O2 Officially Unveils Palm Pre in Europe

If the new studies have positioned the Palm Pre second only to iPhone
3GS in mindshare (we'll let you define the term, yeah), it's only
natural for the multi-touch smartphone to be released in Europe, too.
Although long craved for, the European Palm Pre has been officially
announced for a debut in the UK and Ireland on October 16th, with a
quicker German release date on October 13th.

Virtually the same phone that launched on Sprint in the US — with
a 3.1-inch touchscreen, a 3-megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi connectivity
and 8GB of built-in memory, Palm Pre's European version switches to GSM
for calling and HSDPA-based 3G for data.

UK users will have the new Palm Pre available for free if they subscribe
to a pound sterling34.26 plan (that includes unlimited data WiFi) for
24 months, while those who'd prefer shorter 18-month contracts get it on
a pound sterling44 or pound sterling73 monthly rate.

For Palm, the European market is like a life jacket that is supposed to
make the company more profitable, and should take them closer to Apple's
market share.