Why is the Palm Pre exclusive with O2?

I can’t help wondering if Palm have made a huge mistake by signing an exclusive handset deal with O2. Although O2 are a huge, well known operation and have had massive success selling the Apple iPhone can they do the same job for Palm?

I would have thought that by O2 being the sole distributor (minus some resellers like Carphone Warehouse and Mobiles.co.uk) for the Apple iPhone that O2 would not be in the best position to sell as many Palm Pre handsets. O2 already know that the iPhone is hugely popular and it is an easy sell for them, as proven by the fact that the handsets are hardly ever in stock. This begs the question, will they put the required effort into selling Pre’s that Palm would expect from a sole distributor?

If Palm had signed an exclusive deal with Vodafone, T-Mobile or even Orange they could have been assured that they would have put the full force of their brand behind this latest innovation from Palm. Although some of the networks mentioned are not of the same size as O2 without having to directly compete with the already well established iPhone series surely it would have been an easier sell.

To play devils advocate though, maybe this was a deliberate move by Palm. With all the online traffic, sales calls and shop visits O2 are getting off the back of their exclusive iPhone deal maybe Palm are hoping the visibility from that will enhance their own offering of the Pre. So can Palm sell Pre handsets off the back the success of the combination of O2 and the iPhone – only time will tell?