iPhone Carrier In Europe To Offer Palm Pre?
Palm Pre Coming Soon To An iPhone Carrier Near You…
According to Spanish newspaper Expansion it appears that European telecom group Telefonica has, after a heated battle, “snatched” from Vodafone exclusive distribution rights for the Palm Pre in Spain, the UK and the whole of Latin America.
According to the article, Telefonica has reached an agreement with Palm to exclusively commercialize the company’s latest “fetish” device – the Palm Pre – which has been labeled by many reviewers the first real “iPhone Killer”.
Telefonica will distribute the Palm Pre in Spain under the umbrella of its wireless carrier Movistar before the start of the summer. The carrier will require Palm Pre customers to sign-up for an unlimited data plan and select voice plans to help subsidize the device – the same pricing model using to commercialize the iPhone.
Additionally, Telefonica will apparently also have exclusive distribution rights to the Palm Pre in the UK through its wireless carrier O2 while Movistar will market it exclusively in Latin America.
The particularly interesting thing about all this news is that Movistar Spain and O2 in the UK are currently the exclusive carriers for Apple’s iPhone… The obvious rationale for this deal must have been that Telefonica may have been concerned about potential customer defections from the iPhone that it carries to the Palm Pre with another wireless operator such as Vodafone or Orange.
With this deal in place, Telefonica not only ensures that it can retain its existing iPhone customers but also that it’s offering them a very easy upgrade path to the Palm Pre without the need to switch carriers.
Separately, if this deal between Palm and Telefonica is confirmed it may also open up the door for a similar move by AT&T in the US as the carrier would be equally concerned to lose Palm Pre customers to another carrier – particularly as Sprint will be the exclusive carrier for the whole of 2009.
We’ll have to wait and see how this whole thing plays out but one thing is for sure: the Palm Pre is without a doubt proving to the most highly anticipated gadget of the year…
Sources:
Movistar “steals” Palm’s iPhone-killer from Vodafone [Expansion]
Preonauts always steal the show… 
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c71a953ef011168ef8667970c
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference iPhone Carrier In Europe To Offer Palm Pre?:
Comments
Would be nice if you'd finish the sentence -
"the Palm Pre is without a doubt proving to be" - what?
@Iris - Ooops... I was so excited about the post that I forgot to complete my sentence... ;-)
Cheers, A.
So I guess this means a GSM version of the Pre. So what of the possibility of making it available to the US GSM-based carriers?
@wams - Yes, a GSM version of the Pre for Europe has already been confirmed for a while. There is also the hope that Palm will released an Unlocked GSM Pre (without subsidies) in the US this year. A GSM version with a US carrier however will have to wait until at least January 2010 as Sprint has the exclusivity for the whole of 2009.
Cheers, A.
The comments to this entry are closed.
