Over the last several days (weeks?), the Palm Pre has been popping up on several of Palm's international web sites, and as seen at MWC 09, we know that a GSM version is forthcoming. Although we can't report specific carriers, we can at least provide a list of the expected international availability of the much-anticipated goodness of the Palm Pre.
Europe
North America
Latin America
Asia Pacific
That's a lot of ground for Palm to cover, and hopefully it will be covered soon! Rock stars like the Palm Pre SHOULD go on world tour, don't you think?
Comments
Yes, rock stars should go on tour - but they usually announce the dates.
I second that.
amen! World tour means nothing without releasing the release date of the album. Its like having a rock star travel around the world and arrive in stadiums of 100,000 screaming fans, and then announcing "i'm not going to sing... I just wanted to see if any of you liked me".
This is pretty much sounding like Guns and Roses Chinese democracy album story.
Correct me if I'm wrong: But, French phones can't be locked, by law, right? Therefore, there will be an unlocked GSM Pre. And it ought to work (albeit not in 3G) on T-Mobile USA, right?
In France the law is that there is no prohibition on sim locks, but you can get the sim lock removed. But in order to do so you have to pay back the subsidy (could be $500 on a two year smartphone contract). They have a condition that you can get it removed for free six months before end of contract, but the contracts on discounted smartphnes are usually two years.
Essentially carriers can sim lock almost everywhere in EU excepting Belgiom. The laws in some countries allow the consumer to get an unlock after some period (usually six months or longer) with repayment back to the carrier of the subsidy. But you can see on iphone prices across europe, the price differential is about one thing, terms of sim lock laws.
So there is a lot of misconception about sim lock laws in Europe
A lot of this became clearer with iphone. In Begium the only country with an anti sim lock law, iphone 8gb sold in summer $825 and the 16gb for about $950.
Oh well. Thanks for for clearing that up.
the uk site still lists tethering under 'details' - didn't they remove that from the us ads?
The provider for the netherlands wil be vodafone
source:
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2...
try altavista translate or a friend who knows dutch, the article simply says they are in negotiation. It is 100% certain they are in some form of negotiation with every Euro carrier. Without prejudice to their chances is Voda is number three in holland?
I happen to am Dutch :P
http://www.precentral.net/vodafone-negotiations-palm-pre-release
Let us know what's going on with the Pre! TRANS-PAREN-CY! TRANS-PAREN-CY! TRANS-PAREN-CY! TRANS-PAREN-CY! TRANS-PAREN-CY! TRANS-PAREN-CY! TRANS-PAREN-CY! TRANS-PAREN-CY! TRANS-PAREN-CY! TRANS-PAREN-CY!
Why when SECRECY makes you want it more?
but SECRECY also makes people decide to buy an iphone or a google phone instead of waiting. Since they dont know when it will arrive :(
SECRECY makes people want things more, not less.
I disagree completely. Secrecy has NOT made me want it more, and honestly it's beginning to have the opposite effect. I'm envisioning Palm desperately scrambling behind the scenes to fix problems. I'm beginning to wonder if there are issues with this OS that are going to make me not only regret the purchase, but the anticipation as well. In my idle waiting I can imagine a lot of reasons Palm would hesitate on the release - and most of them are not good for me, the consumer.
I think all the secrecy has a lot of people thinking. It has really begun to transform the Christmas morning type excitement at CES to a much more sober attitude on the part of a lot of would be first adopters who are/would be responsible for creating a lot of the buzz that Palm desperately wants & needs.
I'm now personally wondering if maybe my better option is to stick with the devil I know. Or buy an IPhone.
"...envisioning desperately scrambling to fix problems..."
That you envision this is your problem. It is and always has been scheduled for late June. Where do you get "desperate?" Feel desperate in early June, not now, you have a long wait if you do so now.
I do not recall Palm or Sprint mentioning "late June" for the launch of the Pre, they have always said first half of 2009. Advertising something on a website as "coming soon", is a bit misleading, it is a deceiving marketing tactic.
I love your named "informed", perhap you should get informed?
A launch window ending on June 30th is historically in consumer electronics and mobile phones an expectation of the end of June -- and maybe July or August.
Please do give us your "informed" status report on the 99% of devices showcased at CES that are out now? Almost all of them will be out in summer at earliest, probably over half won't hit until holiday season 09.
First off, it wasn't me who sh-t in your cereal, you need to calm down. Secondly, trying to impose your "opinion" on me will not work. You-"A launch window ending on June 30th is historically in consumer electronics and mobile phones an expectation of the end of June -- and maybe July or August." That is complete bull, perhaps you should take a look at these links:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/ss.asp?f=sprint-doc-409.png
http://www.phonearena.com/htmls/Sprint-will-launch-several-new-phones-in...
http://www.mobilewhack.com/sprint-to-launch-various-new-phones-in-the-fo...
"Please do give us your "informed" status report on the 99% of devices showcased at CES that are out now? Almost all of them will be out in summer at earliest, probably over half won't hit until holiday season 09." Ooookay! *rolls eye*
I reiterate, neither Palm or Sprint have mention a launch date, stop with your 'speculation' crap!
(Dis)Informed, you seem a little retarded, or someone did "sh-t in your cereal.
Your posts seem the most agitated and confrontive here.
That is simply because you have swallowed all the childish claims of Feb 15 and now you are "upset."
You keep fueling the baseless speculation here with non serious dates and then implying it is late - six weeks into a six month window.
I think you have a comprehension problem, here is my first response in this thread... "I do not recall Palm or Sprint mentioning "late June" for the launch of the Pre, they have always said first half of 2009. Advertising something on a website as "coming soon", is a bit misleading, it is a deceiving marketing tactic."
Now, where in that response did I bring up "Feb 15"?
