The Palm Pre is officially headed to Europe with an exclusive deal between Palm and Telefonica, bringing the phone to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain and Germany.
O2 will have exclusive rights to the Pre in UK, Ireland and Germany, with Movistar selling the phone in Spain. O2 already sells the Apple iPhone to subscribers in Britain and Ireland, so it's interesting that the company wants to promote both phones. Furthermore, Movistar also sells the iPhone in Spain, yet the company also is interested in offering the Pre.
The Pre will be available on both carriers in time for Christmas, but pricing and contract information wasn't released.
Although the Pre hasn't exactly stolen many subscribers away from Verizon Wireless and AT&T, it has racked up decent sales numbers in the United States. It's worth noting, however, that Sprint Nextel is a struggling company, so it's likely there are a handful of consumers who may be interested in the Pre, but don't want to switch to a company that is losing thousands of subscribers each quarter.
Palm's future will rely heavily on whether or not it is able to convince European and UK subscribers to choose its Pre device over the popular iPhone. Consumer Reports recently rated the iPhone 3GS as the top rated smartphone at the moment, with the Pre coming in six percentage points lower. Despite a lower overall score, the Pre outclassed the iPhone 3G in messaging, and can multitask better than all other smartphones reviewed by Consumer Reports.
Overall phone sales have declined over the past few quarters, but smartphone sales increased, with phone carriers choosing to market data plans and text messaging packages over voice plans.
