With recent launches of the Palm Pre in the UK and Germany under the O2 branding it has meant that the Palm Pre has been available as a unlocked unit for the first time. Expansys the UK based mobile phone site has now started shipping unlocked Pre units to the US, this means that the cartel who controlled the Pre ever since it’s launch is effectively broken.
As the units are virtually identical in the US and Europe there are no worries in terms of usability and performance, also as added bonus you get the special German keyboard which rather then being Qwerty is more Qwertz, with the Z and Y swapping places on the keyboard. I am sure for any really enthuasitist can put up with this little oddity, as well as the O2 branded boxes etc. The only major catch is that you won’t be able to take advantage of the 3G speeds.
The phones are shipping for $714 each but were out of stock the last time I checked.
