact that their account was set to private, some gent named Jim Van is claiming (Via Twitter) to not only have a Pre in hand, but to have some inside info pointing toward a release on April 30th.

Could the Pre be coming on April 30th? Sure. It is a date in the first half of 2009, and the number of those left is quickly dwindling.

But here’s why we doubt it:

• Uh, Non-disclosure Agreements? We know some people who do have access to the Pre and are well established within the company, and even their access is still cloak-and-dagger.
• Nothing has been posted to prove they’ve got a Pre; they’ve been promising pictures for over a day now, always saying little more than “later, too busy now.” They’ve got time to Twitter, but not to TwitPic?
• Palm has already outright declared it “fiction“
• Perhaps he does have a Pre; it’s not too crazy to think that Palm is trickling them out for outside testing. Even if so – the source of release date information is all sorts of shaky, to say the least: “Sprint claims that 4/30 is a line in the sand, according to my acct mgr there…he’s usually right on #Palm Pre”. If Sprint and Pre are being hush-hush about the release date, an account manager to contractors is about as likely to be in the know as a dolphin.
• Why? What’s the motive here? If it’s some wonky stunt to get eyes on their IT support company, all it does is prove they can’t keep a secret.

Could this Jim fellow have a Pre in his pocket? It seems like a long (loooong) shot – but sure, if Palm or Sprint are trying to get people to tear into this thing to dig up the last-minute lingering bugs, perhaps they felt the need to enlist some random small-business support company out of Rhode Island. We’ll be waiting for something a bit less absurd to count on.

[Via PreThinking]