O2 UK confirms exclusive Palm Pre launch

A UK version of the Palm Pre has finally been announced, and it will be released in the UK exclusively on O2.

Helpfully it's given no word on price or an actual release date other than 'in time for the holidays', but the good news is that it is coming, something that was widely rumoured for the past few weeks.

"Europe continues to be an important region for Palm, and we're proud to work with O2 and Movistar to spread the excitement Palm Pre has already ignited in North America," said Jon Rubinstein, Palm Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Since we showed Palm Pre at Mobile World Congress in February, there's been a great deal of anticipation for an announcement about European availability, and that day is here."

Hot and absent

The Palm Pre has been one of the most hotly anticipated devices in the UK since it was announced at CES in January.

It features one of the best touchscreens since the iPhone, a 3.1-inch cpacative effort, with multi-tasking and the innovative (well, it was) new webOS.

There's a headphone jack, 8GB of internal storage as well as the obvious Wi-Fi and superfast 3.5G internet connection, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

The then-CEO of Palm Ed Colligan promised a GSM version within months of the US version launching, which finally occurred on 6 June.

It would seem his promise has come true, with the UK now getting ready to get its hands on the new device, although we hope it will be significantly before Christmas as the press release worryingly suggests.

We're meeting up with Palm later today to shoot the breeze, so we'll try and pin down a more definitive date.