Palm Pre Canada

Now that you've had the iPhone for a while, a lot of attention is being turned toward the possibility of a Palm Pre in Canada. This is the hottest new smartphone on the market and it could represent a real game-changer.

Palm used to be the premiere name when it came to business-minded PDA pocket organizers. No name has been more iconic in this realm than the Palm Pilot. While the company made an attempt at smartphones with the Palm Treo and Palm Centro lines, it has not been able to capture the same kind of interest. That may change with this latest creation.

The Palm Pre is perhaps the most fashionable mobile phone to ever come out of Palm and it comes powered by the all-new webOS. This discards the Palm OS and Windows Mobile that lay beneath previous Palm smartphones. With the new webOS and a sleek new look, the Palm Pre may better compete against alternatives like the BlackBerry Bold and HTC Touch Diamond.

Notable features include the EVDO high-speed connectivity, integrated GPS, large 3.1-inch HVGA touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Facebook integration, 8GB internal memory, USB mass storage, proximity sensor, light sensor, Wi-Fi, and stereo Bluetooth.

Even though the phone has only been out for a short while, a series of Palm Pre fashion accessories have already been released.

You already know about the release date in the United States through Sprint, but what can you expect for a Palm Pre in Canada? Will this hot phone ever make it north of the border?

It was officially announced in early May 2009 that the Palm Pre would be launched exclusively through Bell Mobility in the second half of 2009. There is an official webpage from Bell, as well as a Palm Pre Canada web page on Palm.com saying that the phone is "coming soon."

Several details are still missing from the official Palm Pre Canada announcement, however. While it is noted that the phone will come in the second half of 2009, no specific date is provided. A price point was not provided either. Further still, you know that Bell will have the exclusive launch, but you don't know how long this exclusivity will last.

In all likelihood, you could expect a Pre launch with Bell Mobility toward the beginning of fall 2009, possibly coinciding with some sort of "back to school" promotion. Based on the pricing with Sprint and the pricing scheme that Bell has taken with previous Palm smartphones, it's unlikely that the Palm Pre will list at more than $250 with a qualifying three-year contract.

Since Telus Mobility operates on a similar CDMA network as Sprint and Bell, it would make a lot of sense that the "Future is Friendly" wireless carrier would also get the Palm Pre. To date, no official announcement has been made about a Telus Palm Pre, though that may change in the near future.

The current rumors on the Internet are saying that Telus will have a GSM-based network ready in time for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, so perhaps Telus would take that route for a webOS-powered phone from Palm instead. This may or may not be the Pre that we see today from Sprint.

Although there appears to be a GSM version of the Palm Pre for European markets, the 3G radio would not be compatible with the networks here in North America. Even if you took the route of an unlocked phone, you'd be stuck with a GPRS data connection at best. That's far from ideal.

Looking toward the future, it is possible that you'll see a North America-friendly GSM Palm Pre, especially if AT&T expresses more interest in this area. In the meantime, the only Palm Pre in Canada will be a CDMA model through Bell.

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