14 DAY TRIAL // Wireless carrier O2 has announced today that Palm Pre, the first mobile phone that comes to the market running under Palm's webOS platform, will be available for purchase on its airwaves starting with October 16, 2009. The new handset will be put on sale directly via O2, as well as through the Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and Business partners in O2’s specific partner programme. At the same time, those interested in the new device will also be able to purchase it online from the operator's website.
According to O2, the Palm Pre will become available for its users for free upon the signing of a 2-year contract agreement on a plan that starts at £44.05 per month, as well as to those opting for an 18-month service agreement on a plan starting at £73.41 per month. The handset will come with unlimited UK data browsing over O2’s HSDPA network, as well as with unlimited access to 7,500 Wi-Fi hotspots available via The Cloud and BT Openzone.
“There’s a lot of excitement about Palm Pre in Europe as we continue to expand Palm webOS products across new carriers and countries. We look forward to launching Palm Pre with O2 so people in the UK can see firsthand how Palm webOS offers a new and better smartphone experience,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer, Palm, Inc. Ronan Dunne, CEO of Telefonica O2 UK, added, “Today’s announcement reinforces O2’s position as the home of the smartphone. With the addition of the excellent Palm Pre to our already extensive portfolio, we will continue to offer our customers the widest range of the very best devices on the market today.”
The new mobile phone also comes around with a series of accessories, including the Palm Touchstone Charging Dock, which enables users to charge the Palm Pre without wires. The Touchstone can be bought along with Back Cover for a price of £44.11, offering £10 in savings. In addition, the webOS-based handset will also come with Palm Synergy features, multitasking capabilities and support for 3G and secure Wi-Fi networks, proving to be a great option for business users too.
O2 also announced that the Palm Pre would come to its business users on all current O2 business tariffs as a monthly bolt on, and would be offered for free to “account holders on all business tariffs from £30.91on a 24 or 36-month contract.” Unlimited calls to ten landlines, shareable minutes and texts between users, 24x7 access to business customer care specialists and other features will be available for O2's business customers, the carrier added.