Categories: Mobility

O2 Gets UK Exclusive On Palm Pre

O2 will next week announce it has an exclusive deal to sell the Palm Pre in the UK, according to reports.

The Pre is regarded as the most successful challenger so far to Apple’s iPhone – with our review praising its design. It launched in the US a month ago, and may have sold as many as 370,000 in its first weekend, according to reports.

Now O2 will be Palm’s exclusive partner in the UK, according to a report yesterday in earlier rumours.

Apple launched its new iPhone, the 3GS in June and sold a million phones in its first weekend, boosted mostly by a software upgrade.

O2 is the UK’s largest operator with 27 percent of the market, but rumours have recently suggested that Vodafone plans to overtake it by buying T-Mobile.

The Pre, like many iPhone challengers, has a qwerty keyboard as well as a touchscreen, and has an app store to download new applications. However, its new operating system means it has few applications as yet, so it won’t be picked up by business users in great numbers – although there are signs developers like it.

It may seem ironic for Palm to choose a partner which currently has the iPhone exclusive in the UK. However, it’s been rumoured that O2’s partnership with Apple, originally scheduled to last till 2011, may be about to finish, prompting high prices on the new iPhone.

Peter Judge

Peter Judge has been involved with tech B2B publishing in the UK for many years, working at Ziff-Davis, ZDNet, IDG and Reed. His main interests are networking security, mobility and cloud

Recent Posts

Craig Wright Sentenced For Contempt Of Court

Suspended prison sentence for Craig Wright for “flagrant breach” of court order, after his false…

3 days ago

El Salvador To Sell Or Discontinue Bitcoin Wallet, After IMF Deal

Cash-strapped south American country agrees to sell or discontinue its national Bitcoin wallet after signing…

3 days ago

UK’s ICO Labels Google ‘Irresponsible’ For Tracking Change

Google's change will allow advertisers to track customers' digital “fingerprints”, but UK data protection watchdog…

3 days ago

EU Publishes iOS Interoperability Plans

European Commission publishes preliminary instructions to Apple on how to open up iOS to rivals,…

3 days ago

Momeni Convicted In Bob Lee Murder

San Francisco jury finds Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder of Cash App founder Bob…

3 days ago