Palm defend their decision to go with O2 again

The Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus have both arrived on O2 but are Palm making the same mistake twice or have O2 promised to make an effort to push the device that than saying “you’d be better off with an iPhone”. Mobile New have offered up an article pointing out why Palm remarried the ex-wife that had given they so many problems since their engagement all that time ago:

Palm defends its choice to launch its Pre Plus and Pixie Plus handsets exclusively through O2 but says it may take longer to establish the brand in the UK

US manufacturer Palm has defended its ‘one network’ strategy in the UK despite admitting it will take longer to establish the company’s brand here than in any other European country.

Palm will launch its Pre Plus and Pixie Plus handsets in the UK in the next few days exclusively with O2.

Palm has been dogged by criticism since the release of the Pre last year that launching it through one network has been an error as sales have struggled.

Palm vice president for sales in EMEA Paul Ghent said: "The Palm brand in the UK is still limited and it’s an incredibly crowded market place here. You just have to look at the plethora of devices out there and the number of Android devices around so for the end user it’s pretty confusing.

"The UK is probably the toughest and most competitive market in Europe because it’s a level playing field as most devices are free and there are so many different phones on different platforms coming into the market.

"It isn’t necessarily the case that we’ll stick with one network for too long. We are still intent on going deeper into the market and we’re looking at opportunities. We have already gone down that road in Germany so logic would dictate that we’ll end up in a similar situation in the UK."

Ghent added: "We had to ensure the networks we worked with would also invest in ensuring that the in-store execution is right. O2 initially set the bar with the iPhone and changed the game in regards to how it was sold. A lot of our focus is on sales training, live demos and in-store displays. When the person is in-store it’s important they’re getting a proper view of what webOS can do for them. As people begin to use our devices and the platform, they become advocates and that starts to build our brand awareness."