The Pre 2 is coming to the UK SIM-Free (and, sadly, free of carrier support) on November 15th. It will come to to Verizon any week now. HP will also be selling an unlocked version to developers and even consumers. So while it’s not getting wide carrier support, we expect it to be readily available to people who want to try to find it.

One such person, PreCentral forum member meauxritz, who was poking around Palm Germany’s store and found and "accessory," which in this case looks quite a lot like the Pre 2, with the model number 1075EU-UMTS and a price tag of 499 Euro. Looks like it’s available for purchase right now to ship in one to two business days for anybody who’s jonesing hard enough for some QWERTZ action to give it a shot.

Source: Palm Germany; via PreCentral Forums; Thanks meauxritz!

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So there you have it, the Palm Pre Plus and its box, of the GSM variety that’s headed to O2 Germany. After nearly a year now, the packaging hasn’t changed a bit, nor have the included goodies: suede-ish bag, modular charger and cable, various how-to pamphlets, etc. The Pixi Plus, also of the O2-bound GSM variety, is unboxed after the break by the folks at Pre Ticker of Germany.

Thanks to Shadow-360 for the tip!

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There’s no getting around it, we love O2 Germany, and we don’t even live anywhere near Germany. Our love for O2 Germany comes mainly in form of their advertising, which has been worlds better than what we’ve seen on the North American continent, and tends to peak out early. Let’s not forget Palm fans in Germany, we love you too, especially when you take pictures of these peaking-out-early ads. In this case, it’s a rather large O2 Germany poster, with the Palm Pixi, QWERTZ keyboard and all, standing front-and-center before devices like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, the Motorola Milestone (known as the Droid stateside), and devices from Nokia and LG.

Looking at the ad, there’s no indication whether or not this is a Pixi Plus or the Wi-Fi-less Pixi as seen on Sprint (there’s no Wi-Fi icon in the top bar, but this is stock imagery here). The folks at German phone reseller 7mobile.de may have the answer and then some. They have a listing for a Palm Pixi, complete with UMTS data and Wi-Fi. Then again, they also say it will support video calls and T9 predictive texting. Either way, we would be stunned if the Pixi Plus was not the device that made it oversees, as that’s the device that AT&T is getting (albeit with different radio bands). 7mobile.de also claims an amusing "hours" of standby time and "minutes" of talk time.

At this point we have little doubt that the removal of Wi-Fi from the Pixi was Sprint’s idea, and not something that Palm wanted to do. While releasing the Plus on every other network is little consolation to Sprint Pixi owners, it’s still better than nothing. And it is worth noting that when and if the Pixi hits O2, it’ll be the first time it’s been available outside the United States, some six months after the Pre first hit European shores.

Thanks to gizmo21 and Jens for the tips!

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Ah, inventory systems, they’re so bad at keeping secrets. We’ve known for a while now that the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus were certified for sale in Europe, but the question was always “which carrier?” Rumors have pointed towards current Palm Pre seller O2 picking up the Plus variants, but we were never too sure about that – we’ve yet to see a "Plus" launch on the same network as an original.

As it would turn out, it looks more like competitor Vodafone will be picking up the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. Inventory screens posted on Pre Ticker show the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus (along with replacement/exchange devices) listed in what is purported to be a Vodafone inventory screen (at the very least, it is German).

Is it possible that Vodafone could be picking up the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus? Absolutely, and it could stand to be a good thing for Palm. Vodafone has a larger footprint than O2, and behind China Mobile is the world’s no. 2 network in subscriber count. The question of “when” and “how much” is still up in the air, but given Palm’s dire predictions for the current quarter, we wouldn’t count on it being any time soon.

[via: webOS Blog.de]

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Europe, Canada, and Mexico, hold on to your hats, because in one week you’ll be able to buy apps from the Palm App Catalog. Palm has informed developers that March 31st is the go-live date for the international App Catalog e-commerce program. Developers wishing to distribute their apps in other countries are encouraged to resubmit their apps with an update that will provide localized content and/or meta-data. But if you don’t want to do that, Palm’s cool with that too.

In order to get as many paid apps in the various international App Catalog incarnations as possible, Palm’s Developer Relations Team will expedite the review process for apps tagged for international distribution (so expect plenty of updates in the coming week with no version change for the app). Apps submitted for sale in the United States, Canada, and Mexico will receive payment in US dollars, while apps submitted for Germany, Spain, the UK, and Ireland will receive payment in Euros (and from Palm subsidiary Palm Global Operations Ltd). Additionally, Palm is now accepting applications submissions for the upcoming launch of the webOS on SFR.

Developers: start your submission engines. International webOS users: start chilling the bubbly, for next Wednesday we celebrate.

