Palm confirms GSM Palm Pre release date, available as of October 13

In a short but sweet post on the Official Palm Blog, we now have official confirmation on the GSM Palm Pre. Unfortunately for anyone here in the US, that little bit of news does not offer anything for us to get excited about because the Pre will be heading to the UK, Ireland, and Germany by way of O2.

In terms of availability, the webOS based smartphone will debut on October 13 in Germany and a few days later on October 16 in the UK and Ireland. Additionally, similar to Sprint here in the US and Bell in Canada, O2 will be the exclusive carrier for the launch.

Otherwise, aside from the obvious difference of GSM and CDMA, the Palm Pre will be running the same webOS and include the goodies that people have come to love it for.

One bit that is unlike here in the US comes in regards to pricing, in the UK customers will be able to score a Palm Pre free of charge as long as the agree to a 24 month contract with a plan of at least £34.26 (about $55 US) a month.

Read [Palm]