It's Official: Palm Pre Coming to Sprint on June 6

Ending months of rumors and speculation, Palm and Sprint have officially announced the release date and price for the highly anticipated Palm Pre.

The first smartphone based on the webOS will be released on Saturday, June 6.  It will sell for $200 with a two-year contact and a $100 mail-in rebate. Without a contract it will be $550.

At launch, the Pre will be available at Sprint stores and Sprint.com, as well as at Best Buy, Radio Shack, and select Wal-Mart stores.

Battle of the Summer Blockbusters
When the Palm Pre debuts on June 6 it will have just a weekend in the spotlight before Apple is expected to try to steal its thunder with the unveiling of the next iPhone model on June 8.

Apple hasn't revealed all the features of its next smartphone, and it's not yet known how well the Pre will perform in the real world, so it's much too early to predict how this competition will play out.

An Overview of the Palm Pre
The Palm Pre will use Palm's webOS, the replacement for the venerable Palm OS. This will be a new, 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 (7 GB available to users), Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, and a 3.0 megapixel camera with LED flash. 

In the U.S., this smartphone will be available first from Sprint, who will add its mobile broadband service EV-DO Rev. A, Sprint Navigation, and Sprint TV. 

A Canadian version from Bell Mobility will be released later this year, while the GSM version for Europe and Latin America is also expected before 2010, and will have the 3G standard HSDPA.

A follow-up model called the Palm Eos is reportedly on its way to AT&T and Sprint.

Source: Palm