The Palm Pre had a successful launch over the summer, but its diminished sales placed Carphone Warehouse in an unusual situation. Facing an insurmountable stockpile of Palm Pre smartphones, the UK based company is doing all it can to try and surge their Palm Pre sales. This includes enticing prospective buyers with two free airline tickets for anyone willing to purchase Palm’s first WebOS powered handset. This deal won’t last forever, unless we’d imagine sales don’t meet their expected levels, and will carry on throughout the month of January.

One factor playing a key role in Carphone Warehouse’s mountain high levels of unsold Palm Pres is that it’s only available through O2. Sure the price tag of being free with a contract with O2 sounds good enough, but Carphone Warehouse is going the extra step by providing these free airline tickets. The deal sounds tempting enough – hopefully those Palm Pres sitting around will find a home soon.
via Unwired View

The Palm Pre has finally landed on UK shores, being offered up by O2. If you’re in the UK and have already picked up this webOS-based wonder, then let us know what you think. If you haven’t taken the plunge yet, check out this first-ever Palm Pre UK-flavored unboxing brought to you by Top 10 Mobile Phones. Check it out here.

source: top10 mobile phones

The actual launch date isn’t until this Friday, October 16th, but that won’t stop O2 from throwing a rockin’ Palm Pre launch party with performing artists like VV Brown and Danish band Alphabeat. The event was held on a rooftop at the Shoreditch House in London’s East End. There is no word whether Claus made an appearance to guest DJ, but if he had, I’m sure he’d be sporting a Pre.

When Friday rolls around, we hope to hear from any O2 customers about the Pre launch and whether or not you got your hands on one. Congratulations to O2 UK on getting the Pre!

source: palminfocenter

While those over in Europe await the arrival of the GSM version of the Palm Pre (rumored to arrive October 30th), UK-based mobile phone specialist Handtec and London-based online store m-Phone are both offering a SIM-free version of the Pre for pre-order. Handtec is asking £517.49 and e-tailer m-Phone wants £450. A Palm Pre under contract with O2 (when available) will likely be much less than these prices, but if you can’t bear to wait or are not an O2 customer and don’t plan to be, then take a look at Handtec and m-Phone and pre-order your Pre!

source: mypre

We just reported on Canada getting the Pre on August 27, and now we have a pure, unadulterated, unsubstantiated rumor that several sources believe the Palm Pre will be released on October 30th on the O2 network in the U.K. O2 generally likes releasing high-profile phones on Fridays, and – lo and behold – this date is consistent with their philosophy. To add further support to this rumor, this little tidbit allegedly came from an O2 employee and the launch date is consistent with O2’s recent claims that they would be able to offer the Pre in time for Christmas. How will the Pre perform in Europe?

Source: Palm Infocenter

Palm has just announced that divisions of Telefonica will have the exclusive rights to sell the GSM version of the Pre in the U.K., Ireland and Germany (O2) and in Spain (Movistar). As far as a launch date is concerned, the manufacturer said that the handset would be out in time for the holidays which doesn’t really narrow things down, although we’re pretty sure that Arbor Day isn’t the holiday in mind.

Palm’s Spanish division has released the first official photo of the GSM Palm Pre and outside of the HSDPA indicator on the display, you would be hard pressed to find any difference between the CDMA and GSM models on the outside. Last week, we reported on a film shot by some Vietnamese individuals that showed the GSM version of the handset and now we have the official word from Palm. A couple of items were not revealed in the press release, such as the frequencies used by the radios on the GSM Pre, and pricing.

Check out the via link for Palm’s lengthy press release.

via

As it became clear yesterday, Palm is about to reveal details on the Pre’s UK launch pretty soon. Now, a word has spread that O2 has already acquired the exclusive rights for the device. According to The Guardian, what Palm is going to announce next week is that it has signed a deal with the carrier, so that it would be the only one in the UK to offer the Pre, just like it did with the iPhone. This actually confirms a rumor from March, going that O2 owner Telefonica is to take care of the webOS smartphone across a number of Latin American and European countries, including Spain and the UK.

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