Palm’s new smartphone, which was expected to hit the market this month, has finally made its debut, sort of. The Palm Pre, the first phone to run on Palm’s webOS, will be offered in Canada exclusively on Bell Mobility’s 3G network, according to the company.
This is the second carrier to carry the Pre. After Palm first introduced the smartphone at the Consumer Electronics Show, it announced an exclusive agreement in January with Sprint Nextel to offer the Pre in the U.S.
“Bell is excited to be only the second carrier in the world to announce the 3G Pre,” said Adel Bazerghi, senior vice president of products for Bell Mobility. “With the unique user experience of the world’s first webOS phone, running on the country’s largest 3G network, we’re confident that Canadians will embrace Pre as the phone for their lives today.”
While the handheld will be available in the next month, the company is being tight-lipped about an exact date and price.
“Not too surprised about the exclusivity deal,” said Ramon Llamas, senior analyst with IDC. “Sprint seems to have exclusive rights to the Pre over Verizon. Plus, I’m sure Palm’s track record with Bell speaks to the exclusivity as well.”
With many industry observers and rivals watching Palm’s every move, the company needs to get this one right.
Palm for several quarters has had to take some drastic measures to keep the company going and getting the Pre and the webOS right. Palm has been working on the webOS for years and CEO Ed Colligan has been touting its ease of use for developers. Colligan has said that if a developer can write XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and Ajax, he or she can write code for the webOS platform.
Getting it right the first time is crucial, especially with more companies…