Possible release date of Palm Pre in the UK

My contract is up and I’m looking ahead at the emerging phones. As I have announced many a time, I rather enthusiastic about the Palm Pre. It’s a long wait until the vague “in time for Christmas” launch date on 02. Having a little search I noticed this post on T3 that I had obviously missed. A rumoured date of October 30th? Here’s hoping.

Remember the official UK Palm Pre announcement? O2 went all cryptic on us, confirming it had the exclusive rights to the sought-after smartphone for the UK, but only offering ‘will be here in time to sit under Christmas trees all over the land’ as a launch date. Which left us with any date up to 24th December. Well, if rumours are to be believed (and we think they are), that shelf date will actually be October 30th. Which is a Friday, should you want fancy booking off a long weekend to play with your new toy.

The rumours are believed to have come from O2 itself, specifically from managers who have been informed of the launch date, presumably ahead of planning and training for the big day. According to the Palm webOS blog, one such person has given them the nod, which tallies up with O2’s habit of releasing big-name handsets on a Friday and also ties in withj the rumoured German O2 launch of the Pre. There is one fly in the ointment though – that same site has a comment claiming to have been told that the smartphone will be on the shelves on October 19th. But that’s a single voice in a crowd that is by and large singing from the same October 30th hymn sheet.
As for price? Well, that’s still to be set in stone, but the same sources have suggested that it will be close to that of the iPhone 3GS, with tariffs more or less identical. So it’s a case of which one you fancy really, QWERTY or no QWERTY. Not that price matters if O2 has both of this year’s smartphone contenders. It wins either way. Although that just might change if theiPhone exclusive goes in – you guessed it – October, which is another seriously-rumoured possibility.

Sources: T3, O2 (via Palm webOS blog)