Rumours that Palm Pre will be coming to O2 in UK

The rumour stems from comments made by a representative from Telefonica, O2’s parent company, to a Spanish newspaper, Expansion, in which the executive said that his company had been given exclusive rights to the Palm Pre in the UK, Spain and Latin America.

But Palm has sought to distance itself from the rumours, blaming a “misunderstanding”. A spokesman for the company told technology website Vnunet.com that he could not confirm when the Pre might be launched in the UK or which network carriers it would be available from.


The device, which has caused huge excitement among gadget fans and the technology community, is being touted as a rival to Apple’s iPhone. It features a 3.1in touch-screen, a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, and runs an operating system designed with cloud-based computing services in mind. Many see it as a make-or-break device for Palm, which has struggled in the face of competition from the likes of Nokia and BlackBerry.

It was previously thought that Vodafone had signed an exclusive agreement to offer the Pre in the UK. But a spokesman said: “Vodafone is always talking to leading brands about new handsets. The Palm Pre is an interesting proposition, but that is all we are willing to say at this time.”

If O2 did win the right to launch the Palm Pre in the UK it would pit the device directly against another O2 exclusive, the iPhone. Apple is widely expected to launch a third-generation version of its popular mobile phone this summer.


[originally posted at crn.com]