Palm have chosen O2 as their Palm Pré carrier for the 2009 launch in the UK.
Their choice appears to have been influenced by the fact that Telefónica, who own O2, have the rights to the Pré in Ireland, Germany and Spain.
As O2 are the exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone in the UK it seems strange that Palm would have chosen a company to carry its smartphone that must have be subject conflicting interests. It is difficult to serve two masters.
O2 have been the subject of criticism from UK iPhone users over the recent release of the iPhone 3GS.
Their response to a request for an upgrade path from 3G users was to “pay up your existing contract in full”.
In the US Apple announced that the exisitng 3G phone would immediately cost just US$99, but O2’s price for the old technology remained unchanged at US$154 on an eighteen month contract.
Presently, there is no pricing available for the Palm Pré, either on monthly contracts or pay as you go. But as O2 has both contracts there is little incentive to differentiate in price between the two products.
In the US, Palm chose Sprint and Apple were already with AT&T. The iPhone is about US$20 a month more expensive on similar contracts in the US and so we await with interest to seem whether Palm’s UK exclusive deal will “benefit” UK consumers.
The Palm Pré will be released in the UK in late 2009.
Here are a few basics of the Palm Pré:
- 3.1″ touch screen (320×480 pixels) display
- Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
- GPS built-in
- Ambient light sensor, accelerometer, and proximity sensor
- Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
- 8GB internal storage
- Bluetooth
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