The Palm Pre
smartphone will be available in Europe before the end of the year exclusively through carrier partnerships with Telefonica's O2 and Movistar.
Telefonica's O2 will be the exclusive carrier for the Palm Pre in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, while Movistar gets the nod in Spain, Palm said Tuesday.
Palm's European push effectively open up another front for Palm Pre in the battle for smartphone supremacy with Apple's iPhone and other competitors. O2's winning of the Palm Pre contract in the U.K. was first reported last week by The Guardian, which said O2 beat out rival carrier Orange at the last second to win rights to the Palm Pre.
Both O2 and Movistar come out on top in the Palm deals. Telefonica's O2 already has exclusive rights to Apple's iPhone in the U.K. and Ireland, and Movistar enjoys the same advantage among iPhone users in Spain. In fact, Palm's carrier deals for the Palm Pre Europe leave Germany the only European country thus far where the iPhone and Palm Pre aren't on the same major, exclusive carrier. The iPhone in Germany is sold through T-Mobile.
Pricing details for European Palm Pre smartphones haven't been disclosed. Palm Pre arrived in the U.S. exclusively through Sprint on June 6, and costs $199 after a $100 rebate and commitment to a two-year Sprint contract.
The struggling Palm is staking much of its future growth on Palm Pre in hopes of reviving the once-dominant brand. First introduced at CES 2009 in Las Vegas, the Palm Pre faces stiff competition in smartphones from not only Apple's iPhone 3G but also Research In Motion BlackBerry models and the T-Mobile G1 and other phones based on Google's Android platform.
