Palm Pre Euro Launch

Palm today confirmed early European launch details for the Pre. The webOS smartphone's initial launch will be a Telefonica exclusive and should see O2 have sole rights in Germany, Ireland and the UK; Movistar will have an exclusive in Spain. All four countries will have the phone "in time for the holidays," though it's not clear when the exclusivity period ends.

Their version will also represent the first version with GSM voice and HSPA for 3G data, switching from the historically North America-centered CDMA and EVDO that dictates the Pre available for Sprint now and for Bell in coming months. The Pre can now roam worldwide but should otherwise be identical to the stock version, with a 3.1-inch multi-touch display, a 3-megapixel camera, 8GB of storage, GPS and Wi-Fi.

The launch is critical for Palm, whose American Pre sales are beginning to settle but which may still sell twice as many phones in Palm's current quarter by itself than all phone models put together from the quarter before. Apple sold over one million iPhone 3GS units in its launch weekend but was helped by having access to eight countries just that day, with more in subsequent weeks.

By Electronista Staff