At last, the much awaited Palm Pre SmartPhone is coming to Europe under a new agreement with Telefónica Europe.
The Palm Pre, whose successful recent launch in the US surpassed all expectations, will become available on the O2 Network in the UK, Ireland and Germany and on the Movistar Network in Spain just in time for the holiday season.
“Europe continues to be an important region for Palm, and we’re proud to work with O2 and Movistar to spread the excitement Palm Pre has already ignited in North America,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer.
“Since we showed Palm Pre at Mobile World Congress in February, there’s been a great deal of anticipation for an announcement about European availability, and that day is here.”
So although it’s supposed to be here in time for Christmas sales, some believe it will become available sooner than that.
“I can’t imagine Palm waiting until November,” IDC Senior Research Analyst Ryan Reith, said.
“And I wouldn’t be surprised to see something out toward the end of August. That is what I would be aiming for.”
European customers have been eagerly anticipating the Palm being available, mainly because of the hype surrounding the handset but also because it just so happens to be a pretty good phone anyway.
For a start the web operating system is better than most other phone operating systems on the market. Will the specs stay the same as the US version? More or less it will be much and such the same, with a few minor adjustments.
The European version is a GSM phone with support for 3G and 3.5G and the German version will have a slide out QWERTZ keyboard as opposed to the slide out QWERTY keyboard in Ireland, the UK and Spain.
So you can imagine with all the excitement that Telefónica must be wringing their hands with glee at the prospect of the agreement with Palm.
“We are fast becoming the home of the SmartPhone with the addition of the hotly-anticipated Palm Pre to our already extensive portfolio,” said Matthew Key, chairman and chief executive officer, Telefónica Europe.
“Our customers will be the first outside of North America to experience one of the most successful mobile devices of the year.”
Unfortunately though, there are no pricing details available as yet but I bet it isn’t cheap.
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