UK would-be iPhone users desperate to avoid O2’s network can take heart in the fact that rival network Orange have just announced they will be offering the iPhone 3GS later this year. The Orange iPhone 3GS is yet to be priced, and nor have the company revealed the exact date it will go on sale, but there is a pre-interest page open for registrations.
Update: O2 statement after the cut
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Pinch of salt time, but one of Engadget's "trusted tipsters with a proven past" has been in touch to say that the HTC Leo has been spotted on carrier O2's intranet site. Listed as the HTC HD2 - as the branding has suggested in recent leaked photos - the Snapdragon-based smartphone is apparently tipped to arrive on October 12th.
O2 have just announced that they will be launching the Palm Pre in the UK on October 16th. The handset – the GSM version of the Sprint device that has been available in the US for several months now – will be priced between free and £96.89 ($159) depending on contract.
Update: O2 in Germany and Ireland will also get the Palm Pre on October 13th and 16th respectively. German pricing details here; Irish details after the cut.
Full contract details after the cut
MVNOs in the US haven’t had the greatest of success, with Virgin Mobile USA the most recent big-name to be gobbled up by a “proper” carrier. However one UK company has obviously decided that the scene there is crying out for a new carrier option, and hence giffgaff has been born. Based on O2’s network, giffgaff is still playing coy with their pricing but is suggesting that users will be able to earn back up to 100-percent of their pre-pay top-ups via good deeds to other users and the MVNO themselves.
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The Samsung Galaxy (i7500), the only Android device with an AMOLED display, has been out on Germany's network for some time, and it's been the general envy of most Android users out there since its release. While other Android phones like the Magic and Hero are great in their own right, Samsung left it upon itself to create an Android phone that set up to blow the competition (HTC) out of the water. And it looks like that customer base is about to get a lot bigger.
Amazon is reportedly close to setting a release date for the Kindle in the UK, with “advanced negotiations” underway with a carrier for providing the wireless connection via which the device downloads ebooks. According to Mobile Today, Amazon have called upon Qualcomm to manage not only the manufacturing of the GSM Kindle, but to “securing connectivity” for the UK device.
Could Apple UK be shopping around for a new carrier deal? Expect a flurry of denials from O2 and Apple themselves, but Orange and T-Mobile UK are both apparently in talks regarding carrying the iPhone 3G, Apple’s entry-level device now that the iPhone 3GS has arrived. According to the latest rumors, T-Mobile’s customer services team has been telling callers that the carrier is negotiating with Apple regarding the second-gen smartphone.
Palm’s big news for today was it’s announcement of the GSM Palm Pre and the exclusivity deals the company has carved out with O2 in the UK, Ireland and Germany, and Movistar in Spain. We had the opportunity to sit down with Palm and O2 today, and talk about what changes they’ve made to the smartphone, how they see it sitting in a range dominated by the iPhone 3GS, and why European customers will have to wait until the Christmas holidays before they can pick one up.
Hot on the heels of Palm’s Movistar GSM Pre sighting comes confirmation from carrier O2 that they’ll be offering the smartphone “in time for the Christmas holidays”. The handset will go on sale in the UK, Ireland and Germany on O2, with Spanish buyers getting the GSM Pre on Movistar. As expected, the only hardware change has been switching to support HSDPA/UMTS.
The GSM Palm Pre has made its first official appearance, on the company’s Spanish site. Unveiled as an exclusive to carrier Movistar, the Spanish network owned by Telefonica, the announcement lends further weight to the rumors that O2 – also a Telefonica carrier – will make some GSM Pre announcement this week.
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