Palm has announced that its Palm Pre, often seen as the biggest competitor to Apple’s iPhone, will launch in Ireland and the UK with an exclusive deal with O2. So far there’s been no word about just when it’ll be available here, but there are plenty of details

Admittedly, it lacks the iPhone's cold, hard lines, but it's still hip.

Naturally the biggest question raised by the whole affair is that O2 has managed to pick up the other big smartphone for this year, seemingly without there being any kafuffle over it. While there’s been some news that the Pre isn’t performing quite as well as expected, it’s still one of the few phones to consider for those looking into the iPhone.

We’re curious to see how O2 prices the Pre. Given the fact that it’s been pushing the iPhone quite hard it might be a bit difficult for them to about-face on the whole affair when the Pre launches, but they’ll be sorted handily by the droves of customers both of the smartphones draw.

The other thing we have to wonder about is how Vodafone will deal with the shift. The fact is that Vodafone is considered by many to be the business network. With O2 now offering two of the most popular smartphones going we might see the business custom gravitate a little in that direction…

You can read all the gory details from Palm here.