You- "You keep fueling the baseless speculation here with non serious dates and then implying it is late - six weeks into a six month window." HUH??
"Deceiving" begins on July 1, not before.
[Advertising something on a website as "coming soon", is a bit misleading]
I guess all those movies that show up as "coming soon" on websites but take more than 6 months (sometimes) to show up in theaters are misleading as well.
"Soon" is relative. If they've been saying 1st half of '09, then stop complaining until the 1st half of '09 has come and gone.
OH! I forgot about the Palm Pre movie, is Sprint the main character?...
Sprint is the main character. They will decide everything. Price, release data, advertising.
I believe "desperate" is the word. Why else would Sprint (through their call center) say that the Pre (not the Pro) would be available Feb 15th. Now CSRs are saying March. In March CSRs will be saying April. To me this sounds like Sprint is desperatly trying to keep customers from leaving.
Because the Reps confused Pro for Pre, no matter how many times you say Pre.
If there was one iota of memos, information on representatives' computer screens, or even internal gossip that the Pre was to be available on Feb 15 or March 15, the 50 or so Sprint employees people who leak this stuff all the time on Sprintusers.com forums, and have long time histories of accuracy and truthfulness, would have seen and said something. All say the same thing...there is no date.
Oh, make no mistake Palm and Sprint are both in DESPERATE situations. The Pre is HUGE for both. If there are any problems we aren't hearing about, you can bet they ARE desperately working on them.
There are no problems. Just normal final testing scheduled for months now to commence in April.
Well, if I were Sprint I would tell the public as soon as possible so that I could keep customers paying for service till the phone comes out instead of letting them leave to go to another service.
And they said first half of this year. If you need to translate that to a date, change it to by June 30th like another poster mentioned.
They've narrowed it down to a date range (my guess is because there are some things that needs to be worked out before a solid date can be chosen). There a only 4 months left in that date range. So chill. If it comes out before then; BONUS!
On July 1st, everyone can cry foul if there is still no Pre. But complaining now is just silly since the deadline is still in the future.
"Coming Soon" & "First Half of 2009" to me are completely different from "Summer 2009" - which they could have said and avoided alot of the angst that people are feeling.
Just seems like a very clumsy way to market a product, but it is Palm - not Apple.
[but it is Palm - not Apple]
And yet Apple did the same thing with the iPhone. No wonder they haven't sold many iPhones.
Hogwash. Steve Jobs announced at Macworld in January that it would be released in June of '07. He also announced pricing and release schedules for Europe and Asia.
"same thing"? Hardly.
Actually it looks pretty much identical.
"And they said first half of this year. If you need to translate that to a date, change it to by June 30th like another poster mentioned."
So you believe some random poster that could have been printed and put up by anyone over actual Sprint reps who are supposed to be the face of Sprint when you have problems with your plan or payment. Once again that doesn't speak well of Sprint.
The "random posters" were the people saying Sprint was saying Feb 15 (or March 15)
Everyone knew they were confusing it with the Pro. Look on the precental forums. A few people who joined in Feb and Jan were saying they called and got Feb 15th. Same on Howardforums.com and sprintusers.com.
People on all those forums kept telling those new posters immediately that it was clear how and why Pre was being confused with Pro by Reps.
It speaks fine of Sprint. The only "date" Sprint and Palm have given is "by June 30"
Start your crying and stomping in July, not now.
Yeah, I think people just like complaining. When I order something online and choose UPS ground, for example, I usually get a message saying delivery in 5-10 business days. A date range. All the tracking systems will simply post the end of that date range as the expected delivery date. So I can't/don't complain about not having my package until *after* the end of that date range has passed.
I simply don't understand why when Palm and Sprint puts out an official statement stating first half of 2009, people are getting upset a month or two into that date range. If a CSR tells me any date (and they have by the way, one told me end of Q1-09), I simply take it as a "maybe" but not as an official release date.
If I'm to be disappointed, it won't be until sometime in the *second half* of 2009.
But isn't "during the first half of 2009" and "by June 30th, 2009" the same thing? I mean, the first half of 2009 ends on June 30, 2009, doesn't it?
So the poster is not saying "June 30th is the release date". I understood the post (just like the statements made by both Sprint and Palm) to mean "The Pre will be released sometime between now and June 30th."
"If a CSR tells me any date (and they have by the way, one told me end of Q1-09), I simply take it as a "maybe" but not as an official release date."
So if a CSR told you your monthly bill is $65.99 would you assume that meant somewhere between $0.00 and $65.99?
Don't be silly. CSR saying something that does not jive with the official statement "could" be true, but should be taken with a grain of salt; hence the "maybe".
Now if Sprint told me that my bill would "probably be" between a certain range if I signed up for something, then yes, I'd prepare for the higher end of the range.
Your example does not really make any sense. Especially when there have been times when a CSR tells me my bill is X when it really was Y. Hasn't this all made the news already about people having billing issues and dealing with CSR?
BTW, were you in line at the Sprint store on Feb. 15th trying to buy a Pre? I mean, that was a specific date given by a CSR, no?
People know for a fact the CSRs are confusing this, they repeat it, then acting indignant.
Sprint and Palm are trying to get it out by end of June. Lots of phones go past the date anyway. Just because you are more curious gives you no right to be mad, upset or claim you are "deceived."
The people saying they won't wait and are upset, and will go to Verizon are probably the people who will buy in the first day, be it in April to November because they are dying to have it more each day.
They are also going to be very upset when news of the next, much better, next gen Pre comes out within days of purchase making theirs "old."
alot of people were hollering about it being out march 1st thats 2morow so hmm lets see...i dont see that happening but anything is possible
I say it isn't coming out of march 1,2009 ;p
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