Palm Pre UK Release Date Rumors: Late October? 39
So file this one under "unsubstantiated yet hopeful speculation." The current rumor making the rounds is that the Pre will hit O2 in the UK on October 30th. We'd actually heard the same from an anonymous O2 employee and though we had little reason to doubt it, it made us so giddy to think that the previous "sometime before Christmas" estimate was incorrect that it seemed too good to be true.
We also know that Palm's strategy for releasing the GSM version of the Pre to Telefonica's carrier group will be like their strategy for the US release and for bringing the App Catalog out of Beta: the same "when it's ready," methodical approach.
Well one of our readers, Andrew, saw the same rumors and decided to do some digging at his local O2 store. Initially mum, they opened up a bit when he revealed just how many Pre phones he intended on buying - on the DL, the manager told him "Late October."
Assuming this is true, there are three big questions left: Price, whether the radio bands will be US-friendly, and whether or not Palm will go do Apple-like lengths to keep the phone from being unlocked for US use.
Here's a fourth question: How many folks out there are waiting for the Pre to hit another carrier to buy one?
Thanks Anonymous and Andrew!
39 Comments
I'm just waiting for it to come out here in Ireland, so I can ditch my iPhone 3G. The lack of multitasking and sluggish performance post-3.0 are starting to bug me.
Sprint has great coverage where I live. I'm loving my Pre more & more everyday. Thanks homebrew
I'm anxiously waiting for the 27th for Bell to launch the Pre
I'm anxiously awaiting the 27th because it's my birthday. You should buy me a pre as a present :p.
I'm waiting for whichever carrier in Holland offers the Pre. There are three options: KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile.
Rumors back from February indicated Vodafone will launch the Pre first, which would be good, as Voda has the best data plan deals (currently 3.6 Mbit for 10 euros a month with a pretty gracious FUP).
Both Vodafone and KPN have great coverage, but KPN is somewhat more expensive when it comes to data.
T-Mobile, the exclusive iPhone carrier in Holland, is clearly down on its two competitors when it comes to coverage. So let's hope Palm doesn't go T-Mo. :)
Sprint takes a lot of heat. In my house, we have 4 carriers, at&t drops calls, verizon isnt terrible, but try talking to their customer service, US Cellular sucks, but my pre on sprint is great. I get pretty decent coverage, and thanks to the premier program, I get a full discount on a phone once a year. what could be better?
I have waited for a carrier in Germany, but I wont buy a spy ware phone.
Honestly - I'm waiting for only ONE thing before I'll buy the Pre... more memory. I'm not going go jump ship and switch over to Sprint when the phone has no external memory expansion and/or only comes with 8 gigs of internal. That amount of memory sounded like a lot a couple years ago, but no longer. The Pre should be running 32 gigs (or at least no less than 16) and since they decided against adding either more memory, or no expansion - I'm skip it. If they added one of those items, I would not only switch my personal phone, but my whole team at work over to this unit.
I hope the Pre turns out to be at least tri-band - that would be a big disappointment. Although honestly, not enough to stop me buying one.
I'm keen to find out more about the tariffs and pricing for the Pre on O2 here in the UK. That's the last piece of the puzzle (assuming this late October release pans out).
I'm loving my Pre more and more every day. I have a bit of a problem saying I'm "happy" with Sprint, but I love my Pre ...
There should have been a different button for "No. I switched to Sprint to get the Pre." I'm new to Sprint and I'm happy with them, but I wouldn't count as a customer that's staying due to satisfaction.
I love my Pre and I'm getting more converts everyday. This week I've already convince two more people to get the Pre.
Waiting for a generic, unlocked version to come out. Vodafone may pick it up, but I'm not going to hold my breath for that.
I'm also expecting it to be either 2100/900 dual-band, 2100-single band or 2100/1900/850 tri-band, in roughly that order. I really, really hope it's the first one, personally.
I am waiting for the company: 3 in Denmark. But i will change company if they dont get it :-)
Nah, Sprint is my carrier of choice. I haven't found any other major US carrier that gives me nearly what Sprint does for the relatively low price. My girlfriend and I each pay about $55-60 for our share of 1500 daytime minutes, free nights after 7, free weekends, unlimited data, unlimited text, unlimited commercial turn-by-turn nav. I have yet to see any other carrier with all that for less than $80-100.
im ready to import, unlock and sim free this baby.
i really dont want to sign up for a contract.
we got some great prepaid flat data plan's in germany.
my only concern is the warranty, since some people have returned their pre's way more then once because of hardware trouble. ill post my report on that in your forum later.
still hope gsm will be improoved version.
I have a CDMA Sprint Pre here in the Netherlands, and i love it, although i cannot use the phone part, since we don't have CDMA here. If a GSM becomes available, i will switch to the GSM. Preferably Vodafone. My current Pre is now used as PDA, and runs just fine over WiFi, replaced my Tungsten Tx.