AT&T confirms Palm Pre Plus launching on May 16
updated 03:00 pm EDT, Mon May 10, 2010
Palm ships first GSM-based webOS phone for US
AT&T as expected has confirmed that it will launch the Palm Pre Plus next week. The phone should ship May 16th and, despite Verizon's $30 pricing, will cost $150 on a contract. In exchanging for the higher price, early adopters buying the smartphone at retail will get a 'free' Touchstone charging dock.
The carrier didn't say what happened to the Pixi Plus, which had been unveiled for AT&T at the same time in March. Palm's financial woes leading up to its acquisition by HP, as well as the relatively narrow price gap between it and the Pre Plus, may be affecting plans. An AT&T spokesman declined to comment.
A launch on AT&T marks the first instance of a Palm webOS phone shipping to a GSM carrier in North America and would mark an important step in the spread of its current mobile OS. All sales on the content have so far been limited to CDMA carriers who, with the exception of Verizon, have usually had little reach.
