Rumours hint at UK summer launch for Palm Pre

Eagerly awaited: Palm's Pre smartphone

Palm's Pre smartphone could be coming to Europe and the UK soon, according to rumours which claim that O2 will start selling the device here by the summer. Palm has denied the claims, however.

The Pre, announced in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is the first Palm device running the company's next-generation WebOS platform, unveiled at the same time.

Various newswires have seized on a report in a Spanish newspaper which indicates that Telefónica, O2's parent company, has been given exclusive rights to the Palm Pre in the UK, Spain and Latin America.

However, a UK spokesman for Palm dismissed the reports as rumour, and claimed that they were based on a misunderstanding. He declined to say when the Pre might appear in the UK, or which carrier or carriers will have it.

The handset is being portrayed as a make-or-break device for Palm, which has seen its market share eaten away by rivals such as Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry.

The Pre features a 3.1in touch screen with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, and supports 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS.