Although it’s not due to be announced until next week (Tuesday), and hence we’ve heard nothing official from O2 or Palm, but yesterday the Guardian (and now today the Telegraph) are reporting that O2’s parent company Telefonica have secured pretty much worldwide exclusivity on the GSM version of the Palm Pre, and that includes the UK.  Apparently, both Vodafone and Orange were also in the running for this handset.

It appears it’s likely to be sold on the same tariffs as the iPhone is, although the upfront charge for the Pre is likely to be a little cheaper.  Don’t get too excited yet though; although it’s due to announcement next week, it’s believed the handset will not go on sale until September this year.

What’s interesting is that the iPhone and now the Pre are only available with contracts with full internet access built in, yet none of the UK mobile operators are doing this for any other phone; look at the Nokia N97 for example; with it’s homepage widgets; it’s crying out for internet access, yet 3UK do not have a single tariff available with net access included as part of the deal.  No wonder a greater percentage of iPhone users access the net from their phones than an average Nokia phone; it’s part of the deal, why wouldn’t they?  Better than that, O2 do not state an actual fair use limit on net access (for contract phones; they do for PAYG); as long as you play fair and don’t cause network disruption, then they are happy; even O2’s Customer Services will tell you “it’s unlimited, use it as much as you like from the handset itself” (possibly a reference there to their separate tethering options).

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Gadgets, Not Unlimited. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.