The Wall Street Journal was poised to make a HUGE announcement about the Palm Pre in tomorrow’s paper, so the rumors said, but their rival – The New York Times – has stolen some of their thunder. The WSJ announcement would reportedly be details on launch date and pricing, but in a NYT article today titled “Cellphone Makers Hope for a BlockBuster Summer” we learn the following:

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.

While some are saying the Pre is Palm’s last chance, Lynn Fox disagreed, voicing an opinion that is in line with PalmWebOS.org:

Lynn Fox, a spokeswoman for Palm, played down the importance of the Pre itself, saying it was the first “in a long line” of devices that will use Palm’s new mobile operating system. “The Pre isn’t a bet-the-company device,” Ms. Fox said.

We’ll still have our eye on the Wall Street Journal tomorrow, but I think that June 5th to 7th window will be pretty accurate looking back.