Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the Today @ PC World blog at PCWorld.com.
AT&T followed up the announcement that it will soon offer five Android-based smartphones with another piece of news: the carrier will offer two Palm webOS phones “soon.”
CEO Ralph de la Vega made the announcement, but did not say which phones AT&T would offer. The webOS phones may simply be GSM versions of the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi, or they could be completely new hardware. Whatever they may be, we’re sure to get the full scoop at tomorrow’s Palm press event.
Most of the Palm CES speculations have been Verizon-related: Revamped versions of the Pre and Pixi are rumored to land on Big Red this year. The “Pixi Plus” will supposedly have Wi-Fi connectivity (the one currently on Sprint doesn’t) while the “Pre Plus” is said to have 16GB of internal storage (as opposed to the measly 8GB on the original). An updated version of webOS is also rumored to debut Thursday.
Personally, I’d like to see some brand new hardware to showcase webOS. WebOS is one of the silkiest, most aesthetically-pleasing mobile operating systems out there, but so far, the hardware has been lacking. The Pixi and Pre’s displays are on the small side, compared to other smartphone giants, and the keyboards have been downright pitiful. I’d also like to see a better quality camera and an improved camera app that utilizes some of webOS’s gesture-based controls.
Read more of our coverage of CES 2010.