Palm Pre for GSM Carriers Making the Rounds at the MWC

The Palm Pre will be released exclusively by the U.S. carrier Sprint in the next few months, but a version compatible with European GSM carriers is being shown off at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Sprint's version of this smartphone use the CDMA cellular-wireless standard, but Palm has been demonstrating to reporters a GSM version with a SIM slot and support for the 3G standard HSDPA.

This should bring hope to Europeans that a debut in this continent isn't terribly far away. Interest in this model has been quite strong -- some have have gone so far as to call it the second coming of the Jesus phone -- and Europeans who were being shut out have been less than pleased.

Palm has refused to be specific about when the Pre will be available from wireless phone companies besides Sprint. However, the company's CEO said last week that Palm is working with carriers in Europe, Latin America, and N. America, and he expects additional U.S. licensees in 2010.

An Overview of the Palm Pre
The Palm Pre will be the first device to use Palm's just-announced webOS. This will be a multi-tasking operating system with a strong focus on the Web. It will be able to synchronize data with variety of online services like Google and Facebook.

The Pre itself will feature a sliding keyboard as well as a multitouch-capable 3.1-inch display. This device will also be equipped with 8 GB of onboard storage, Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 3.0 megapixel camera with LED flash. 

As mentioned earlier, it will be available first from the U.S. carrier Sprint, who will add EV-DO Rev. A.

Source: PreCommunity.com