By Andrew Berg
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Rumors have surfaced that those in the United Kingdom may soon get their hands on a GSM version of the Palm Pre. According to the Web site T3, Palm will be making an announcement early next week that will offer details about a U.K. launch.
Initial speculation placed the phone with either Vodafone or O2. However, The Guardian today reasserted claims that O2 has won the contract for the Pre. In late May, The Guardian reported that the Pre would go to O2 but couldn’t confirm. Currently, the Palm Pre is available exclusively on Sprint’s CDMA network in the United States.
Palm and Sprint launched the Pre on June 6 to long lines and sparse inventory. Following the release, analysts had suggested the device sold 150,000 units, but this week, Charter Equity Research analyst Edward Snyder weighed in with an estimate of 300,000 units sold since its release. Snyder estimated that Palm will ship 1 million units to Sprint by the end of the current fiscal quarter.