Palm Pre slated for Australia in August?
updated 04:30 pm EDT, Tue May 5, 2009
Palm Pre Aussie in August
Palm's next stop with the Pre after Sprint may be Australia. Pointing only to insiders in its rumor, the Pacific nation's Smarthouse asserts that Telstra has landed a three-month exclusive for the phone on its network that would start from August. The phone maker's national manager, Brett Murray, doesn't mention a date but partly corroborates the report by confirming a second-half 2009 launch window for the Pre in Australia. He also can't confirm exclusives, though Sprint itself is separately rumored to have a three-month deal of its own.
A Telstra launch would represent one of the few supported launches for the first webOS phone beyond Sprint. Palm has readily admitted to a GSM Pre being in development and had it running temporarily on Vodafone at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but has never clearly defined its non-US plans.
The carrier has also reportedly obtained an Australian exclusive for the HTC Magic, which is likely to ship to the US as the T-Mobile G2 or MyTouch 3G.