Thanks to anonymous tipsters!

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After all the consternation over whether (or at this point, how badly) Verizon and Palm stumbled launching the Palm Pre Plus, we and a few of our readers were reminded that Palm is also trying to launch themselves in Europe. Palm hasn’t traditionally been strong in the old countries, so how have they been doing?

A few articles back up a general feeling: pretty good in Germany, pretty poorly in the UK.  Heise online (Google Translation) reports that André Krause, CFO for O2 Germany, called the Pre "The most successful smartphone at O2." Credit for O2 Germany’s generally good results is their progressive contract (or, actually non-contract) system. We suspect that the fact that O2 Germany’s QWERTZ Pre is the only unlocked Pre on the market may also have something to do with it – not to mention a compelling ad campaign.

Things may not be as rosy in the UK. Mike S over at Wirefresh broke down how the UK launch broke down, from the Pre not appearing on O2 UK’s homepage early enough, to the well-documented fast that the App Catalog in the UK was (and is) seriously behind its US counterpart, to persistent hardware issues. We might add that the Palm Pre is directly up against the iPhone on O2 in the UK, while in Germany that’s not the case 

Thanks to Pete, Wiski, and gizmo21!

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Still looking to pick up a GSM Palm Pre on O2? If you’re the type to sign a contract in exchange for a subsidized price on the phone (admit it, you are), then you’re in luck. Not only will a two-year contract with O2 get you a subsidized Palm Pre, it’ll cost you less than before. New O2 contract customers can expect to fork over just €49 upfront to get a new Palm Pre. They’ll then pay €15 a month over the 24-month contract to pay back the rest of the reduced €409 total cost (down from €481 previously). Or you can just buy it for €409 without any contract. And to sweeten the deal, O2 is also throwing in a Touchstone with the appropriate back for free, regardless of whether you’re going to contract route or not.

Thanks to docjones for the tip!

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While owners of the Palm Pre in Europe are still languishing with a few hundred apps (if that many) of the free variety, they can at least take heart that their carrier hasn’t abandoned them. As noted by teltarif.de, O2 is actually behind the creation of at least four German-language webOS apps: Mobile eBay, Xing, N24, and FriendScout24. Xing is a business social networking site similar to LinkedIn and popular in Germany, FriendScout24 is Germany’s top dating website, and N24 is a German news channel (News 24, eh). Mobile eBay, as you’ve likely deduced from its clever title, is eBay Germany formatted for your webOS phone. While Europe won’t be getting paid applications until March, webOS users in Germany can at least take heart that their carrier is still looking out for them.

Thanks to Hans for the tip!

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Pre owners who have imported their device from Germany (the only country in Europe with a carrier selling the GSM version of the phone SIM-lock free) for use on a non-O2 network had a rather unpleasant surprise after updating to 1.3.1: no access to the App Catalog. 

As it turns out, Palm Profiles are associated with the country and wireless service provider of the SIM card in the phone when you create your profile.  It also happens that apps are only certified for Germany, Ireland, Spain and the UK.  The result?  If you’ve activated your phone and set your Palm Profile up while having a non-O2 SIM card installed, you’re going to get the "App Catalog unavailable" message appears any time you go to shop for apps.

There is good news for those of you who have been brave enough to import that Pre with the QWERTZ keyboard, as a Palm employee detailed a workaround in its support forums.  It’s a bit convoluted, and it requires that you have access to a SIM card from an O2 network that sells the Pre and that you create a totally new Palm Profile:

To fix the problem, create a new Palm profile using a SIM card from a wireless service provider in Germany, Ireland, Spain, or the UK.  Turn off your phone, insert the new SIM card, turn the phone back on, and perform a partial erase.  After the phone restarts, create a new Palm profile.  Once the profile is created, shut down the phone, insert your original SIM card, and restart the phone.  Log in the the newly created profile.  Open the App Catalog to see available apps.

That’s a lot of hassle to be able to download apps again (still no purchasing for Europe), but that’s sometimes the life of folks who like to import exotic technology. We wouldn’t expect any kind of a "fix" on the issue beyond the workaround already put forward by Palm, since it has more to do with the fundamental way they’ve chosen to deploy the phone in Europe and the App Catalog than it does with being any kind of oversight.

Thanks to Patrick for the heads up!

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If you’re hungry for a Pre and you are unable to abide Sprint, there is a relatively safe, roundabout way to get your mitts on a Palm Pre with it’s webOS magic — from Amazon.com. You can get an unlocked Pre from Amazon via Speileparadies Rustem for EUR 399,99, or about $598.19 bucks. Unfortunately, you [...]

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