Palm today announced that the Palm Pre will be going on sale in Europe. The Pre is scheduled to be available initially in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany exclusively on Telefonica’s O2 network, and in Spain exclusively on the Movistar network.
Pricing for the phone has not yet been determined, and a press release from Palm said the Pre will be available “in time for the holidays.”
Roger Entner, senior vice president of communications for Nielsen IAG, said the Pre’s move to Europe is a good thing, but noted that increased competition from companies like Nokia that don’t offer subsidies in the United States but do in Europe could be an interesting challenge for the Pre.
“The Pre in Europe will only mean good things for Palm, and it will be interesting to see how devices like the N97 stack up price-wise with the Palm Pre. However, I think the N97 is more of a data-centric [product], and the Pre is more voice-centric,” Entner said.
The Pre’s success can be gauged by its current battle against the iPhone in the United States. “If you look at it, the iPhone is significantly more popular than the Palm Pre in the United States. The Palm Pre will do just as well in Europe as it has done in the United States as it relates to the iPhone,” Enter said.
The current Sprint version of the Palm Pre runs on CDMA technology, whereas the new version of the Pre will run on GSM/HSPA, which is the same cellular technology that AT&T uses in the United States. Some speculate that the new U.K. version will be hitting eBay not long after it goes on sale, appealing to those Pre-hungry AT&T customers in the United States.
“I’m sure a number will be available and people will be shocked at how expensive they really are,” Enter said.
Speculative reports of a GSM/HSPA version of the Pre for Europe have been rampant recently. Last week, Guardian UK reported that a European announcement with O2 was imminent.
An initial statement from Avian Securities estimated shipments to O2 and Movistar totaling 150,000 to 300,000 per quarter. Analyst Edward Snyder of Charter Equity Research recently concluded the Palm Pre has sold over 300,000 units since its launch, and estimated the company will ship over 1 million units to Sprint in the first fiscal quarter. Shares of Palm were down slightly in early trading.