Palm Pre Announcement Scheduled for Next Week

UPDATE: Palm and Sprint have announced the release date and price for the Palm Pre. To learn more, read this article: It's Official: Palm Pre Coming to Sprint on June 6

No one outside of Sprint knows the release date for the highly-anticipated Palm Pre, but an unconfirmed report says this will be revealed a week from today.

Sprint will be the first phone company to offer the Pre, and has been vague about when it will be released. The only thing Palm or Sprint have said is that it will debut in the first half of this year.

However, an unnamed source has told BGR that these two companies are set to make a big announcement in the Wall Street Journal on May 19.

It's not known for certain if Sprint and Palm will be talking about an imminent release of the Pre, or a somewhat delayed one. If earlier reports are correct, the announcement will be the beginning of pre-ordering for this smartphone, with an actual release coming up to a month later.

Is the Big Day June 7?
There's growing evidence that the actual release day will be June 7. The inventory system for the retailer Best Buy says that is the day that the Touchstone charging dock for the Palm Pre will be available.

An earlier report indicated that June 7 is the day Best Buy stores will start to receive Pre units.

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

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

As mentioned earlier, in the U.S.,the Pre will be available first from Sprint, who will add its mobile broadband service EV-DO Rev. A. The GSM version for Europe and Latin America may debut later this year, and will have the 3G standard HSDPA.

The price has not yet been announced, but leaked information says it will sell for $200 with a new two-year contract.

Source: Boy Genius Report and Engadget