Palm likely bringing Palm Pre and Web OS to Canada, too
By Will Park on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 1:08 PM PST In Hottest Hardware, Palm, Palm OS, Rogers, Rumors, Sprint
Palm has made it clear that the US will be the inaugural launch-market for the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre and its accompanying Web OS. The CDMA-based Palm Pre will be launching as a Sprint (NYSE: S)-exclusive in the first half of 2009 (1H 2009), and should have a huge impact on our home-turf smartphone market. And, with both GSM and CDMA variants in the works, Palm’s CEO Ed Colligan has essentially confirmed that the Palm Pre will be hitting Canadian carriers in the near future.
It’s unclear which carrier will be getting the go ahead to carry the Palm Pre, but we’re guessing that there’s a lot of back-and-forths going on between Palm and Canadian carriers right about now. Who will win the Palm Pre contract? It’s impossible to say, but Canadian big-dog Rogers (NYSE: RCI) might be a good bet. We may even see the Palm Pre launching in both CDMA and GSM-guise in Canada.
“I can’t tell you that exactly. We do have a UMTS version and a CDMA version but either one of those could come to Canada depending on the carrier. Of course we’re talking to [Canadian] carriers. We certainly want to bring the product to Canada,” says Colligan.
US pricing is rumored to be around $400 on-contract, so it wouldn’t surprise us to see similar pricing structures for our Northern neighbors. Of course, we’d love to see a more heavily subsidized price-point.
[Via: MobileSyrup]
Great investigative work Will!
Making a quick deal with Bell Mobility or Telus would mean that Palm would beat the Google-HTC G1 in the Canadian market.
If anything, I think Rogers will be the best suited carrier for Palm Pre.
Rogers? are you crazy !! unless they offer unlimited data
Rogers only has decent coverage in ontario.
Out east- they operate three cell towers in all of Newfoundland… an area the size of France. It doesn’t even properly cover the capitol- a city of a quarter million.
Not in Alberta..Rogers is horrible!!
Telus and Bell will get the Pre and I’m so glad for it! I’m with Bell and I’m happy with them. I can’t wait till the phone comes!!
Bell announced they will be the exclusive carrier for the pre.
I hate Bell, have had horrible service from them. I guess I won’t
be getting the Pre, I was looking forward to this new phone. I
LOVE my Palm Treo and was hoping to get this new pre!
Sucks that Palm chose crappy Bell for the Pre!!!
Well that sucks… cuss lothe Bell with a passion…
and i am ontario so i dont care how it works in dipshit calgary or in the boons in newfoundland…
if anything i will just have to buy the damn thing and get it craked at pasific mall…
Please Palm get your ass together and get on Rogers!