Palm unveils new phones, new carriers, developer programs, and video capabilities at CES

Today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Palm and Verizon Wireless introduced Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus, two new phones combining the power of the Palm webOS platform with several new enhancements. Palm Pre Plus sports a streamlined design that simplifies navigation, 16GB of storage (15GB user available storage), and a Touchstone Back Cover. The incredibly thin and lightweight Palm Pixi Plus adds Wi-Fi along with an optional splash of color, thanks to new Touchstone Back Covers available in pink, blue, green, orange and black for all Palm Pixi phones. Both Verizon Wireless phones will be available January 25.

The companies also introduced Palm mobile hotspot, a Palm webOS app that turns your Palm Pre Plus or Palm Pixi Plus into a mobile Wi-Fi router. The app provides wireless broadband access for up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices. Palm mobile hotspot will be available in the Palm App Catalog for Verizon Wireless customers.

Another carrier will soon be bringing webOS phones to its customers: Palm and SFR announced the availability of Palm webOS phones in France in the second quarter of 2010.

Current and future Palm webOS customers can also look forward to an even broader range of powerful apps for their phones. The Palm developer program is now officially open to all. Any developer can sign up at the Palm Developer Center and immediately start developing and distributing applications for Palm webOS devices. Developers have the option of distributing apps through the Palm App Catalog or over the web. Palm also unveiled a $1 million developer Hot Apps bonus program to encourage continued innovation in the rapidly growing Palm webOS developer community.

At today’s event, Palm also demonstrated some of the additional options that developers will be able to leverage, including Flash content in the browser on a Palm Pre. Palm expects a free Adobe Flash Player 10.1 plug-in to be posted to the Palm App Catalog in the coming months and expects Palm webOS to be one of the first mobile platforms to include the full Flash Player in the web browser.

Finally, Palm demonstrated a new feature that all Palm webOS customers can look forward to: the ability to capture, edit, and share video. This functionality will be available via a free over-the-air software update. 

For more details on today’s announcements, click here. 

Jon Zilber

Comments

[Samoilija]

Great for the French, but what about the rest of us? Will the Pre and Pixi ever be sold unlocked and outside the very few designated countries? And why are the plus-models been sold exclusively by Verizon? This is all a major disappointment.

[sofia]

I'm so excited that the Palm Pre will be able to play Flash content! Been waiting for this !

[aviduser]

Great announcements at CES today. Just one question: what about a US GSM version of the Pre? Can't we get a phone that will work with AT&T (with 3G) without having to hack a European version?

As excited as I am about the progress Palm has made and the webOS, etc., it's hard to get too excited when I still cannot get the device.

[Dave H.]

I'm thrilled that the Pre is coming to AT&T!

[Dalton Aeschlimann]

i would really like to see the Palm Pre on AT&T, then i know i would buy one..

[philippe]

Great for french, flash, game and other

we have been waiting a long time, we will gladly welcome you

[Joe Brown]

I am a long time Treo/Centro user on Sprint, and in fact have used PalmOS devices continuously since the original US Robotics Palm Pilot (circa 1997). I know that I need to and want to upgrade to a phone with an operating system that isn't dead in the water, but I've been waiting to see if either a) the Pre gets better (my wife bought one shortly ... See Moreafter release that was slower than slow, especially the calendar app), or b) for Sprint to release an Android 2.0 or 2.1 phone. To hear that there's now a better Pre, but it's only available on Verizon, well, that actually alienates and pisses me off, and makes me more likely to abandon Palm in favor of Android.

[Asaslam]

Any info on a UK release of the Palm Pre Plus?

[Donovan]

So what happened with the Palm Treo Pro, I noticed that it is no longer listed on the Palm website

[Metamatt]

Any prognosis for getting Palm Mobile Router on Sprint, for those of us who already have the original Pre model?

[Metamatt]

I largely agree with Joe... BTW as of the 1.3.5 webOS release, the calendar isn't so slow anymore, but the phone app is still slower than slow.

[RobAnd]

Come On Palm, bring the GSP Pre to Brazil, or at least launch the unlocked Pre worldwide!!!

[Andrew]

they need to make the app cataloge the same world wide kinda bs that the US gets all this but canadians, and europeans dont get any of it were like ya or phone can do that but we cant play it.

[deCorvett]

Mobile HotSpot just for Verizon? What about other countries?

[Daniel]

Having used a Palm consistently since US Robotics, when my Treo 680 was about to die, I waited and waited and waited.

However you'd abandoned Australia. So I'm using an Android phone now.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

[MW]

Hmm.... This news would be great if I could get my hands on one. I am perplexed as to why the loyal Palm smartphone users on the GSM networks STILL do not have a GSM phone here in the US! Is Palm stiffing us to try to get at the iPhone (AT&T)??

[Clint Winstead]

Loyal Sprint/Palm customers, like myself, who have patiently dealt with the poor build quality of a 1st generation device, buggy updates, missing features that are commonly found on the "cheapest" of phones, all because we believed in WebOS, well... we got our reward today. Sprint customers, being the only reason Palm even survived 2009, got pissed on for our loyalty. Nice move Palm. You just hand delivered thousands of Sprint customers to Android, including and ESPECIALLY myself.

[joolz]

What about Asia?! Pre and now Pre Plus. Why is this side of the world not getting any of the WebOS?

[Vishal Sheth]

The gsm and CDMA should have both been announced. Palm has to realize that USA is not the whole market. Other markets are much bigger than USA. People would not know if the phone is good or not if there're no models available. I know for sure that India is a great market.

[Xtopher1974]

Sad these updates didn't come to Sprint. I have been happily a Sprint customer for almost 6 years. No desire to switch networks, especially to chase a phone.

[CRG]

Second quarter 2010? A bit late for most of us in France unfortunately.
Here's hoping these are new phones and not year old phones that are released.

[BBK]

First, The Palm have to change the employers in Brazil; and so, bring the Palm Pre and Pixi GSM with REAL low price.

BUT... Come to Brazil with Pre Plus and WiPixi, and not the first versions!!

Best Regards...

[AJ Tebbe]

It is a shame that it takes Palm so long for launching the Pre in other countries, like The Netherlands. If Palm wants to loose the competition with other smart phone companies. Then, this is the perfect recipe!

[Suo.Eno]

Wish list for the Pre Plus (or the next version)

~ GSM Asia/Malaysia.

~ I don't care if it's 2,3,5,8 or 12mp,please please let the Pre upped with a current and better imaging sensor+lens system for stills+vid recording.Auto focus and advanced modes please.

~ Wanna win EASY in Asia against Nokia,iPhone or any Android smartphones?Price the Pre aggressively and unlocked.

Just these and watch yourselves roll with the good times ^_^" Good luck!

[-(0_0)-]

Everything is great. Just I'm in Hong Kong.
Hope the pre will arrive at 2020.