Palm Pre Goes to Australia in August

The highly anticipated Palm Pre handset will make it to all the corners of the world for sure, starting with the US, where it is expected to land before the end of the first half of the year, and continuing with Europe, as a GSM version was announced to be in the works a few months ago, and with Australia, where we learn now that it will land in the second half of the year with Telstra.

The release of the device in the country has been already confirmed by Australia Palm Country Manager Brett Murray for the second half of 2009, though no additional details on it have been unveiled. According to the news, the handset is expected to come in August, and Telstra is reported to have it exclusively for the first three months, the same as it will have the new HTC Magic Android phone.

The Palm Pre comes with both a QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen display, which will sport multi-touch capabilities, a feature reported to give Palm some headaches, as Apple holds the multi-touch patent and some problems were expected to come from there, though Brett Murray seems confident that there will be no issues with the design of the phone. “The similarity in features between the Pre and the iPhone clearly reveals the mark Palm is trying to hit,” stated iSuppli analyst Tina Teng, as reported by Smarthouse.

In Australia, the Palm Pre will face competition from a series of smartphones coming from HTC, Blackberry and Apple, and Telstra is expected to limit the supply of the phone at launch as part of its marketing campaign. The handset should appeal to a wide range of users analysts say, while also adding that it is Palm's best hope to regain the market share it lost to rivals like the iPhone or RIM's BlackBerry smartphones.

No info on the price tag the Palm Pre will feature in the country has been unveiled so far, yet iSuppli expects Palm to offer the device to the carrier for around $400, which will have the phone on a plan for around $299, or free of contract for $899. According to the research firm, to the estimated $US170 build cost the phone maker will add shipping costs, and logistics, marketing and other channel costs will also add to it.