Palm Pre 2 Rumoured To Arrive This Friday

The Palm Pre 2 smartphone will go on sale in the UK from Friday 12 November, according to various online reports.

However Hewlett-Packard has refused to confirm the speculation, with an HP spokesman telling  eWEEK Europe UK that it could not comment on rumours.

The reports that the handset is to arrive this week SIM-free initially are based on an article from Pocket-lint, which cited confirmation from HP. That article also said that the handset will come with a 1GHz CPU and have a 5-megapixel camera, as well as a glass screen plus “a sleeker, streamlined design that still gives users the ideal combination of a vivid touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard”.

French Appearance

The Pre 2 was first spotted last month across the channel in France, exclusively from carrier SFR, the second-largest mobile carrier in France. SFR touted the device on its website 12 October, before apparently noting its faux pas and pulling the page – although not before PreCentral.net grabbed a screenshot.

Besides the 1GHz processor, the handset is also expected to offer 512MB of RAM, a flatter screen, a more intuitive user interface, a faster boot time, an “overlayed” view of related applications, and a redesign of the Palm App Catalog. And the qwerty keypad design also appears to be less recessed. The Palm Pre 2 is said to be shipping with the new webOS 2.0.

Many users are eagerly awaiting the new OS, which is said to offer true multitasking; Flash 10.1; Skype; Quickoffice mobile suite; Facebook 2.0; as well as Just Type that apparently allows a user to compose a message without opening an app.

Troubled Past

It is fair to say that Palm has had a troubled past. The original Palm Pre had very good reviews and initially had good sales to boot, as did it’s successor, the Palm Pixi, but the company admitted to slower sales than expected, and then shocked the market by admitting that more than half its phones were still in warehouses.

Many recognised that Palm had developed a very good mobile operating system with WebOS, but failed to sell it effectively. Palm was put up for sale in April this year and was acquired by HP.

The HP acquisition was questioned by some, and in August HP confirmed that Peter Skillman, the man who designed the Palm Pre, had left.

Delivery Timeframes

HP executives meanwhile have previously said that all future HP smartphones will run WebOS and the company will begin introducing smartphones running the operating system in early 2011, Reuters reported 6 October, citing comments by Eric Cador, senior vice president in HP’s PSG (Personal System Group).

This reinforced earlier comments made during Palm’s 19 August earnings call, by Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP’s PSG (Personal Systems Group), who said a WebOS-based device would be coming at the turn of the calendar.

“You’ll see us with a Microsoft product out in the near future and a WebOS-based product in early 2011,” Bradley said during the call.