Palm’s webOS smartphones, the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, will be arriving on AT&T “in the coming months.”
AT&T’s 80 million customers will soon have a new choice for staying connected in their fast-paced lives — the Palm(R) webOS(TM) platform. Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today announced that the Palm Pre(TM) Plus and Palm Pixi(TM) Plus phones will be available on the nation’s fastest 3G network for $149.99 and $49.99, respectively, with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate.
“AT&T and Palm have a history of smartphone leadership, and today’s announcement is a significant milestone for us,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “With Palm webOS phones coming to AT&T, Palm can help most anyone in the United States stay connected so they never miss a thing.”
“We’re offering our customers even greater choice by adding Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus to the nation’s best smartphone portfolio,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “Palm webOS plus included access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network and the ability to talk and surf the web at the same time is a powerful combination.”
Pre Plus and Pixi Plus also support a variety of AT&T services, including AT&T Navigator for audible turn-by-turn navigation (subscription required), AT&T Address Book to easily synchronize online contacts to your phone, and YPMobile to quickly find local businesses. They also include the following features and specifications. (NOTE: A complete list of features and specifications for each phone is available at www.att.com/WebOS or www.palm.com/PrePlus and www.palm.com/PixiPlus.)
- Palm Synergy(TM), a key feature of Palm webOS that brings your information from all the places it resides – including Outlook(3), Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and LinkedIn – into one logical view that links your contacts and calendars, so accessing them is easier than ever
- The ability to run multiple applications simultaneously and easily move between them
- Unobtrusive notifications
- Universal search
- Over-the-air software updates delivered directly to a user’s phone
- High-quality applications from the Palm App Catalog
- High-speed connectivity
- Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- High-performance, desktop-class web browser
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
- Integrated GPS
- Robust messaging support (combining IM, SMS and MMS capabilities)
- Multimedia options, including music, photos, video recording and playback, a camera with LED flash and a standard 3.5mm headset jack
- Email, including EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers) and personal email support (Google Gmail push, Yahoo!, POP3, IMAP)
- Bluetooth(R) 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
- USB mass storage mode
- Charger/microUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
- Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touchscreen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
- Light sensor, which reduces power usage by dimming the display if the ambient light is dark
- Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective
- Ringer switch, which easily silences the device with one touch
- Removable, rechargeable battery
- Band/modes: UMTS bands/HSDPA 3.6: 850/1900Quad band GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900; GSM/GPRS/EDGE Class 10
Pricing and Availability
Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus will be available in AT&T stores and online at www.wireless.att.com in the coming months for $149.99 and $49.99, respectively, with a two-year service agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate. More information is available at www.att.com/webOS.
Analysis
With all of the negative press that Palm has received over the last week or two, I’m really surprised that Palm isn’t talking about ship dates for the AT&T versions of their webOS phones. I realize that carrier testing can be sort of a mystic black art that can consume lots of time of software developers and system engineers both at Palm and AT&T. I really do believe that time is of the essence here and that Palm and all of their carrier partners here in the US really need to take things up a notch and get on the ball with their marketing A-game so to speak.
You can read today’s full press release on the Palm website.