The much-anticipated Palm Pre touchscreen smartphone, which will run on the company’s new web operating system, has finally been given a release date – 6 June 2009. The mobile carrier? Sprint.
Best not get too excited here in Ireland and the rest of Europe though – we don’t have a carrier or a release date announced. However, the Palm Treo, when launched in September 2008, was available through both O2 and Vodafone.
This 6 June US release date for the Palm Pre gives it an advantage over the rumoured iPhone overhauls/updates said to be due for announcement at the Apple WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) that runs from 8-12 June .
The Pre is set at US$199.99 from Sprint after rebate, and will be available to buy from Sprint stores, as well as Best Buy, Radio Shack and selected Wal-Mart stores.
The difference between the Palm Pre and previous generations of Palm smartphones and PDAs is that this device is aiming for ‘real-time’ applications or widgets that sit on the phone and continually update.
The Palm Pre has both a full QWERTY keypad and 3.1-inch touchscreen interface, with Microsoft push mail and built-in IM.
It also comes with Palm’s Touchstone charging dock, so no cables are needed to power it up; instead it is simply placed on the dock to charge.
By Marie Boran
